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HISTORY OF THE ARABS 



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From Ibrahim Xtfat, "Jlftr'dr a/ Haramay" 

HE CURTAIN OF THE DOOR OF THE KA'BAH AT MAKKAH 

Bearing koramc inscriptions which include surahs i, 106 and 1x2 
prominent mscripbon above the centre is the first part of surah 4 S,xerse 2 



[Fronltsptect 



HISTORY 

OF 

THE ARABS 

FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES 
TO THE PRESENT 

PHILIP K. HITTI 

PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF SEMITIC LITERATURE 
PRINCETOX UNIVERSITY 



T3KKTJI EDITION 



M 

MACMILLAN 



©Philip K. Hitti 1970 



All rights rcsened No reproduction, cop> or transmission 
of this publication may be made without written permission. 

No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied 
or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance 
with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended), 
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying 
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33—4 Alfred Place, 
London WC1E 7DP. 

Any person who does any unauthorised act m relation to 
this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and 
civil claims for damages. 

First edition 1937 

Second edition 1940 

Third edition 1943, reprinted 1946 

Fourth edition 1949 

Fifth edition, enlarged 1951, reprinted 1953 
Sixth edition 1956, reprinted 1958 
Seventh edition I960, reprinted 1961 
Eighth edition 1963 
Ninth edition 1967, reprinted 1968 
Tenth edition 1970. twelfth reprint 1989 

Published by 

MACMTLLAN EDUCATION LTD 
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS 
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i5?r r tf fkvm H)*frh 



PREFACE TO THE TENTH EDITION 



THE year 1970 marks the thirty-third anniversary of the pub- 
lication of History of the Arabs and witnesses its tenth edition 
The initiative for its writing was taken by Mr. Daniel Macmillan, 
who, as early as 1927, wrote to the author suggesting a book 
comparable to Ameer Ali, A Short History of the Saracens, first 
published by Macmillan and Co. in 1900. The occurrence of the 
word "Saracens'* in the title left no doubt about the obsolete 
character of the work. 

In my youthful enthusiasm I signed a contract in 1927 agree- 
ing to deliver the manuscript in three years, (A representative of 
Macmillan, who was then touring the Arab world, suggested an 
Arabic version of the book and I thought I could do that in a 
couple of subsequent years.) When the book at last appeared, in 
1937, the New York publisher (before St. Martin's Press) asked 
my opinion as to the number of copies to be imported and when 
1 offhand suggested a hundred, he shot back, "Who is going to 
buy that many?" 

As a matter of fact the American public, even at its educated 
level, was then almost illiterate so far as the Arabs and Moslems 
frere concerned. The rare courses in this field were limited to a 
few graduate schools and offered as subsidiary to Semitic studies 
and as contributor}' to philology or linguistics. Nowhere were 
such courses given for their own sake or as a key to further in- 
vestigation of Arab history, Islam and Islamic culture. This was 
substantially the situation until the second World War. It was not 
until then that the American government and public were 
awakened to the fact that here are millions of Moslems and tens 
of thousands of Arabs with whom they had to deal and of whom 
they should have some understanding. 

The demand, subsequent to the appearance of the first English 
edition, for translation rights— not only into Arabic but into 
f varied Asian and European languages — left no doubt about the 
timeliness of the work and its capacity to meet the need. It is 
gratifying to note that since the publication of the ninth edition 



VJ 



PREFACE 



four years ago new versions have appeared in Italian, Serbo- 
Croat and Polish. 

In this edition, as in earlier ones, an effort was made to take 
into consideration the results of new researches, to update the 
material in text and footnote, and to plug that seemingly in- 
exhaustible supply of errors — otherwise called typographical. 
About sixty sheets, including four maps, have been thus treated. 

P. K. HL 

fanuary t 1970 



PREFACE TO THE NINTH EDITION 

IN the first four editions of this book, appearing 1937 to 1949, 
the story ended with the Ottoman conquest of the Arab East in 
1517. Beginning with the fifth edition an attempt has been made 
to cover the modern penod down to the year of publication. This 
attempt to keep the story up to date in an area undergoing 
changes with a rapidity unparalleled in its history, and at the 
same time subjected to intensified research by Western as well 
as Eastern scholars on a scale hitherto unattained necessitated 
many reprints and new editions. In each case revision has in- 
cluded correcting factual and typographical errors, adding new 
data, and replacing references to footnotes with more recent and 
critical ones. In the present edition no less than seventy pages 
and eight maps have been thus affected. 

Meanwhile the widening spread of the ecumenical spirit in a 
shrinking world and the heightening awareness of the desir- 
ability if not necessity of intercultural understanding have en- 
couraged the translation of this volume into a number of 
European and Asian languages beginning with Spanish and 
ending with Urdu and Indonesian. 

P. K. H. 

August \ 1966 



PREFACE TO THE EIGHTH EDITION 



POUTICAX- changes of historical import have marked the last 
three years in Arab lands. Mauretania and Algeria were freed 
from France, and al-Kuwayt— with reservations— from Great 
Britain, Syria broke off from the United Arab Republic, and 
al-Yaman followed suit. Political changes generally reflect social 
and economic upheavals and in turn react on them, As a matter 
of fact, the entire area has been and remains in a state of 
transition- 

In this edition an attempt has been made to make room for 
references — brief as they are — to these momentous changes in 
the hope that they would enhance the usefulness of this book to 
both student and general reader. Meanwhile advantage was 
taken of the opportunity to clarify certain ambiguous passages 
and correct hitherto-undetected slips in text, footnotes and maps. 

P. K. H. 

December, 1962 



PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION 

Poptcak interest in the Arab peoples and lands — as measured 
by space coverage in the daily press — as well as scholarly interest, 
evidenced by the volume of book output, are still mounting. In 
the last four years, since the sixth edition was issued, more works 
dealingiwith the history, culture, literature and varied aspects 
of the life 'of the Arabians and Arabic-speaking peoples have 
appeared than probably in any equivalent period in their entire 
existence. The output has been featured by the abundance of 
-scholarly works in Arabic and by Arabs. 

, The author has meanwhile endeavoured to keep abreast of the 
progress in research in this field, He has also undertaken repeated 
Journeys to all the major countries treatedm the book. Through- 
out, he bore in mind the possibilities of improvement of the 
material therein. 



viii 



PREFACE 



As in the earlier editions, statistical and other data that became 
obsolete have been brought up to date, new editions of books 
referred to in the footnotes have replaced old ones, and mis- 
statements have been corrected Careful consideration has been 
given to all suggestions for improvement from teachers, students 
and readers in all parts of the world The result, it is hoped, will 
enhance the value and increase the usefulness of the book as a 
text and as a general work of reference. 

P. K. H 

March, 1962 



PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION 

AS in earlier editions — the fifth excepted — alterations in the 
sixth edition consisted largely of correcting misprints and minor 
errors, bringing certain statements and references to books up 
to date and introducing changes in the light of new researches. 
Due consideration has been given to reviews of the book in 
learned magazines, including reviews of translations of the work 
particularly into Arabic, Spanish and Urdu. Scholarly interest 
in the Arabic-speaking peoples and their lands has been so in- 
tensified — in both East and West — in the last few years that the 
alterations necessitated in this edition exceed those of any pre- 
ceding one; only few pages escaped some treatment. One radical 
change relates to the pre-Islamic kingdoms of South Arabia 
(pages $2-5), where new explorations have been recently made. 
Of the maps several received additional place names occurring 
in the text, while one, page 684, had the boundaries adjusted. 

In thf* case of the fifth edition the main change involved the 
addition of a new part, Part VI, under the title Ottoman Rule, 
which brought the history down to the present time. 

The author acknowledges his indebtedness to students, col- 
leagues, readers and friends, too numerous to name, who have 
personally and generously communicated their views and sugges- 
tions to him for improving the usefulness of the work. 

P. K. H. 

November^ 1955 



PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION 

IN response to requests from reviewers and readers this edition has 
been enriched by the addition of a new part, Part VI, Under the 
Ottoman Rule, thus bringing the story sketchily to the present 
time. The new part benefited by criticism from my colleague Pro- 
fessor Lewis V. Thomas and the old by several reviews, the 
longest among which was that of Professor Richard N. Frye in 
Speculum^ vol xxiv (2949), pp. 582-7. Of the many students who 
offered fresh suggestions and critical remarks, special mention 
should be made of Richard W. Downar and Howard A. Reed. 

Several maps were revised. That on page 5 (the Moslem World) 
was brought up to date, and the one on page 495 was redrawn and 
made to change places with the one originally on page $22. 

P. K. H. 

July, 1950 

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 

THIS edition has benefited by fresh studies in which the author 
has for some time been engaged in connection with the prepara- 
tion of a volume on the history of Syria and Lebanon, as well as 
by visits he made in the summers of 1946 and 1947 to almost alt 
lands of the Arab and Moslem East. While in Su'udi -Arabia he 
had an opportunity to discuss with Thomas C. Barger the results 
of surveys made by the Arabian American Oil Company; the 
discussion was of assistance in revising several paragraphs deal- 
ing with the geography of that land. 

As in the past, suggestions from students, teachers and readers 
in different parts of the world led to the emendation of a number 
of passages in the text. Special mention should be made of the 
contribution of a student in my graduate seminar, Harry W. 
Hazard. It may be worth noting that the low dates which mark 
the publication of several Arabic texts cited in the footnotes 
r belong to the Moslem calendar, which began A.B. 622, and 
whose year is lunar. " P. K. H 

dprih 1948 



PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION 

In preparing copy for this edition careful consideration was 
given to all available reviews of the second edition as well as to 
communications made privately to the author by students, 
teachers and other readers of the book. The products of recent 
researches appearing in learned journals and new publications 
were also fully utilized. This resulted in several corrections of 
inconsistencies or minor errors and in the clarification of certain 
ambiguities in the text. The footnotes received further treatment 
involving the addition of newly published sources and reference 
works and the replacement of earlier editions by more recent 
and critical ones. In this connection it must be noted that when- 
ever a work is cited for the first time in a footnote, the full title, 
including name of author and place and date of publication, is 
given; after that the title is abbreviated. When a biography of 
an Arab author is sketched in the text and reference is made 
to his major work, that reference usually comprises full title 
supplemented by a reference to any existing scholarly translation 
into a Western European language, particularly if English. 

The third edition, like its two predecessors, owes not a little 
to my graduate students and to members of the Summer 
Seminar in Arabic and Islamic Studies. 

P. K. H. 

April, 1942 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 



In this edition an effort has been made to bring the materia] 
up to date and to introduce necessary emendations. Due 
consideration was given to critical comments whether privately 
communicated or published as reviews, among which that of 
Professor George Levi della Vida in the Journal of the American 
Oriental Society, volume 59 (1939), was the most comprehensive. 
Into the footnotes were incorporated certain items of the selected 
bibliographies which originally were to be appended to each 
chapter of the book. 

Of those who contributed to the first edition Dr. Edward 
J» Jurji and Dr. Nabih A. Faris have made further contribution 
to the present one; and of my graduate students George F. 
Hourani offered several suggestions on the Byzantine relations 
and Floris L. Fenverda collaborated in reconstructing two of-the 
maps. Dr. A, R. Nykl, of Madrid, read the chapters on Spain. 

The services of all these gentlemen and the co-operation of 
my wife are herewith gratefully acknowledged. 

P. K H. 

StpUtribtr, 1939 



3d 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 

This is a modest attempt to tell the story of the Arabians and the 
Arabic-speaking peoples from the earliest times to the Ottoman 
conquest of the early sixteenth century. It represents many years 
of study and teaching at Columbia University, the American 
University of Beirut and Princeton University, and is designed 
to meet the needs of the student as well as the cultivated layman* 
The field it covers, how ever, is so extensive that the author can- 
not claim to have carried his independent researches into every 
part of it. He therefore had to appropriate in places the results 
of the investigation of other scholars in the East and in the 
West, to whom his indebtedness would have been more apparent 
had the selected bibliographies appended to each chapter in the 
manuscript appeared in the printed book. 

While in preparation certain chapters of the book were sub- 
mitted to various scholars for their criticism. Among those who 
made a distinct contribution were Professor A. T. Olmstead, of 
the University of Chicago; Dr. Walter L. Wright, Jr., now 
president of Robert College, Istanbul; Dr. Costi Zurayq, of 
the American University of Beirut, Lebanon; and two of my 
colleagues, Professor Henry L. Savage and Professor Albert 
Elsasser, of the Department of English. 

For several years the manuscript was made the basio of a 
graduate course, and it benefited considerably from suggestions 
and criticisms offered by my students. Among these special 
mention should be made of George C. Miles, now of Rayy, 
Persia; Butrus 'Abd-al-Malik, of Assiut College, Egypt; Edward 
J. Jurji, of Baghdad; Harold W. Glidden; Richard F. S. Starr; 
and Nabih A. Paris, of Jerusalem. Dr. Faris rendered further 
service by collaborating in sketching the maps, reading the 
proofs and compiling the index. 

To all these gentlemen, as well as to my wife, who co-operated 
in typewriting the manuscript and proposed several improve- 
ments, my hearty thanks are due. 

P. K. H. 

Corlear Bay Club 
Lake Champlatk, New York 



CONTENTS 



PART I 
THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 

CHAPTER I 

The Arabs as Semites: Arabia the Cradle of the Semitic 
Race «•*.•»•-* 5 

Claims on our interest—Modern explorations — Ethnic relationship: 
the Semites— Arabia, the cradle of the Semites. 

CHAPTER II 

The Arabian Peninsula ...... X4 

The setting of the stage— Climatic conditions—Vegetation— The date- 
palm— Fauna—The Arabian horse— The camel. 

CHAPTER III 

Bedouin Life . * 23 

The nomad— Razzia— Religiousness— The clan— 'Afcbfyah— The sheikh. 

CHAPTER IV 

Early International Relations . .30 

South Arabians— i. Relations with Egypt— Smaitic copper— Frankin- 
cense— 2. Relations with the Sumerians and Babylonians— 3, Assyrian 
penetration— -4. Neo-Babylonian and Persian relations; Tayma' — 
5. Contacts with the Hebrew— Biblical association: Old Testament 
references— 6. In classical literature — Roman expedition— The aromatic 
land-Gold. 

CHAPTER V 

The Sabaeak and other States of South Arabia 49 

The South Arabians as merchants — South Arabic inscriptions — r. The 
Sabaean kingdom— Ma*rib dam— 2. The Minaean kingdom— 3. Qata- 
bim and J-Jatframawt— 4. The first Himyarite kingdom— The Semitic 
origin of the Abyssinians— The castle of Ghumdan— The Romans 
displace the Arabians in maritime trade — 5. The second Himyarite 
^^^s^Christianity an< * Judaism in al-Yaman— The period of 
' * Abyssinian ruie~The breaking of Ha'rib dam— The Persian period* 



xiv 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER VI 

tACX 

The Nabataean and other petty Kingdoms or North 
amd Central Arabia ...... 67 

l. The Nabataeans— The Sinaitic origin of the alphabet— Petra--2. Pal- 
myrena — Odaynath and 7enobia — 3. The Ghassanids — The Syfo-Arab 
kingdom at its height — Al-Mundhir, son of al-Hanth — Fall of the banu- 
Ghassan— 4. The Lakhmids— AMJirah at the height of its power—The 
royal family Christianized— 5. Kindah. 

CHAPTER VII 

Al-Hijaz on the Eve of the Rise of Islam . . 87 

The Jahrilyah days— The "days of the Arabians"— The Basils War— The 
Day of Dahis — North Arabic in its influence as a language — The heroic 
age — Poetry — The ode in the classical period — The Mu*allaq3t — The 
pre tslamic poet— Bedouin character as manifested in poetry— £edouin 
heathenism— Solar aspects— Jinn— The daughters of AUah— The Mak- 
kan Ka'bah— Allah— The three cities of al-Hijaz: al-Ta*if— Makkah— 
Al Madtnah— Cult iral influences in al-Hijaz: 1. Saba— a» Abyssmia— 
3. Persia— 4 Ghas*aniand— 5 The Jews. 



PART II 

THE RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL 
STATE 

CHAPTER VIII 
Muhammad the Prophet of Allah . « . . m 

CHAPTER IX 

The Koran the Book of Allah . , . . 123 
CHAPTER X 

Islam the Religion of Submission to the Will of Allah 128 

Dogmas and beliefs— The five pillars: J. Profession of faith — 2 Prayer— 
3. Almsgiving — 4. Fasting— 5. Pilgrimage— Holy War, 

CHAPTER XI 

Period of Conquest, Expansion and Colonizations a.d. 
632-61 139 

The orthodox caliphate: A patriarchal age— Arabia conquers itself— 
The economic causes of the expansion. 



^■r triifion of the new, territory. 



' ' ' -CHAPTER XUI 
'At'l^Q-'AKD Persia conquered 

'^S^liJl '': " ' ' " ' ' CHAPTER XIV 
~S^TRIPptlS;.AND Barqah acquired 
I >: f^Tn'e library of Alexandria. 



155 



160 



i^-Sfif^' . CHAPTER XV 

^SISnistration of the ; new Possesions . • i«9 

f^^S/constituUon-Tbe ^^"^SSL?"* < * !to,M, *~ 
^V; Oiaradef and achievements of the orthodox cabphs. 



' -•■ CHAPTER XVI 



S^«fe0iE BETWEEN *ALI AND Mu'aWIYAH FOR THE ^ 

^^cctiv^cahphate-^rhe caliphate of 'Ali^en^; of the gr^at 
:Ul ; :-;;3rphat^TheiaUphate. a pre-eminently pohUcal office. 



PART III 

! ft^H£ : UMAYYAD' AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES 



CHAPTER XVII 

f/iDTOASTY' : ,X-'.:'.r'i-'^-- ' ♦ , ' * 

V:€^^n^to ; fte calipW disposed of-Mu«awiyab, the model . . 

SS%ll3frcf>: ; ; CHAPTER XVIII 

v r.;A k . :w ; > - i •* r v;^ < j v V A -s ^ ■ •• *■ ' \ * 7 - i - 

rkW ; *;>w* '.The. Mft&a?t'^ ^- ■/? ^ r 1 ' * • 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XIX 

PACK 

The Zenith of Umayyad Power . . • ,206 

An energetic viceroy, al-^Jajjaj— Conquests "beyond the river" — Con- 
quests in India— Against the Byzantines — Conquests in northern Africa 
and south-western Europe — Nationalizing the state — Fiscal and other 
reforms — Arclutecrural monuments. 



CHAPTER XX 

Political Administration and Social Conditions under 
the Umayyads ....... 224 

Military organization— Royal life— The capital— Society — Clients— 
Dhimmis — "The covenant of 'Umax" — Slaves — Al-Madinah and 
MaikaK 

CHAPTER XXI 
Intellectual Aspects of Life under the Umayyads . 240 

A]*Basrah and al-Kufah — Arabic grammar — Religious tradition and 
canon law — History-writing — St. John of Damascus — Kharijites— 
MurjYites — The Shrah — Oratory—Correspondence — Poetry— Educa- 
tion— Science— Alchemy— Architecture— The Mosque of al-Madinah — 
Early mosques in the provinces— The Dome of the RocX— The Aqsa 
Mosque— The Umayyad Mosque— Palaces. Qusayr 'Amrah— Painting 
—Music 

CHAPTER XXII 
Decline and Fall of the Umayyad Dynasty . # 279 

Qays versus Yaman— The problem of succession— The partisans of 
•Ali— 'Abbasid claimants— The Khurasanians— The final blow. 

CHAPTER XXIII 

The Establishment of the 'Abbasid Dynasty . . ^88 

Al-Mansur, the real founder of the dynasty— Madmat al-Sal&m— A Persian 
vizirial family, 

CHAPTER XXIV 
The Golden Prime of the ^bbasids . 4 • 297 

Relations with the Franks— With the Byzantines — The glory that was 
Baghdad — Intellectual awakening — India— Persia — Hellenism — Trans- 
lators— IJunayn ibn-Isfraq — Thabit ibn-Qurrah» 

CHAPTER XXV 
The 'Abbasid State ...... 3x7 

The 'Abbasid caliph— Vizir— Bureau of taxes— Other governmental 
bureaux— Juch'rialadrninistration— Mffi 



t 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XXVI 
^Abbasid Society ^332 

Home life — Baths— Pastimes — Slaves — Economic life; commerce — 
Industry — Agriculture — Dhimmis: Christians — Ncstorians— Jews — 
§abians— Magians and other dualists—The Islarruzation of the empire 
— The conquest of Arabic. 

CHAPTER XXVII 

SCIENTIFIC AND LlTERAKY PROGRESS . . . . 363 

Medicine — € AUal-Tabarf— - Al-Razt — Al-MajQsi-— Ibn-SIna — Philo- 
sophy — Al-Kindi — Al-Farabi — The Brethren of Sincerity — Astronomy 
and m athematics — Al-Battani — Al-Blruni — * Umar al-Khayyam — 
Astrology — The Arabic numerals— Al-Khwarizmi — Alchemy — AJ-J&fciz 
— Lapidaries — Geography — Greek antecedents — "World cupola** — , 
Literary geographers — Y&qfit — Historiography— Early formal historians 
— Al-Tabari— Al-Mas*udi~ Theology— The science of fcadlth— The six 
canonical books — Jurisprudence — The four orthodox schools— Ethics — 
Literature— Belles-lettres— The Arabian Nights— Poetry. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 
Education ........ 408 

Elementary — Institutions of higher education — Adult education—* 
Libraries— Bookshops — Paper — General level of culture. 



CHAPTER XXIX 
The Development or Fine Arts . '416 

Architecture — Painting — Industrial Arts — Calligraphy — Music — 
Musical theorists. 

CHAPTER XXX 
Moslem Sects . . . . . , « j 429 

Nationalism versus orthoddxy — Moslem inquisition — The AMiWite 
system prevails — Al-GhazTSli — Sufism — Asceticism — Mysticism 
Theosophy — Pantheism — Mystic poetry and philosophy — Fraternal 
orders— The rosary— The cult of saints — Shf&h— Isma'Sfites— Batnv 
^ r itcs— Qarmatians— The Assassins— Nu«ayns— Other Shrtte hetero 
_ doxies. 

CHAPTER XXXI 



The Caliphate dismembered: Petty Dynasties in the 
West' 

r> In Spain— 2. The Idnsids— 3. The Aghlabids— 4. The Tftlumds— 
Public worU— 5. The Ikhshidids— A negro eunuch— 6. The Samdariids 
'—Literary efflorescence— Raids into "the land of the Romans", 



4SO 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XXXII 
Sundry Dynasties in the: East . . . .461 

X. The Tahirids— 2. The $a(Tarids— 3. The Samanids— 4. Ghaznawids— 
MabmQd of Ghaznah — The imperial guard — A servile war — The a*ntr 
al-umard* in power— 5. The Buwayhid dynasty — 'Atfud-al-Dawlah — 
6. The SaJjuqs— Tughri! in power— Alp Arslan— SaljQq power at its 
zenith — An illustrious vizir: Ni?am-al-Mulk — Disintegration of the 
Saljuq realm— Baghdad unmindful of the Crusades — The shafts of 
Khwarizm — Enter Chingiz Khan. 

CHAPTER XXXIII 
The Collapse of the *Abbasid Caliphate , 484 

Hulagu in Baghdad — Last champions of Islam, 

PART IV 

THE ARABS IN EUROPE; SPAIN AND SICILY 

CHAPTER XXXIV 
Conquest of Spain . . . . . • 493 

Gothic kingdom destroyed — Mfisa crosses the strait — A triurnphal 
procession — Musa falls from grace — The conquest explained — Beyond 
the Pyrenees — The battle of Tours — Civil wars — The amirate. 

CHAPTER XXXV 
The Umayyad AmIrate in Spain . . . -.505 

A dramatic escape— Cordova captured— Moslem Spain consolidated and 
pacified— A match to Charlemagne — An independent amlrate — Treat- 
ment of Christians— Renegades in arms. 

CHAPTER XXXVI 
Civil Disturbances ...... 51a 

The "slaughter of the ditch" — Race for martyrdom — Flora and Eutogius 
— Provinces in revolt — Ibn^afsGn. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 
The TJmayyad Caliphate of Corbova » . . $20 

Caliph f Abd-al-Rabman al«Na$ir— Al-Zahra\ 



CONTENTS xix 
CHAPTER XXXVIII 

rxcn 

Political, Economic and Educational Institutions . 526 

Cordova— Governmental institutions — Industry— Agriculture— Trade-- 
The caliph in Ms glory — Educational activity — 'Ami rid dictatorship— 
CoUanseof Umayyad power. 

CHAPTER XXXIX 
te States: Fall of Granada . . . • 537 

The 'Abbadids of Seville— Al-Mu'tamid— The Mura bits— Coinage— 
Persecution—The would-be Arabs— My Cid die Challenger— Collapse 
of the - Murabits— The Muv*atuHids —Founder of the Muwahrnd 
dynasty— Al-Mansur — Banu-Nasr— Alhambra — The last days of 
Granada— Morisco persecution, 

CHAPTER XL 

Intellectual Contributions * • . . • 557 

Language and literature— Poetry — Muwashshahs — Education — Books 
—Paper— Historiography— Geography— Travels— Influence over the 
<West — Astronomy and mathematics — Botany and medicine — Ibn-al* 
Bayfar— Medicine — Al-Zahrawi — Ibn-Zuhr — 'Transmission to Europe— 
^ Philosophy— Ben- Gablrol — Ibn>Bajjah— Ibn-Rushd— Ibn-Mayrmln — 
Ibn-'Araoi, the mystic— Toledo, centre of translation. 

CHAPTER XLI 
Art«and Architecture „ „ . . . . 591 

Minor arts — Ceramics — Textiles — Ivories — Architecture — Alhambra — 
The arch— Music — Influence in Europe. 

CHAPTER XLII 
In Sicily . 602 

-Conouest— In Italy— Across the Alps— Withdrawal from Italy— The 
^ Sicilian amiratc— Norman conquest — Arab Norman culture — AMdrisi 
* —Frederick II— Sicily's place m transmitting thought— Via Italy, 



PART V 

THE LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM 
STATES 

CHAPTER XLIII 
A Shi'ite Caliph *te in Egypt; The Fatimids . . 617 

' -l Stt ? 5 ?l ie P^P*!?* 1 ^— The enigmatic Sa'Id- The first Fafimid— The 
fleet— 1 fee commander Jav*har— rajimid power at its height — A dt> 
- tangedcaliph— Decadence— Fall. 



xx CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XLW 

tXOM 

Life in Fatimid Egypt • . . * .625 

High hfc— Administration-- Scientific and literary progress-^Hajl of 
Science — Astronomy and optics— The royal library — Art and architec- 
ture — Decorative and industrial arts. 

CHAPTER XLV 

Military Contacts between East and West: The 
Crusades 633 

Saljuqs of Syria — Complexity of causation and motivation — I. Period of 
conquest — The Byzantines recover Asia Minor — First Latin princi- 
pality — Antioch reduced — Jerusalem captured — Italian fleets reduce 
seaports — Baldvnn I, king of Jerusalem — The third Prankish princi- 
pality established — Social contacts — 2. Moslem reaction* The 2angids 
and NQrids— Enter Saladin— JJittin— Siege of 'Akka— 3. Period of civil 
and petty wars The Ayyubids— The Frankish camp— Egypt, the centre 
of interest— St. Louis — The Ayyubids give way to the Mamluks— The 
last blows* Baybars— Qalawun — *Akka. 

CHAPTER XLVI 
Cultural Contacts . . . . - -659 

Nurid contributions — Ayyiibid contributions — In science and philo- 
sophy — In letters — In military art — Gunpowder — In architecture — 
Agriculture and industry — Water-* heels — Trade — Compass — Raaal 
admixture. 

CHAPTER XLVII 
The^Mamluks, last Medieval Dynasty of Arab World 67 1 

Dynasty established — Ba^ri and Burji Mamluks — Ayyubids and 
Tartars repelled — Ba> bars— The cahphal episode — Qalawun and the 
Mongols-— His hospital — Al Ashraf — Mongols repulsed — Egypt at its 
cultural height — Famine and plague — The downfall of the Bajins. 

CHAPTER XLVIII 
Intellectual and Artistic Activity . . -683 

Scientific contribution — Medicine — Jewish physicians — Diseases of the 
ej e — Medical history— -Social science — Biography — History — Jslamics 
and linguistics — Story-telhng — Shadow play — Architecture — Art — 
Illumination — Luxurious living. 

CHAPTER XLIX 
The End of Mamluk Rule 694 

Specimens of Burji sultans— Desperate economic situation^Indian 
trade lost — Monumental -works — Foreign relations — Cyprus conquered 
— Timur—Timunds— Ottoman Turks— $afawids— The decisive battle 
of Marj Dabiq— Egypt conquered— The Ottoman caliphate. 



CONTENTS - xx) 

PART VI 

OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE 
CHAPTER L 

?ACS 

The Arab Lands as Turkish Provinces . » , 709 

North Africa — Pirate states— The splendour that was Constantinople — 
Ottoman culture— The imperial set-up — Inherent elements of weakness — 
The loss of North African states. 

CHAPTER LI 

Egypt and the Arab Crescent . . • . 719 

Mamluks remain in control — *Ali Bey declared sultan — Napoleon Bona- 
parte — Muhammad *Alr founder of modern Egypt — Syria — Provincial 
administration — Economic decline — Fakhr-al-Dm, enlightened amir of 
Lebanon — The 'Azrns in Syria — Palestine has its dictators — Bashir 
al-Shihabi—- Autonomy of Lebanon internationally recognized — AKIraq 
— ArabSa—Wahhabis— IbmSu'ud— Intellectual activity. 

CHAPTER LII 

The Changing Scene: Impact of the West . . 745 

Cultural penetration: Egypt — Syria and Lebanon — Political penetration 
— The British occupy Egypt — French and British mandates — An 
Egyptian reformer — Nationalism — Trend toward union. 



Index , 



759 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



The curtain of the door of the Ka'bah at Makkah . Frontispiece 



FACE 

Sabaean types ........ 31 

Ancient Egyptian representations of Arabians . * -33 
Semcrkhet, the sixth king of the first dynasty, smiting the chief 

of the Nomads 34 
A frankincense tree and a Mahri collector . . * 35 
The ruins of Naqab al-Hajar and two lines of inscription which 
furnished Europe with its first sight of South Arabic inscrip- 
tion ........ 51 

A table of alphabets, including Ra's al-Shamrah cuneiform . 53 

Himyarite silver coin ....... 56 

Himyarite silver coin 58 

Petra: the Palace 73 

Petra: the Dayr ....... 73 

Palmyra: the colonnade and triumphal arch . • 77 

Nabataean bronze coin ...... 86 

The Black Stone of al-Ka'bah 101 

Makkah from the mountain of abu-Qubays . . .103 
Muhammad's journey through the celestial spheres . .115 
The Eg>ptian and Syrian Mahmils on their departure from al- 

Muzdalifah to Mina, 1904 . . . , . 135 
Pilgrims around the Ka'bah performing the Friday prayer, 1908 137 
North-eastern view of the Ka'bah, 1908 . . , 137 
An imitation in gold of a Byzantine coin with Arabic inscrip- 
tion ........ 218 

Copper coin of *Abd-al-Malik . . . . • 218 

A Byzantine weight validated by al-Walid (f 715) , . 223 

Damascus today, as seen from al-Salihfyah . . . 230 

Interior of the Dome of the Rock # % # 257 
The Mosque of Makkah seen from the east . #258 

The interior of the Mosque of al-Madinah . . . 259 

Tiie Dome of the Rock and the Dome of the Chain . . 263 
Umayyad Mosque of Damascus: the colonnade and northern 

minaret ........ 266 

Facade of al-Mushatta ...... 268 

xxii 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xdii 

Qusayr 'Amrah from the south-east . . . .570 
Pictures on west wall of the main hall of the Qusayr * Amrah . 272 
'The Haram area from the north-west with the Aq§a Mosque 

in the background . . . . « . 277 
Anglo-Saxon gold coin imitating an Arab dinar of the year 774 316 
A twelfth- or thirteenth-century vase from al-Raqqah, once part- 

t time capital of Harun al-Rashld . 336 
An astrolabe dated a.h, 1010 (a.d. 3601-2) . . - 374 
The oldest representation of the Caesarean section . . 407 
A silver portrait coin of al-Mutawakkil . . . .416 

' The Jvlalwiyah tower of the great Mosque at Samarra, ninth 

Christian century . . . . . .418 

Stage towers, ziggurat, of the Anu-Adad temple at Ashur . 419 
The monk BahTra recognizing the prophetic mission of Mu- 
hammad ........ 4 2 * 

A scene from al-Hariri^ tnaqdmah 19 « 422 

Dinar of Ahmad ibn-Julun, Mist, a.d. 881 . . 4So 
The Alharnbra and Granada today ..... 552 

Pavilion in the Court of Lions, Alharnbra, Granada . . 590 
Carved ivory casket ....... 593 

Interior of the great Mosque of Cordova • 594 

v The Hall of the Ambassadors in the Alc&zar, Seville . . 596 
Cappella Palatina, Palermo ...... 60S 

An Arabic map of the world . . . . .611 

The coronation mantle of Roger II, ttith Kufic inscription on 

the semicircular border ..... factng 614 

1 Fajimld carved rock-crystal ewer bearing the name of the Caliph 

al-'Aziz, 10th century ...... 632 

Qal'at al-Shaqlf (Bclfort) ...... 649 

A Prankish dinar struck at *Akka in 1251 . . ♦ 658 

The ancient citadel of Aleppo ..... 660 

Interior of the Crusading church of Notre Dame at Anjartus 

(Tortosa, modem Tardus) .... * 666 

Dinar of the Marnluk Baybars , . . . .670 

The Madrasah of Q&'it-Bay, Cairo (exterior) , . . 698 
The Madrasah of Qa'it-Bay, Cairo (interior) . . .700 
The Mag of the Ottoman Empire . . . , . 709 
The Tughra, calligraphic emblem, of Sulayman the Magmticent, 

- ' bearing his name 714 

Com orAli Bey ?2I 



* x,v LIST OF MAPS 

TAQTt 

Muhammad 'Ah, founder of modern Egypt • ♦ -723 
Coin of Mafcrnud II . . . . • ♦ • 7*5 

Coin of Maftmud II 7 2 5 
Coin of Sulayman I ....... 727 

Fakhr-al-Dm al-Ma'ni II, amir of Lebanon 1 590-1 635 • 73° 

Coin of * Abd-al-Majrd I . . . . . -735 

Muhammad 'Abduh, modern Egyptian reformer . . • 754 

LIST OF MAPS 

The Moslem world 5 
Arabia — land surface features . • . » .16 
Arabia of the classical authors . * . . 45 
Ptolemy's map of Arabia Felix ♦ . . • 47 
Ancient Arabia— peoples, places and routes (including the chief 

later Moslem towns) ...... 63 

The North Arabian kingdoms before Islam (including the chief 

later Moslem towns) •••••• 69 

AVlraq, Khuzistan and part of al-Jazirah between pp. $48 and 149 
Syna.— shewing tka J\um& ot rsi&toy dvstekte . , . ^5* 
Lower Egypt — illustrating the conquest and showing the 

Moslem towns . . . * , . .162 
Provinces of the Oxus and Jaxartes between pp. 208 and 209 

India— illustrating the Moslem conquest and the later kingdom 

of the Ghaznawids . . . , .211 

Empire of the caliphs, ca. 750 ..... 216 

Wbbasid caliphate, ninth century ..... 324 

The Iberian Peninsula— illustrating Moslem occupation . 495 

The Iberian Peninsula— mid4welfth century . . .522 
Morocco under the Muwahhids ..... 547 

Sicily and Southern Italy — to illustrate Moslem occupation . 603 
Islam and Christianity on the eve of the Crusades . . 634 
Crusading States of Syria, ca. 1140 .... 642 

The Mamluk kingdom ...... 684 

The Ottoman Empire at its height, ca. 1550 between pp. 716 and 717 



PART I 

THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



CHAPTER I 



THE ARABS AS SEMITES 
ARABIA THE CRADLE OF THE SEMITIC RACE 

Of all the lands comparable to Arabia in size, and of all the cidm* 
peoples approaching the Arabs in historical interest and im- 0 £ t ££ t 
portance, no country and no nationality have perhaps received 
so little consideration and study in modern times as have Arabia 
and the Arabs 

Here is a country that is about one-fourth the area of Europe, 
one-third the size of the United States of America, yet what is 
known about it is out of all proportion to what is unknown. We 
are beginning to know more, comparatively speaking, about the 
Arctic and Antarctic regions than we do about most of Arabia. 

As the probable cradle of the Semitic family the Arabian pen- 
insula nursed those peoples who later migrated into the Fertile 
Crescent and subsequently became the Babylonians, the As- 
syrians, the Phoenicians and the Hebrews of history. As the 
plausible fount of pure Semitism, the sandy soil of the peninsula 
is the place wherein the rudimentary elements of Judaism, and 
consequently of Christianity — together with the origin of those 
traits which later developed into the well-delineated Semitic 
character— should be sought for. In medieval times Arabia 
gave birth to a people who conquered most of the then civilized 
world, and to a religion- — Islam — which still claims the ad- 
herence ol some lour hundred and fifty millions ot people repre- 
senting nearly a)l the races and manv different climes. Every 
eighth person in our world today is a follower of Muhammad, 
and the Moslem call to prayer rings out through most of the 
twenty-four hours of the day, encircling the larger portion of the 
globe" in its warm belt. 

Around the name of the Arabs gleams that halo which be- 
longs to the world-conquerors. Within a century after their rise 
^ this people became the masters of an empire extending from the 
shores of the Atlantic Ocean to the confines of China, an empire 

3 



4 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART I 



greater than that of Rome at its zenith. In this period of un- 
precedented expansion they "assimilated to their creed, speech, 
and even physical type, more aliens than any stock before or 
since, not excepting the Hellenic, the Roman, the Anglo-Saxon, 
or the Russian". 1 

It was not only an empire that the Arabs built, but a culture 
as well. Heirs of the ancient civilization that flourished on the 
banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates, in the land of the Nile 
and on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, they likewise 
absorbed and assimilated the main features of the Greco- 
Roman culture, and subsequently acted as a medium for trans- 
mitting to medieval Europe many of those intellectual in- 
fluences which ultimately resulted in the awakening of the 
Western world and in setting it on the road towards its modern 
renaissance. No people in the Middle Ages contributed to 
human progress so much as did the Arabians and the Arabic- 
speaking peoples. 2 

The religion of the Arabians, after Judaism and Christianity, 
is the third and latest monotheistic religion. Historically it is an 
offshoot of these other two, and of all faiths it comes nearest 
to being their next of kin. All three are the product of one 
spiritual life, the Semitic life. A faithful Moslem could with but 
few scruples subscribe to most of the tenets of Christian belief. 
Islam has been and still is a living force from Morocco to Indo- 
nesia and a way of life to millions of the human race. 

The Arabic language today is the medium of daily expression 
for some hundred million people. For many centuries in the 
Middle Ages it was the language of learning and culture and 
progressive thought throughout the civilized world. Between the 
ninth and the twelfth centuries more works, philosophical, 
medical, historical, religious, astronomical and geographical, 
were produced through the medium of Arabic than through any 
other tongue. The languages of Western Europe still bear the 
impress of its influence in the form of numerous loan-words. Its 
alphabet, next to the Latin, is the most widely used system in the 
world. It is the one employed by Persian, Afghan, Urdu, and a 
number of Turkish, Berber and Malayan languages. 

1 P. G. Hogarth, The Penetration of Arabia (New York, 1904), p. 7* 
■ On the distinction between Arabians and Arabs (Arabic-speaking peoples) as 
used in this book see below, p. 43, n. 3. 



6 



THE PRE-1SLAMIC AGE 



PART I 



The Babylonians, the Chaldaeans, the Hittites, the Phoenicians 
were, but are no more. The Arabians and the Arabic-speaking 
peoples were and remain. They stand today as they stood in the 
past m a most strategic geographical position astride one of the 
greatest arteries of world trade. Currently their international 
position is importantly medial in the tug of cold war between 
East and West. In their soil arc treasured the world's greatest 
stores of liquid energy, oil, first discovered in 1932. Since World 
War I these peoples have been nationally aroused and have 
achieved full independence. For the first time since the rise of 
Islam most of the Arabian peninsula has been consolidated under 
one rule, the Su*udi. Egypt, after experiencing a period of 
monarchy, declared in 1952 in favour of the republican form. 
In this it followed Syria — whose capital Damascus was once the 
seat of the glorious Umayyad empire — which seven years earlier 
had freed itself from the French mandate. Al- f Iraq, after in- 
stalling a king in Baghdad, kingless since 'Abbasid days, 
abolished the monarchy and declared itself a republic. Lebanon 
was the first to adopt the republican form. Transjordan and a 
part of Palestine developed in 1949 into the Hashimite Kingdom 
of Jordan. In North Africa Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania and 
Algeria shook off the French and Libya the Italian tutelage in the 
1950s and 1960s. The phoenix, a bird of Araby, is rising again. 
Modem Classical Europe knew southern Arabia: Herodotus, among 
^^ >ra * others, mentions its western coast. The chief interest of the 
Greeks and the Romans lay in the fact that the South Arabians 
inhabited the frankincense and spice land and acted as a con- 
necting link with the markets of India and Somaliland. But late 
medieval and early modern Europe forgot Arabia in great part 
and had in recent times to discover it anew. The pioneers were 
adventurers, Christian missionaries, traders, French and British 
officers attached to the Egyptian expeditions between 18 It and 
1836, political emissaries and scientific explorers. 

The first modern scholar to describe the land was Carsten 
Niebuhr, a member of a scientific expedition sent by the king of 
Denmark in 1761. Al-Yaman in South Arabia, the part best 
known to classical Europe, was the first to be rediscovered. The 
north-western part of the peninsula, centring m al-y tjaz, though 
geographically nearer to Europe, was left to the end. Down to 
the present day no more than a dozen Europeans of those who 



ch,i> ' ^ THE ARABS AS SEMITES - ^ * 7 

, left records have succeeded in penetrating into this religiously* 
forbiddemarea. 

In 1812 Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, a Swiss, discovered 
Petra for the learned world, and under the name Ibrahim ibn- 
'Abdullah visited Makkah and al-Madinah. His description of 
the places visited has hardly since been improved upon. Burck- 
hardt's Moslem tomb stands today in the great cemetery of 
Cairo. The only other European until 192$ who had a chance to 
study Makkah in its normal life was Professor Snouck Hur- 
gronje of Leyden, who was there in 1 885-6. In 1845 a young 
Finno-Swedish scholar, George Augustus Wallin, paid a visit 
to Najd for linguistic study. Napoleon III, after withdrawing his 
troops from Lebanon in 1861, sought a new sphere of influence 
in central Arabia and thereinto sent, two years later, an English- 
man, William Gilford Palgrave, who was a Jew by birth and 
who at that time, as a member of the Jesuit order, was stationed 
at Zahlah, Lebanon. Palgrave claimed that he covered more 
ground south of Najd than he actually did. In 1853 Sir Richard 
F. Burton, famous as the translator of The Arabian Nights^ 
visited the holy cities as a pilgrim — al-Hajj 'Abdullah, Lady 
Anne Blunt, one of two European women to penetrate north 
Arabia, reached (1879) Najd on several odd missions, including 
the quest of Arabian horses. In 1875 an Englishman, Charles M* 
Doughty, traversed northern Arabia as a "Nasrany" (Christian) 
and "Engleysy 11 . His record of the journey, Travels in Arabia 
Destrta, has become a classic of English literature. T. E< 
Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom has been greeted as a work 
of special merit in the literature of the first World War. Among 
the latest explorers may be mentioned a Czechoslovak, Alois 
Musil, who specialized on the northern territory; and among the 
recent travellers, the Lebanese-American Ameen Rihani, who 
interviewed all the kings of the peninsula, and Eldon Rutter, who 
visited Makkah and al-Madfnah in 1925-6. A special reference 

r should be made to the brave feat of Bertram Thomas, the young 
English orientalist, who in January 1 931 crossed for the first time 

1 the great southern desert of Arabia, ai-Rab* al Khah, and bared 
one of the largest blank spots left on the world's map His adven~ 
' tare, was matched by H. StJ B, Philby, aUHajj f Abdullah, 

^ who, starting at al-Hufuf tiear the Persian Gulf on January 7, 

' *93 2 * crossed ftl-Rab* al-Khali from east to west in ninety days. 



8 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART I 



The IJimyarite inscriptions which afforded us the first oppor- 
tunity to hear what the South Arabians had to say about them- 
selves were discovered by a Frenchman disguised as a Jewish 
beggar from Jerusalem, Joseph Haldvy, 1869-70, and by an 
Austrian Jew, Eduard Glaser, between 1882 and 1894 (see below, 
p. 5 1). The copious but late and not fully authentic Islamic litera- 
ture in Arabic, the sporadic Greek and Latin references and the 
few hieroglyphic and cuneiform statements in the annals of the 
Pharaohs and the kings of Assyro-Babylonia, supplemented by 
the recently deciphered ftimyante material and by the reports 
of the modern travellers and explorers, constitute our chief 
sources of knowledge of ancient Arabia. 
Ethnic Of the two surviving representatives of the Semitic people, 
ship "Si Arabians, in a larger measure than the Jews, have preserved 
Semites the characteristic physical features and mental traits of the 
family. Their language, though the youngest among the Semitic 
group from the point of view of literature, has, nevertheless, 
conserved more of the peculiarities of the mother Semitic tongue 
— including the inflection — than the Hebrew and its other sister 
languages. It therefore affords the best key for the study of the 
Semitic languages Islam, too, in its original form is the logical 
perfection of Semitic religion. In Europe and America the word 
"Semite" has come to possess a primarily Jewish connota- 
tion, and that on account of the wide dispersion of the Jews 
in these continents The "Semitic features" often referred to, 
including the prominent nose, are not Semitic at all. They are 
exactly the characteristics which differentiate the Jew from 
the Semitic type and evidently represent an acquisition from 
early intermarriages between the Hittite-Hurrians and the 
Hebrews. 1 

The reasons which make the Arabian Arabs, particularly the 
nomads, the best representatives of the Semitic family biologic- 
ally, psychologically, socially and linguistically should be sought 
in their geographical isolation and in the monotonous uniformity 
of desert life Ethnic purity is a reward of the most ungrateful 
and isolated environment, such as central Arabia affords. The 
Arabians call their habitat Jazirat al-Arab, "the Island of the 
Arabs", and an island it is, surrounded by water on three sides 

1 George A Barton, Semitic and Hamttie Ortgins (Philadelphia , 1934), pp 85*7, 
Ignace J. Gelb, Humans and Subenans (Chicago, 1944), pp, 69-70 



x THE ARkBS AS SEMITES " * " 9 

and by sand-on the fourtli. This "island** furnishes an almost 
unique example of uninterrupted relationship between populace 

vand soil; If any immigrations have ever taken place thereinto 
resulting In successive waves of settlers ousting or submerging 
one another—as in the case of India, Greece, Italyy England and 
the United States — history has left us no record thereof Nor do 
we know of any invader who succeeded in penetrating the sandy 
barriers and establishing a permanent foothold in this land. The 
people of Arabia have remained virtually the same throughout 
all the recorded ages, 1 

The term Semite comes from Shem in the Old Testament 
(Gen, 10 : i) through the Latin of the Vulgate. The traditional 
explanation that the so-called Semites are descended from the 
eldest son of Noah, and therefore racially homogeneous, is no 
longer accepted. Who are the Semites then? 

If we consult a linguistic map of Western Asia we find Syria, 
Palestine, Arabia proper and al-'Iraq populated at the present 
time by Arabic-speaking peoples. If we then review our ancient 
history we remember that beginning with the middle of the 
fourth millennium before our era the Babylonians (first called 
Akkadians after their capital Akkadu, Agade), the Assyrians and 
later the Chaldaeans occupied the Tigro- Euphrates valley; after 

"2500 B.C. the Amorites and Canaanites (including the Phoeni- 
cians) populated Syria; and about 1 500 B.C. the Aramaeans settled 
in Syria and the Hebrews in Palestine. Down to the nineteenth 
century the medieval and modern world did not realize that all 
these peoples were closely related. With the decipherment of the 

* Cuneiform writing in the middle of the nineteenth century and 
the comparative study of the Assyro-Babylonian, Hebrew, 
Aramaic, Arabic and Ethiopia tongues it was found that those 
languages had striking points of similarity and were therefore 
cognates. In the case of each one of these languages the verbal 
stem is triconsonantal; the tense has only two forms, perfect and 
Itnpeifect; the conjugation of the verb follows the same model. 
The elements of the vocabulary, including the personal pro- 
nouns, nouns (denoting blood-kinship, numbers and certain 

* names of members of the body, are' almost alike. A scrutiny of 
^thc social institutions and religious beliefs and a comparison of 

, 3 C£ Strain Thomas in "The Kter £ast and htdtc (London, flfov, x, 1928), 
pp. 5i6*9;*C< Kathjens In Journal an&lt^iut, cexv. No 1 (1929), pp 141-55 > 



lO 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



the physical features of the peoples who spoke these languages 
have revealed likewise impressive points of resemblance. The 
linguistic kinship is, therefore, but a manifestation of a well- 
marked general unity of type. This type was characterized by 
deep religious instinct, vivid imagination, pronounced individu- 
ality and marked ferocity. The inference is inescapable: the 
ancestors of these various peoples — Babylonians, Assyrians, 
Chaldaeans, Amorites, Aramaeans, Phoenicians, Hebrews, 
Arabians and Abyssinians — before they became thus differen- 
tiated must have lived at some time in the same place as one 
people. 

Arabia, Where was the original home of this people? Different hypo- 
o^r^ theses have been worked out by various scholars. There are 
Semites those who, considering the broad ethnic relationship between 
Semites and Hamites, hold that eastern Africa was the original 
home; others, influenced by Old Testament traditions, maintain 
that Mesopotamia provided the first abode; but the arguments in 
favour of the Arabian peninsula, considered in their cumulative 
effect, seem most plausible The Mesopotamian theory is vitiated 
by the fact that it assumes passage of people from an agricultural 
stage of development on the banks of a river to a nomadic stage, 
which is the reverse of the sociological law in historic times. The 
African theory raises more questions than it answers. 

The surface of Arabia is mostly desert with a narrow margin 
of habitable land round the periphery. The sea encircles this 
periphery. When the population increases beyond the capacity 
of the land to support it the surplus must seek elbow room. But 
this surplus cannot expand inward because of the desert, nor 
outward on account of the sea — a barrier which in those days 
was well-nigh impassable. The overpopulation would then find 
one route open before it on the western coast of the peninsula 
leading northward and forking at the Sinaitic peninsula to the 
fertile valley of the Nile. Around 3500 B.C. a Semitic migration 
followed this route, or took the east African route northward, 
planted itself on top of the earlier Hamitic population of Egypt 
and the amalgamation produced the Egyptians of history. These 
are the Egyptians who laid down so many of the basic elements 
in our civilization. It was they who first built stone structures 
and developed a solar calendar. At about the same time a parallel 
migration followed the eastern route northward and struck root 



THE ARABS AS SEMITES " ^ - t u 

in the Tigro-Euphrates valley, already populated by a highly 
civilized community/ the Sumerians. 1 The Semites enteretLthe 
valley as barbarian nomads, but learned from the Sumerians, 
the originators of the Euphratean civilization, how to build and 
live in* homes, how to irrigate the land and above all how to 
write. The Sumerians were a non-Semitic people. The admixture 
of the two races here gave us the Babylonians, who share with the 
Egyptians the honour of laying down the fundamentals of our 
cultural heritage. Among other innovations, the Babylonians be- 
queathed to us the arch and the vault (probably of Sumerian * 
origin), the wheeled cart and a system of weights and measures* 
About the middle of the third millennium before Christ 
another Semitic migration brought the Amorites into the Fertile 
Crescent The component elements of the Amorites included the 
Canaanites (who occupied western Syria and Palestine after 
2500 B C*) and the coastal people called by the Greeks Phoeni- 
cians These Phoenicians were the first people to popularize an 
exclusively alphabetic system of writing, comprising twenty-two 
signs, properly styled the greatest invention of mankind (c£ 
belotf, p. 71). 

Between 1 500 and 1200 B*C* the Hebrews made their way into 
southern Syria, Palestine, and the Aramaeans (Syrians) into the 
north, particularly Coele-Syria* 2 The Hebrews, before any other 
people, revealed to the world the clear idea of one God, and their 
monotheism became the tirigin of Christian and Moslem belief. 

About 500 B.C. the Nabataeans established themselves north- 
east of the Sinaitic peninsula. The height to which their civiliza- 
tion later attained under Roman influence may be gauged by the 
magnificent ruins of their rock-hewn capital, Petra. 

The seventh century of our era saw a new and final migration 
under the banner of Islam, in the course of which the dam broke 
and not only the lands of the Fertile Crescent, the region form- 
ing an kre between the head of the Persian Gulf and the south- 
east corner of the Mediterranean Sea, but even Egypt, northern 
Africa, Spain, Persia and parts of central Asia were flooded. 3 

This last migration, which took place within the full light of 
history, is cited as an historical argument by the supporters of 

1 Cfl a Leonard Waclky, The Sumnans (Oxford, 1929), pp. 5 6. 
Holloa Syna, modern a]*Biqa', between the two Lcbanons. 
n> H JS°, Wrockl «^ The Xutory 0/ babylonia end Astyna, tr. James A. Craig 
(New Vorl-, 1907), pp, i8. 22 . 



12 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART I 



the theory of Arabia as the Semitic home; they further reinforce 
their case by the observation that the Arabians have preserved 
the Semitic traits more purely and have manifested them more 
distinctly than any other members of that racial group, and that 
their language is most nearly akin to what scholars believe the 
primitive form of Semitic speech to have been. 

A comparative examination of the dates quoted above sug- 
gested to certain Semitists the notion that in recurrent cycles of 
approximately one thousand years Arabia, like a mighty reser- 
voir, became populated to the point where overflow was inevit- 
able. These same scholars would speak of the migrations in 
terms of 1 'waves* r . It is more likely, however, that these Semitic 
movements partook in their initial stages more of the nature of 
the European migrations into the New World: a few persons 
would start moving, others would follow, then many more would 
go, until a general popular interest was aroused in the idea of 
going. 

This transplantation en masse or in bands of human groups 
from a pastoral desert region to an agricultural territory con- 
stitutes a common phenomenon in the Near East and provides 
an important clue to the understanding of its long and checkered 
history. The process by which a more or less migratory people 
imposes itself upon a people which has become rooted in the soil 
usually results in the invaders assimilating to some degree the 
main features of the previously existing civilization and in 
infusing a certain amount of its blood, but hardly ever in the 
extermination of the indigenous population. This is exactly 
what happened in the ancient Near East, whose history is to 
a certain extent a struggle between the sedentary population 
already domiciled in the Fertile Crescent and the nomadic 
Arabians trying to dispossess them. For immigration and colon- 
ization are, as has been well said, an attenuated form of invasion. 

It should be noted in connection with these migrations that 
in almost every case the Semitic tongue survived. This is a de- 
termining factor. If in Mesopotamia, for example, the aggluti- 
native Sumerian language had survived it would have been 
difficult for us to classify the people of the valley as Semitic. In 
the case of the ancient Egyptians a Semito-Hamitic language 
evolved, and we cannot very well include the Egyptians among 
the Semites. The term "Semite", therefore, has more linguistic 



" ch/i * : \ < ^ ¥ THE ARABS AS SEMITES 

"than ethnological implication, and the Assyro-Babylonian, Ara~ 
maic, Hebrew, Phoenician, South Arabic, Ethiopic and Arabic 
languages should be viewed as dialects developing out of one 
common tongue, the UrscntitiscL A parallel may be found in the 
case of the Romance languages in their relation to Latin, with 
the exception that some form of Latin has survived, in literature 
at least, to the present day, whereas the Semitic archetype, only 
a spoken language, has entirely passed away, though its general 
character may be inferred from whatever points are found 
common to its surviving daughters. 

Accepting Arabia — Najd or al-Yaman — as the homeland and 
distributing centre of the Semitic peoples does not preclude the 
possibility of their having once before, at a very early date, con- 
stituted with another member of the white race, the Hamites, 
one community somewhere in eastern Africa; it was from this 
community that those who were later termed Semites crossed 
over into the Arabian peninsula, possibly at Bab al-Mandab, 1 
This would make Africa the probable Semito-Hamitic home and 
Arabia the cradle of the Semitic people and the centre of their 
distribution. The Fertile Crescent was the scene of the Semitic 
civilization. 



Barton, p. 37 



CHAPTER II 
THE ARABIAN PENINSULA 



-rue ARABIA is the south-western peninsula of Asia, the largest pen- 
settia&of i nsu i a on the map. Its area of 1,027,000 square miles holds an 
,esta|re estimated population of only fourteen millions. Su'udi Arabia, 
with an area (exclusive of al-Rab* al-Khali) of 597,000 square 
miles, claims some seven millions; al-Yaman five millions; al- 
Kuwayt, Qatar, the trucial shaykhdoms, *Uman and Masqat, 
Aden and the Aden protectorate the rest. Geologists tell us 
that the land once formed the natural continuation of the 
Sahara (now separated from it by the rift of the Nile valley and 
the great chasm of the Red Sea) and of the sandy belt which 
traverses Asia through central Persia and the Gobi Desert. In 
earlier times the Atlantic westerlies, which now water the high- 
lands of Syria-Palestine, must have reached Arabia undrained, 
and during a part of the Ice Age these same desert lands must 
have been pre-eminently habitable grasslands. Since the ice sheet 
never extended south of the great mountains in Asia Minor, 
Arabia was never made uninhabitable by glaciation. Its deep, 
dry wadi beds still bear witness to the erosive powers of the rain- 
water that once flowed through them. The northern boundary 
is ill-defined, but may be considered an imaginary line drawn 
due east from the head of the Gulf of al-'Aqabah in the Red 
Sea to the Euphrates. Geologically, indeed, the whole Syro- 
Mesopotamian desert is a part of Arabia. 

The peninsula slopes away from the west to the Persian Gulf 
and the Mesopotamian depression. Its backbone is a range of 
mountains running parallel to the western coast and rising to a 
height of over 9000 feet in Midian on the north and 14,000 in 
al-Yaman on the south. 1 Al-Sarah in al-Hijaz reaches an eleva- 
tion of 10,000 feet. From this backbone the eastern fall is gradual 
and long; the western, towards the Red Sea, is steep and short. 
The southern sides of the peninsula, where the sea has been 

1 The highest measured pomt; Carl Rathjens and Hermann v. Wissmann, 
Sudarabiens foise, vol m, Landcskundhckc Ergrbnme (Hamburg, 1934), p 2 

14 



CB-U 1 " r t .THE ARABIAN PENINSULA 15 

receding from the coast at a rate reckoned at seventy-two feet 
peryear, are fringed by lowlands, the Tihamahs, Najd, the north 
central plateau, has a mean elevation of 2500 feet Its mountain 
range, Shimmar, lifts one red granite peak, Aja\ $$50 feet above 
the sea-level. Behind the coastal lowlands rise ranges of various 
heights on all three sides. In *Uman, on the eastern coast, the 
summits of al-Jabai al-Akh^ar soar to a height of 9900 feet, 
forming one notable exception to the general eastward decline of 
the surface of the land. 

With the exception of the mountains and highlands just dis- 
cussed the land consists mainly of desert and steppe. The steppes 
(sing, darak) are circular plains between hills covered with sand 
and embosoming subterranean waters. The so-called Syrian 
desert, Badiyat ai-Sha*m,as well as the Mesopotamian desert, are 
mostly stepp&and. The southern part of the Syrian desert is col- 
loquially known as aH-Iamad> The southern part of the Meso- 
potamian steppeland is often referred to as Badiyat al-'Iraq or 
al-$amawah< 

Of the desert land three varieties may be distinguished: 
K The great Nufud, a tract of white or reddish sand blown 
into high banks or dunes and covering a vast area in North 
Arabia* The classical term is aUbddiyak t sometimes al~daAna** 
Though dry except for an occasional oasis, al-Nufud receives in 
some vritaters enough rain to cover it with a carpet of verdure 
.and convert it into a paradise for the camels and sheep of the 
wandering Bedouin* Among the first of the dozen Europeans who 
have succeeded in traversing the Nufud are the French Alsatian, 
Charlesftuber(i$78); the Englishdiplomatist and poet, Wilfrid S. 
4 Blunt(i879); and the Strassburg orientalist, Julius Euting(r883). 

L Al-Dahna* (the red land), a surface of red sand, extends 
from the great Nufud in the north to al-Rab* al-Khali in the 
south, describing a great arc to the south-east and stretching a 
/distance of over six hundred miles. Its western part is sometimes 
^distinguished as ai-Ahqaf (dune land). On older maps al-Dahna* 
is'usually indicated as <il-Rab* al-Khali (the vacant quarter). 
When al-Dahna* receives seasonal rains, it abounds in pasturage 
attractive to the Bedouins and their cattle for several months a 
year, but in summer-time the region is void of the breath of life. 
Before Bertram Thomas 1 no European ever ventured to cross 
: { l /* 4r^ w Fehx; Actpss tkt Empty Quarter of Arabia (New Y ork, 1932). 



CB ft , * THE ARABIAN PENINSULA ' 17 

al-Rab' al-Rhali, "no man's land" ofXrabia. Arabian American 
1 Oil Company parked its 2^0,000 square miles on its maps, 
Thomas crossed it in fifty-eight days from the Arabian Sea to 
" the Persian Gulf, encountered the phenomenon of singing sands 
and discovered a "lake of salt water", in reality an arm of the 
Pcrsian'Gulf in the south of Qatar. Until then our knowledge 
of the dreaded and mysterious waste of South Arabia was no 
more than that of the tenth-century geographers. 

3, Al-ftarrah, a surface of corrugated and fissured lavas 
overlying sandstone. Volcanic tracts of this type abound in the 
western and central regions of the peninsula and extend north 
as far as eastern Ilawran. Yaqut 1 lists no less than thirty such 
tiarrahs. The last volcanic eruption reported by an Arab his- 
torian took place in A.B. 1256. 

Within this ring of desert and steppe lies an elevated core, 
Najd, the Wahhabiland, In Najd the limestone has long been 
generally exposed; here and there are occasional strips of sand. 
Mt. Shammar consists of granite and basalt rock. 

Arabia is one of the driest and hottest of countries. Though ci 
sandwiched between seas on the east and west, those bodies of *° 
water are too narrow to break the climatic continuity of the 
Africo-Asian rainless continental masses. The ocean on the south, 
to' be sure, does bring rains, but the simoom (samum) which 
seasonally lashes the land leaves very little moisture for the in- 
terior. The bracing and delightful east wind {al-saba)htis always 
provided a favourite theme for Arabian poets. 

In al-$ ijaz, the birthplace of Islam, seasons of drought extend- 
ing possibly over a period of three or more years are not un- 
known* Rainstorms of short duration and extraordinary violence 
may strike Makkah and al-Madlnah and occasionally threaten 
to overthrow the Ka'bah; al-Baladhuri 2 devotes a whole chapter 
to the floods (stiytll) of Makkah. Subsequent to these rains the 
hardy pastoral flora of the desert makes its appearance. In north- 
ern al-ljijaz the isolated oases, the largest covering an area of 
some ten square miles, are the only support of settled life. Five- 
sixths of the population of al-rjfijaz is nomadic. Certain oases, 
such as Fadak (now al-Ha*it), which figured in early Islam, are 

' I a*-*?? *lBumn % od F WdstenfcH (Lciprig, 1866-73), m*** 

FMM at~£uld&t t cd dc Goeje (Leyden, t866), pp. 53*5; tr, Philip K Hitb, 
i*t Vn&xs *f the Mame State (New York, igt6, reprint Beirut, 1966), pp. $2-4. 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART I 



today of no significance. Most of these fertile tracts were culti- 
vated at the time of the Prophet by Jews. The mean annual 
temperature in the IJijaz lowland is nearer 90 0 than 8o° F. Al- 
MadTnah, with a mean temperature of little over 70 0 F., is more 
healthful than its sister to the south, Makkah. 

Only in al-Yaman and c AsTr are there sufficient periodic rains 
to warrant a systematic cultivation of the soil. Perennial vegeta- 
tion is here found in favoured valleys to a distance of about two 
hundred miles from the coast. San*a', the modern capital of al- 
Yaman, is over 7000 feet above the sea and therefore one of the 
healthiest and most beautiful towns of the peninsula. Other 
fertile but not continuous tracts are found on the coast. The 
surface of JJadramawt is marked by deeply sunk valleys where 
water is abundant in the subsoil. *Uman, the easternmost pro- 
vince, receives a fair supply of rain. Especially hot and humid are 
Juddah (Jedda), al-ljudaydah (Hodeida) and Masqat (Muscat). 

Arabia cannot boast a single river of significance which flows 
perennially and reaches the sea. None of its streams are navi- 
gable. In place of a system of rivers it has a network of wadis 
which carry away such floods as occur. These wadis serve 
another purpose: they determine the routes for the caravans and 
the pilgrimages. Since the rise of Islam the pilgrimages have 
formed the principal link between Arabia and the outer world. 
The chief land routes are from Mesopotamia, by way of Buray- 
dah in Najd, following the Wadi al-Rummah, and from Syria, 
passing through Wadi al-Sirhan and skirting the Red Sea coast. 
The in trap en insular routes are either coastal, fringing nearly 
the whole peninsula, or transpeninsular, running from south- 
west to north-east through the central oases and avoiding the 
stretch between, namely, the Vacant Quarter. 

The tenth-century geographer al-Istakhri 1 speaks of only one 
place in al-rjlijaz, the mountain near al-Ta'if, where water freezes. 
Al-Hamdani* refers to frozen water in San'a*. To these places 
Glaser 3 adds Mt» tjadur al-Shaykh, in al-Yaman, where snow 
mils almost every winter. Frost is more widespread. 
h The dryness of the atmosphere and the salinity of the soil 

1 Masalsk txl-Mcmohk, ed. de Gocje (Leyden, 1870), p. 19, 1L 12-13. 

- Ahlklil, Bk. VIII, cd. Nabih A. Fans (Princeton, 1940), p. 7; see also Nazih 
M. al-'A^m, Ritfah fi BtlSd al-Arah ahSaideth (Cairo, 1 937?), pt I, p. II 8. 

* In A, Peterroann, Mtttetlungen aus Justus Perthes geographischer AnstaU, 
*ol. 32 (Gotha, 1886) , p. 43. 



" " " THE ARABIAN PENINSULA 



19 



militate against the possibility of any luxuriant growth. Al-Hijaz 
is rich in dates. Wheat grows in al-Yaman and certain oases. 
Barley is cultivated for horses. Millet (dhurak) grows in certain 
regions, and rice in 'Uman and al-rjasa. On the highlands parallel 
to the southern coast, and particularly in Mahrah, the frankin- 
cense tree, which figured prominently in the early commercial life 
of South Arabia, still flourishes. A characteristic product of *AsIr 
is gum-arabic. The coffee plant, for which al-Yaman is now 
famous, was introduced into South Arabia in the fourteenth cen- 
tury from Abyssinia. The earliest reference to this "wine of Islam** 
is in the writings of the sixteenth century. 1 The earliest known 
mention of coffee by a European writer was in 1585, 

Of the trees of the desert several species of acacia, including 
dthl (tamarisk) and ghada, which gives excellent charcoal, are 
found. Another species, talk, yields gum-arabic. The desert also 
produces samh, the grains of which give a flour used for porridge, 
and the eagerly sought truffle and senna (al-sana). 

Among the domestic plants the grape-vine, introduced from 
Syria after the fourth Christian century, is well represented in 
al-Ta'if, and yields the alcoholic beverage styled nabtdh al~ 
zabib* The wine (khatnr), however, sung by the Arabic poets, 
was the brand imported from IJawrSn and the Lebanon. The 
olive tree, native in Syria, is unknown in al-IJijaz. Other pro* 
ducts of the Arabian oases are pomegranates, apples, apricots, 
almonds, oranges, lemons, sugar-cane, water-melons and bananas. 
The Nabataeans and Jews were probably the ones responsible 
for the introduction of such fruit trees from the north. 

Among the Arabian flora the date-palm tree is queen. It bears 
the most common and esteemed fruit: the fruit ifamr) par 
excellence. Together with milk it provides the chief item on the 
menu of the Bedouin, and, except for camel flesh, is his only solid 
food Mts fermented beverage is the much-sought nabtdh. Its 
crushed istones furnish the cakes which are the everyday meal 
of the camel. To possess "the two black ones" (al-aswadan)* 
i.c« water and dates, is the dream of every Bedouin. The Prophet 
is reported to have enjoined, H Honour your aunt, the palm, 
which was made of the same clay as AdanV\ s Arab authors list 

< 1 Sec &}nzm m dc Sacy, Chrcstomathu crahe, 2nd ed, (Pans, 1826), vol j, 

CoasuUibnQulaybah, f ^u« c /^^r (Cairo, 1930), vol m t pp 209-13 
Al*Suyut», ffutn *!-Af»k£fare)k (Cairo, 1321}, vol «, p 255 



20 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART I 



a hundred varieties of dates in and around al-Madmah. 

Even this queen of Arabian trees must have been introduced 
from the north, from Mesopotamia, where the palm tree was 
the chief object which attracted early man thither. The Arabic 
vocabulary in Najd and al-I;I ijaz relating to agriculture, e.g. bdl 
(watered by rain only), 1 akkdr (ploughman), etc., indicates bor- 
rowing from the northern Semites, particularly the Aramaeans. 
Fauna The animal kingdom is represented by panthers (sing. namir) % 
leopards (sing. fahd) > hyenas, wolves, foxes and lizards (especi- 
ally al-dabb). The lion, frequently cited by the ancient poets of 
the peninsula, is now extinct. Monkeys are found in al-Yaman. 
Among the birds of prey eagles QugdS), bustards (/tubdra, 
houbara), falcons, hawks and owls may be counted. Crows are 
abundant. The most common birds are the hoopoe (hudhud) % 
lark, nightingale, pigeon and a species of partridge celebrated 
in Arabic literature under the name aUqata? 

Of domestic animals the principal ones are the camel, the ass, 
the ordinary watch-dog, the greyhound (saliiqi), the cat, the 
sheep and the goat. The mule is said to have been introduced 
from Egypt after the Hijrah by Muhammad. 

The desert yields locusts, which the Bedouin relishes, especially 
when roasted with salt. Locust plagues are reputed to appear 
every seventh year. Of reptiles the Nufud boasts, by all accounts, 
the horned viper. Lawrence 3 speaks with horror of his experience 
with the snakes in Wadi al-Sirhan. 
The Renowned as it has become in Moslem literature, the horse 

£jj£ ,an was nevertheless a late importation into ancient Arabia. This 
animal, for which Najd is famous, was not known to the early 
Semites. Domesticated in early antiquity somewhere east of the 
Caspian Sea by nomadic Indo-European herdsmen, it was later 
imported on a large scale by the Kassites and Hittites and 
through them made its way, two millenniums before Christ, into 
Western Asia. From Syria it was introduced before the beginning 
of our era into Arabia, where it had the best opportunity to 
keep its blood pure and free from admixture. The Hyksos passed 
the horse on from Syria into Egypt and the Lydians from Asia 
Minor into Greece, where it was immortalized by Phidias on the 

* See below, p. 97. 

* See K. Meiwirtzhagcn, Tht Birds of Arabia (Edinburgh, 1954). 

* T. E. Lawrence, Sezen Ptllars <?/ Wisdcm (New York, 1936), pp. 36970. 



ClL II ' "THE ARABIAN PENINSULA Zt 

Parthenon.,, In the Egyptian, Assyro-Babylonian and early 
Persian records the Arabian appears as a cameleer, not as a 
cavalier. The camel, rather than the horse, figured in the tributes 
exacted by the Assyrian conquerors from the "Urbi". 1 In 
Xerxes' army, intent upon the conquest of Greece, the Arabs 
rode camels,* Strabo, 5 presumably on the authority of his friend 
Aelius Galius, the Roman general who invaded Arabia as late 
as 24 B.C., denies the existence of the horse in the peninsula. 

Renowned for its physical beauty, endurance, intelligence 
and touching devotion to its master, the Arabian thoroughbred 
(kufraylan) is the exemplar from which all Western ideas about 
the good-breeding of horseflesh have been derived. In the eighth 
century the Arabs introduced it into Europe through Spain, 
where it left permanent traces in its Barbary and Andalusian 
descendants.* During the Crusades the English horse received 
fresh strains of blood through contact with the Arab, 

In Arabia the horse is an animal of luxury whose feeding and 
care constitutes a problem to the man of the desert. Its possession 
is a presumption of wealth. Its chief value lies in providing the 
speed necessary for the success of a Bedouin raid (ghasw). It is 
also used for sports: in tournament (jartd), coursing and hunting. 
In an Arab camp today in case of shortage of water the children 
might cry for a drink, but the master, unmoved, would pour 
the last drop into a pail to set before the horse. 

If the horse is the most noble of the conquests of man. the The 
camel is certainly from the nomad's point of view the most um 
useful* Without it the desert could not be conceived of as a 
habitable place. The camel is the nomad's nourisher, his vehicle 
of transportation and his medium of exchange. The dowry of 
the bride, the price of blood, the profit of maysir (gambling), 
the wealth of a sheikh, are all computed in terms of camels. 
It is the Bedouin's constant companion, his alter ego, his foster 
parent. He drinks its milk instead of water (which he spares for 
> the cattle); he feasts on its flesh; he covers himself with its skin; 
he^ makes his tent of its hair. Its dung he uses as fuel, and its 
Urine as a hair tonic and medicine. To him the camel is more 
than "the ship of the desert"; it is the special gift of Allah (cf, 

% Herodotus, History, Bk VII, cb. 86, § 8 
\ £tT^'* Bk XVI > ch < 4, §§ 2 & 26, 
Wsffiaxa R. Brown, The Hers* of the Desert (New York, im)> PP- 1*3 



22 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PARTI 



Koran 16 : 5*8). To quote a striking phrase of Sprenger, 1 the 
Bedouin is "the parasite of the camel". The Bedouins of our day 
take delight in referring to themselves as akl al-hcttr^ the people 
of the camel. Musil 3 states that there is hardly a member of the 
Ruwalah tribe who has not on some occasion drunk water from 
a camel's paunch. In time of emergency either an old camel is 
killed or a stick is thrust down its throat to make it vomit water. 
If the camel has been watered within a day or two, the liquid 
is tolerably drinkable. The part which the camel has played in 
the economy of Arabian life is indicated by the fact that the 
Arabic language is said to include some one thousand names 
for the camel in its numerous breeds and stages of growth, a 
number rivalled only by the number of synonyms used for the 
sword. The Arabian camel can go for about twenty-five days 
in winter and about five days in summer without water. The 
camel was a factor in facilitating the early Moslem conquests 
by assuring its masters more mobility than, and consequent 
advantage over, the settled peoples. The Caliph 'Umar is quoted 
as having said: "The Arab prospers only where the camel 
prospers". The peninsula remains the chief camel-breeding centre 
in the world. The horses of Najd, the donkeys of al-IJasa and 
the dromedaries of 'Urnan are world famous. In the past the 
pearl fisheries of 'Uman and the Persian Gulf region, the salt 
mines of certain areas and the camel industry were the main 
sources of income. But since the beginning of the exploitation of 
the oil-fields in 1933, the extensive activities connected with the 
oil industry have become by far the greatest source. The oil-fields 
of al-Hasa are classed among the richest in the world. 

From north-western Arabia the camel, like the horse 
originally an American animal, was introduced into Palestine 
and Syria on the occasion of the invasion of the Midianites 
in the eleventh century B.C. (Judges 6 ; 5, cf Gen. 24 : 64), the 
first record of the widespread use of this animal. 3 It was intro- 
duced into Egypt with the Assyrian conquest in the seventh cen- 
tury B.C., and into northern Africa with the Moslem invasion 
in the seventh century after Christ. 

1 XnZtitschrtft der deuischtn morgenhndisch€nGtsellschaft } yXv{\^<)\),\i ^6l, 5. 13. 

1 The Manners end Customs of the JZwala Bedouins (New York, 192S), p. 36S 
Cf, Bertram Thomas in The Near East and Indta, Nov. I, 1928, p 51S 

* Cf. Carleton S. Coon, Caravan; the Story of the Middle Bast (New York, 
1951). p. 61. 



CHAPTER III 
BEDOUIN LIFE 



3RRESPONDING to the twofold nature of the land, the inhabit- The 
its of Arabia fall into two mate groups: nomadic Bedouins nom 
id settled folk. The line of demarcation between the wandering 
xd the sedentary elements in the population is not always 
larply drawn. There are stages of semi-nomadism and of 
jasi-urDanity. Certain townsfolk who were at one time Bedouin 
ill betray their nomadic origin, while other Bedouins are towns- 
people in the making. The blood of the settled population is 
ius constantly refreshed by a nomadic strain* 
The Bedouin is no gypsy roaming aimlessly for the sake of 
naming. He represents the best adaptation of human life to 
eSert conditions. Wherever verdant land is found, there he goes 
eekmg pasture. Nomadism is as much a scientific mode of living 
i the Nufud as industrialism is in Detroit or Manchester. 
Action and reaction between the townsfolk and the desert 
oik are motivated by the urgent dictates of self-interest and self- 
>reservatton. The nomad insists on extracting from his more 
avourably situated neighbour such resources as he himself 
acks, and that cither by violence — raids — or by peaceful method > 
-exchange. He is land-pirate or broker* or both at once. The 
iesert, where the^ Bedouin plays the part of the pirate, shares 
:ertain common characteristics with the sea. 
^ The nomad, as a type, is today what he was yesterday and 
what he will be tomorrow. His culture pattern has always been 
the Same. Variation, progress, evolution, are not among the 
laws he readily obeys. Immune to the invasion of exotic ideas 
and manners, he still lives, as his forbears did, in tents of goats* 
or camels* hair, "houses of hair", and grazes his sheep and goats 
in thesame fashion and on the same pastures. Sheep- and camel- 
raising, and to a lesser degree horse-breeding, hunting and raid- 
ing, form his staple occupation and are to his mind the only 
occupations worthy of a man. Agriculture and all varieties of 



24 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART I 



trade and craft are beneath his dignity. If and when he frees 
himselt from his environment he is no more a nomad. In the 
Fertile Crescent empires have come and gone, but in the barren 
wastes the Bedouin has remained for ever the same. 1 

Over all the living things of the desert the Bedouin, the camel 
and the palm are the triumvirate that rules supreme; and together 
with the sand they constitute the four great actors in the drama 
of its existence. 

To its denizen the desert is more than a habitat: it is the 
custodian of his sacred tradition, the preserver of the purity of 
his speech and blood and his first and foremost line of defence 
against encroachment from the outside world. Its scarcity of 
water, scorching heat, trackless roads, lack of food -supply — 
all enemies in normal times — prove staunch allies in time of 
danger. Little wonder then that the Arabian has rarely bent his 
neck to a foreign yoke. 

The continuity, monotony and aridity of his desert habitat 
are faithfully reflected in the Bedouin physical and mental make- 
up. Anatomically he is a bundle of nerves, bones and sinews. 
The leanness and barrenness of his land show themselves in his 
physique. His daily food is dates and a mixture of flour, or roasted 
corn, with water or milk. His raiment is as scanty as his nourish- 
ment: a long shirt Qkawb) with a belt and a flowing upper gar- 
ment (*a6a) which pictures have made familiar. The head is 
covered by a shawl (kuftyak) held by a cord (fiqdl). Trousers 
are not worn and footwear is rare. Tenacity, endurance (sabr) t 
seems to be his supreme virtue, enabling him to survive where 
almost everything else perishes. Passivity is the obverse of this 
same virtue. Passive endurance is to him preferable to any 
attempt to change the state in which he finds himself, no matter 
how hard his lot. Individualism, another characteristic trait, is 
so deeply ingrained that the Bedouin has never been able to 
raise himself to the dignity of a social being of the international 
type, much less to develop ideals of devotion to the common 
good beyond that which pertains to the tribe. Discipline, respect 
for order and authority, are no idols in desert life. "O Lord", 
prayed a Bedouin, "have mercy upon me and upon Muhammad, 
but upon no one else besides!" 2 Since the days of Ishmael the 

1 A central feature of ibn Su'ud's economic and soaal reforms is the settlement 
of nomads on the coil. 1 Abu»Da*ud, Sirtan (Cairo, 1280), vol. t, p. 89. 



CBt xa BEDOVm LIFE *5 

Arabian's hand has been against every man and every man's 
hand against him. 

The^//^^(ra2zia), otherwise considered aform of brigandage, Rank 
is raised by the economic and social conditions of desert life to 
the rank of a national institution. It lies at the base of the 
economic structure of Bedouin pastoral society. In desert land, 
where the fighting mood is a chronic mental condition, raiding 
is one of the few manly occupations, Christian tribes, too, such 
as the banu-Taghlib, practised it without any mental re- 
servations. The poet al-Qutami of the early Umayyad period 
has given expression to the guiding principle of such life in 
two verses: "Our business is to make raids on the enemy, 
on our neighbour and on our own brother, in case we find 
none to raid but a brotherl" 1 In Su'udi Arabia raids are now 
illegal. 

According to the rules of the game — and ghazw is a sort of 
national sport — no blood should be shed except in cases of 
extreme necessity* Gkazw does help to a certain extent to keep 
down the number of mouths to feed, though it does not actually 
increase the sum-total of available supplies. A weaker tribe or 
a sedentary settlement on the borderland may buy protection 
by paying the stronger tribe what is today called kkuwah. 
These ideas of ghazto and its terminology were carried over by 
the Arabians into the Islamic conquests. 

The principle of hospitality, however* mitigates in some 
measure the evils of ghazw* However dreadful as an enemy he 
may be, the Bedouin is also within his laws of friendship a loyal 
and generous friend. Pre-Islamic poets, the journalists of their 
day, never tired of singing the praises of diyafah (hospitality) 
which, with hamdsak (fortitude and enthusiasm) and muruah 
(manliness), 2 is considered One of the supreme virtues of the race. 
The keen competition for water and pasturage, on which the 
chief causes of conflict centre, splits the desert populace into 
warring tribes; but the common consciousness of helplessness 
in the face of a stubborn and malignant nature develops a feel- 
ing for the necessity of one sacred duty: that of hospitality. To 
Wuse a guest such a courtesy in a land where no inns or hotels 
obtain, or to harm him after accepting him as a guest, is an 

t *^^*™™*™»J sh ***'*l-iiem&s*k, ed, Fre> tag (Bonn, 1S2S), p. 171. 
Cf.lgnas Goldnhtr, MaAammedanische Studien, pt. I (Halle, 1889), p. 



26 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART I 



offence not only against the established mores and honour but 
against God Himself, the real protector. 
Religion*- The rudiments of Semitic religion developed in the oases, 
DeM rather than in the sandy land, and centred upon stones and 
springs, forerunners of the Black Stone and Zamzam in Islam 
and of Bethel in the Old Testament. In the case of the Bedouin, 
religion sits very lightly indeed on his heart. In the judgment of 
the Koran (9 : 98), "the desert Arabians are most confirmed in 
unbelief and hypocrisy"* Up to our present day they never pay 
much more than lip homage to the prophet. 1 
The dan The clan organization is the basis of Bedouin society. Every 
tent represents a family; an encampment of tents forms a 
hayy; members of one hayy constitute a clan (aawm). A number 
of kindred clans grouped together make a tribe (qabtlah). All 
members of the same clan consider each other as of one blood, 
submit to the authority of but one chief— the senior member of 
the clan — and use one battle-cry. "Banu" (children of) is the 
title with which they prefix their joint name. The feminine names 
of certain clans show traces of the earlier matriarchal system. 
Blood relationship, fictitious or real, furnishes the adhesive 
clement in tribal organization. £ &S~ H> ^ 

The tent and its humble household contents are individual 
property, but water, pasturage and cultivable land are the 
common property of the tribe. 

If a member of a clan commits murder inside the clan, none 
will defend him. In case of escape he becomes an outlaw (tartd). 
If the murder is outside the clan, a vendetta is established, and 
any fellow clan-member may have to pay for it with his own 
life. 

Blood, according to the primitive law of the desert, calls for 
blood; no chastisement is recognized other than that of venge- 
ance. The nearest of kin is supposed to assume primary respon- 
sibility. A blood feud may last forty years, as in the case of the 
Basus War between the banu-Bakr and the banu-Taghlib. In all 
the ayy&m al-Ara&, those intertribal battles of pre-Islamic days, 
the chroniclers emphasize the blood feud motif, though under- 
lying economic reasons must have motivated many of the events. 
Sometimes a bloodwite (dtyah) is accepted. 

No worse calamity could befall a Bedouin than to lose his 

1 Ametn Rihani, Tdrlkh Najd (Beiru 928), p. 233. 



^Ofclif ~ BEDOUIN LIFE 27 

tribal affiliation* A tribeless man, in a land where stranger and 
enemy are synonymous, like a landless man in feudal England, 
is practically helpless. His status is that of an outlaw, one 
beyond the pale of protection and safety. 

Though primarily a matter of birth, clan kinship may be in- 
dividually acquired by sharing a member's food or sucking a 
few drops of his blood, Herodotus 1 speaks of this ancient rite 
of adoption. If a slave is freed he often finds it to his interest to 
keep some attachment with the family of his former master, 
thus becoming a client (tnawla). A stranger may seek such a 
relationship and is styled a protege (dakhtt). In like manner 
a whole weaker clan might desire the protection of, and 
ultimately become absorbed by, a stronger clan or tribe. The 
Tayyi*, Ghatafan, Taghlib, etc., were confederations of North 
Arabian tribes which figured prominently in history and whose 
descendants still survive in Arabic-speaking lands. 

An analogous custom in religion made it possible for a stranger 
to become attached to the service of a sanctuary 3 and thus be- 
come a client of the god. To the present day the pilgrims to 
Makkah are referred to as "the guests of Allah 1 *, and the students 
connected with the mosque of Makkah or any other great mosque 
are called "[His] neighbours" (sing, mujawir). 

*A$abiyah is the spirit of the clan. It implies boundless and 'A?ubtyah 
unconditional loyalty to fellow clansmen and corresponds in 
general to patriotism of the passionate, chauvinistic type. "Be 
loyal to thy tribe," sang a bard, "its claim upon its members is 
strong enough to make a husband give up his wife." 3 This in- 
eradicable particularism in the clan, which is the individualism of 
the member of the clan magnified, assumes that the clan or tribe, 
as the case may be, is a unit by itself, self-sufficient and absolute, 
and regards every other clan or tribe as its legitimate victim 
and object of plunder and murder* Islam made full use of the 
- tribal system for its military purposes. It divided the army into 
.units based on tribal lines, settled the colonists in the conquered 
glands in tribes and treated new converts from among the sub- 
' jugated peoples as clients. The unsocial features of individualism 
and ^mablyah were never outgrown by the Arab character as it 
v developed and unfolded itself after the rise of Islam, and were 

n 7* ' ' * * 3k. Ill, dhu 8. * Cf. Ezekiel 44 : 7. 

. , * ^""barma, ti-J&ntfi, cd. W. Wright (Leipzig, 1864), p. 229, L 3 



28 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART I 



among the determining factors that led to the disintegration and 
ultimate downfall of the various Islamic states. 

The clan is represented by its titular head, the sheikh. Unlike 
his modern namesake of Hollywood fame, the sheikh (shaykh) 
is the senior member of the tribe whose leadership asserts itself 
in sober counsel, in generosity and in courage. Seniority in age 
and personal qualifications determine the choice. In judicial, 
military and other affairs of common concern the sheikh is not 
the absolute authority; he must consult with the tribal council 
composed of the heads of the component families. His tenure of 
office lasts during the good-will of his constituency. 

The Arabian m general and the Bedouin in particular is a 
born democrat. He meets his sheikh on an equal footing. The 
society in which he lives levels everything down. The title malik 
(king) the Arabians never used except in referring to foreign 
rulers and the partially Romanized and Persianized dynasties 
of Ghassan and al-rj Trah. The kings of the banu-Kindah formed 
the only exception to this rule But the Arabian is also aristo- 
cratic as well as democratic. He looks upon himself as the em- 
bodiment of the consummate pattern of creation. To him the 
Arabian nation is the noblest of all nations (afkhar al-umam). 
The civilized man, from the Bedouin's exalted point of view, is 
less happy and far inferior In the purity of his blood, his 
eloquence and poetry, his sword and horse and above all m his 
noble ancestry (nasad) t the Arabian takes infinite pride. He is 
excessively fond of prodigious genealogies and often traces his 
lineage back to Adam. No people, other than the Arabians, have 
ever raised genealogy to the dignity of a science. 

The Bedouin woman, whether Islamic or pre-Islamic, enjoyed 
and still enjoys a measure of freedom denied to her sedentary 
sister. She lived in a polygamous family and under a baal 
system of marriage in which the man was the master, neverthe- 
less she was at liberty to choose a husband and leave him if ill- 
treated. 

Ability to assimilate other cultures when the opportunity 
presents itself is well marked among the children of the desert. 
Faculties which have remained dormant for ages seem to awake 
suddenly, under the proper stimuli, and develop into dynamic 
powers. In the Fertile Crescent lies the field of opportunity. A 
Hammurabi makes his appearance in Babylon, a Moses in 



* CH. ill , , BEDOUIN LIFE y 29 * 

Sinai, a Zenobia inTnlmyra, a Philip the Arab in Rome or a 
w Harun.al-Rashld in Baghdad. Monuments are built, like those 
of Petra, which still arouse the admiration of the world. [The 
phenomenal and almost unparalleled efflorescence of early Islam 
was due in no small measure to the latent powers of the Bedouins, 
who, in the words of the Caliph c Umar, "furnished Islam with 
its raw material". 1 

1 Slm-SaM, Kttch aUTd>*t& chKa&r, ed. Eduard Sachau, vol. iii, pt. t (Ley- 
den, 1044), p. 246, L 3 



CHAPTER IV 
EARLY INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 



We have thus far used the term Arabian for all the inhabitants 
of the peninsula without regard to geographical location. We 
must now differentiate between the South Arabians and the 
North Arabians, the latter including the Najdis of Central 
Arabia. The geographical division of the land by the trackless 
desert into northern and southern sections has its counterpart 
in the peoples who inhabit it. 

The North Arabians are mostly nomads living in "houses of 
hair" in al-I^ijaz and Najd; the South Arabians are in the main 
sedentary, domiciled in al-Yaman, $adramawt and along the 
neighbouring coast. The Northerners speak the language of the 
Koran, the Arabic par excellence; the Southerners used an 
ancient Semitic tongue of their own, Sabaean or IJimyarite, 
with which the Ethiopic of Africa is closely allied. Both are doli- 
chocephalic (long-headed) members of the Mediterranean race. 
But the Southerners have a considerable coastal element that is 
brachycephalic (round-headed), with a broad jaw and aquiline 
nose, flat cheeks and abundant hair, characteristic of the Ar- 
menoid (Hittite, Hebrew) type. It is an intrusive element borne to 
South Arabia perhaps by sea from the north-east. 1 The South 
Arabians were the first to rise to prominence and develop a 
civilization of their own. The North Arabians did not step on 
to the stage of international affairs until the advent of Islam. 

The memory and consciousness of this national distinction 
among the Arabians is reflected in their own traditional genea- 
logies. They divide themselves first into two groups: extinct 
(b£ida/i) t including Thamud, *Ad — both of koranic fame — , 
Tasm and Jadis, and surviving (bdgtyah)* The Thamud were an 
historical people mentioned in the cuneiform annals of Sargon 
II * and known to classical writers as "Tamudaei". 3 The 'Adites 

1 Carleton S Coon, The Races of Europe (New York, 1939), pp 403-4, 408 
* D. D. LuckenbiH, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vo! u (Chicago, 
19*7)> §§ *7> * 18. * p kay> Natural History >> Bk. VI, ch. 32. 

30 



32 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PARTI 



are supposed to have flourished in ancient rladramawt. Next, 
the genealogists proceed to subdivide the siu-viving Arabians 
into two ethnic stocks: Arabian Arabs (fdribah) and Arabicized 
Arabs (mustdribah). The 'Aribah, according to them, are 
Yamanites descended from Oahtan (the Joktan of the Old 
Testament) and constitute the aboriginal stock; the MustaVibah 
are the rjijazis, Najdis, Nabataeans and Palmyrenes, all 
descended from *Adnan — an offspring of Ishmael — and are 
"naturalized" in the land. In the traditional Qahtan and 
'Adnan is a reminiscence of the differentiation between South 
Arabians and North Arabians. The Madinese who rushed to the 
support of the Prophet at the time of his Hijrah were of Yamanite 
origin, but his own family, the Quraysh, were Nizari of the 
northern stock. The Ghassanids of eastern Syria and the Lakh- 
mids of al-IJIrah in al-'Iraq were Southerners domiciled in the 
north. 

This gulf between the two Arabian stocks was never bridged. 
The age-old division continued to be as prominent as ever, even 
after Islam had apparently unified the Arabian nation, 
i ReU- Like a thick wedge the Arabian peninsula thrusts itself 
£^^ ll> between the two earliest seats of culture: Egypt and Babylonia. 
The Panjab in India may have been a third cultural focus, and 
the peninsula lies between it and the West. Although Arabia 
was not brought within the scope of the river-valley culture of 
either the land of the one river or the land of the twin rivers, yet 
it could not entirely have escaped their influence. Its culture, 
however, was at bottom indigenous. It belonged to the maritime 
type. Its south-eastern people were possibly the ones who acted 
as intermediaries between Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Panjab 
— the three focal centres of earliest trade — and gave their name 
to the great intervening sea. 

Africa touches Arabia in the north at the Sinaitic peninsula, 
over which a land route passes, comes close to it in the south at 
Bab ai-Mandab, only fifteen miles across, and is connected with 
mid-western Arabia by a third route which follows Wadi al- 
ii ammamat, opposite the bend of the Nile near Thebes, and 
connects with the Red Sea at al-Qusayr. This last route was the 
chief central connection. During the Twelfth Egyptian Dynasty 
(ca. 2000-1788 B.C.) a canal above Bilbays connected the Nile 
with the Red Sea, Restored by the Ptolemies, this canal, the 



% CU.W EAfcLY INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 



33 



antecedent of the Suez Canal, was reopened by the caliphs and 
Used until the discover} 7 (1497) of the route to India round the 
Cape of Good Hope. 

The Egyptian interest in Sinai arose because of its copper and sfaaiuc 
turquoise mines located in Wadi Magharah in the southern part ™w CT 
of the peninsula near the modern town of al-Tur, Even in pre- 
dynastic days the nomads of Sinai were exporting their valued 
products to Egypt Pharaohs of the First Dynasty operated the 
mines of die peninsula, but the period of great exploitation 
started with Snefru (ca. 3720 B.C.) of the Third Dynasty. The 




From G. Eihot Smith, 'TJ* Antxeni Egyptians and tht Ort&r t>j Cwi hsehon" 
{ftet$tr& Bret) 

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN REPRESENTATIONS OF ARABIANS 
(Co. 2000 Bx. and i$oo B.C. respectively) 

great road connecting Egypt with Syria-Palestine and thence 
reaching to the rest of the Fertile Crescent and Asia Minor— 
that first international highway used by man — sent a branch 
south-east to these copper and turquoise mines of Srnai. In a 
royal tomb of the First Dynasty at Abydos, Petrie found m 1900 
on a piece of ivory a portrait of a typical Armenoid Semite 
labelled "Astatic**, with & long pointed beard and shaven upper 
Hp, presumably a South Arabian. An earlier relief belonging to 

- the same dynasty shows an emaciated Bedouin chief in a loin- 
* % , cloth crouching in submission before his Egyptian captor, who 
is about to brain the Bedouin with his mace. These are the 
earliest representations of Arabians extant. The word for 
» Bedouin (Eg. normd, Asiatic) figures prominently in the 

^ early Egyptian annals and in some cases refers to nomads around 

J /%ypt and outside of Arabia proper. 



34 



THE PRE-1SLAM1C AGE 



PART I 



Frank- South Arabia was brought nearer to Egypt when the latter 
mcense established commercial relationships with Punt and Nubia. 

Herodotus 1 speaks of Sesostns, probably Senusert I (1980-1935 1 
B.C.) of Dynasty XII, as conquering the nations on the Arabian 
Gulf, presumably the African side of the Red Sea. The Eight- 
eenth Dynasty maintained a fleet in the Red Sea, but as early 
as the Fifth Dynasty we find Sahure (2553-2541 B.C.) conduct- 
ing the first maritime expedi- 
tion by way of that sea to 
an incense- producing land, 
evidently Somahland on the 
African shore. 

The chief attraction for the 
Egyptians in South Arabia lay 
in the frankincense, which they 
prized highly for temple use 
and mummification and in 
which that part of Arabia was 
particularly rich. When Nubia 
was subjugated and Punt 
(modern Somahland) brought 
within the commercial sphere 
of the Egyptian empire many 
expeditions were conducted to 
those places to procure "myrrh, 
fragrant gums, resin and aro- 
matic woods". Such an ex- 
pedition to Punt was under- 
taken by Hatshepsut (ca, 1500 
B.C.), the first famous woman in history. The emissaries of her 
successor, Ihutmose III, the Napoleon of ancient Egypt, 
brought (1479 B.c) from the same land the usual cargo of 
"ivory, ebony, panther-skins and slaves". As these were also the 
products of al-Yaman in south-western Arabia it is not unlikely 
that the Egyptians used the term "Punt M for the land on both 
sides of Bab al-Mandab Gold may also have come from Arabia. 
The incense trade with South Arabia went through Wadi al- 
Hammamat, making that central route the most important link 
with South Arabia. 

* Bk, II, ch. 102. 




Frcnt A T Olm fen J Jfishry of Palestine 
i* 1 Syria (Char ts S nhner t Setts) 



SFMI RKHFT, THE SIXTH KIVG 

oi Tin rmsr VYV\ST\ 

NMITING TIIL CUin OI 
THF \OMAUS 



36 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PAfcTl 



IJadramawt, 1 which in ancient times included the coastlands 
Mahrah and al-Shihr,* was the celebrated land of frankincense. 
£afar, formerly a town and now a district on the coast, was its 
chief centre. The modern name is Dhufar and it is under the 
nominal rule of the sultan of *Uman» This £afar, the commercial 
centre of the frankincense country and situated as it is on the 
bouthern coast, should not be confused with the inland Zafar in 
al-Yaman, which was the Himyarite capital. 3 The frankincense 
(lubdn, whence "olibanum") tree still flourishes in yadramawt 
and other parts of South Arabia. As of old, Zafar is still the 
chief centre of its trade. 

The ancient Egyptians were not the only people who had a 
commercial interest in Arabia. Their foremost rivals for the 
trade in spices and minerals were the people of Babylonia. 
2. RcU- Eastern Arabia bordered on Mesopotamia. The early inhabit- 
Jh<Tsul llh ants °f ^ at re g* on > the Sumerians and Akkadians, had already 
nienans by the fourth millennium before our era become familiar with 
Ionian***" t ^ ieir neighbours of the Westland (Amurru) and were able to 
communicate with them both by land and water. 

The source of supply of the Sumerian copper, the earliest metal 
discovered and used in industry, was probably in 'Uman. 

On a diorite statue of Naram-Sin (ca. 2 171 B C), a grandson 
and successor of Sargon (the first great name in Semitic history), 
we read that he conquered Magan and defeated its lord,Manium. 4 
Gudea {pa. 2000B.C.), the Sumerian patesi of Lagash, tells us of his 
expedition to procure stone and wood for his temple from Magan 
and Melukhkha. These two Sumerian place-names, Magan and 
Melukhkha, evidently were first applied to certain regions in cast 
and central Arabia but were later, in the Assyrian period, shifted 
to more distant localities in the Sinaitic peninsula and eastern 
Africa. "Magan" is not etymologically identifiable with Arabic 
"Maan," name of an oasis in northern al-yijaz (now in Trans- 
jordan), possibly an ancient Minaean colony on the caravan route. 
In these cuneiform inscriptions we have the first recorded refer- 
ence in history to a place in Arabia and to an Arabian people. 

1 Hasarmaweth of Gen. xo : 26 

* In its later and modern use the name al-Shifcr has been applied to the whole 
frankincense coast, including Mahrah and Zafar, 

* Cf Yaqut, BuldSn, vol. m, pp 576 7 

4 Cf F TUureau-D&ngin, Les tnsenphens de Sumer tt d'Akkad (Pans, 1905), 



CB.V? EARLY INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 37 

? The "Sealand" of the cuneiform inscriptions was, according 
to a recent theory, located in Arabia proper and included the 
western shore of the Persian Gulf as far as the isle of al-Bahrayn 
(ancient Dflmun) and possibly al-Nufud as far west as al- f Aqabah* 
Nabopolassar was king of the Sealand before he became king of 
Babylon, 

The first unmistakable reference to the Arabians as such occurs 3 as- 
5n an inscription of the Assyrian Shalmaneser III, who led an££££ 
expedition against the Aramaean king of Damascus and his tion 
allies Ahab and Jundub, an Arabian sheikh. The encounter 
took place in 853 B.C. at Qarqar, north of Iranian* These are 
the words of Shalmaneser: 

iCarkar, his royal city, I destroyed, I devastated, I burned with fire. 
1 1,200 chariots, 1,200 cavalry, 20,000 soldiers of Hadad-czer, of Aram 
(? Damascus); „ . , 1,000 camels of Gindibu', the Arabian. 1 

-It seems very appropriate that the name of the first Arabian in 
recorded history should be associated with the camel. 

Anxious to ensure the safety of the trade highways passing 
through the far-flung Assyrian empire and converging on the 
Mediterranean, Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727 B.C.), founder of 
the second Assyrian empire, conducted a series of campaigns 
against Syria and its environs. In the third year of his reign he 
exacted tribute from Zabibi, the queen of "Aribi" land. In the 
ninth year he conquered another queen of Aribi, Samsi (Shams 
or Shamslyah) by name. His annals record that in 728 B.C. 
the Mas*ai tribe, the city of Temai (Tayma*) and the Sab'ai 
(Sabaeans) sent him tribute of gold, camels and spices. These 
tnbes evidently lived in the Sinai peninsula and the desert to the 
north-east* Thus was Tiglath-Pileser III the first to fasten the 
yoke on Arabian necks 

Sargon II (722-705 B.C.), the conqueror of Carchemish and 
Samaria, reports that in the seventh year of his reign he sub- 
jugated among others the tribes of Tamud (Thamud of the 
Koran) and Ibadid, "who inhabit the desert, who know neither 
high nor low official", struck them down and deported the 
remnant to Samaria, 3 At the same time he received from Samsi, 

4 jUtkcnViU, vol. i, § 6n. 

* Nielsen, ll&ndbutk dtr eltarabiscken AU*rtumtku^€ $ vol. i, Vu alter* 
htche hultur (Copenhagen, 19*7), p. 65* 

* luckenbitt,?0l. 



33 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART 1 



queen of Arabia, It'amara (Yatha*-amar),the Sabaean chief, and 
from other kings of Egypt and the desert "gold, products of the 
mountain, precious stones, ivory, seed of the maple (?), all kinds 
of herbs, horses, and camels, as their tribute", 1 This It'amara of 
Saba' was evidently one of the Yatha'-amars who bear the royal 
title mukarrtb in the South Arabic inscriptions. Likewise his 
successor Kariba-il of Saba*, from whom Sennacherib claims to 
have received tribute, must have been the south-western Arabian 
identified with Kariba-il of the inscriptions. 2 If so, the "tribute" 
claimed by the Assyrians could not have been but freewill 
presents offered by these South Arabian rulers to the Assyrian 
kings as equals and probably as allies in the common struggle 
against the wild nomads of North Arabia* 

About 6S8 B.C. Sennacherib reduced "Adumu, the fortress of 
Arabia" and carried away to Nineveh the local gods and the 
queen herself, who was also the priestess. Adumu is the oasis 
in North Arabia that figured later in the Islamic conquests under 
the name Dumat al-Jandal. The queen, Telkhunu (Te r eJkhunu) 
by name, had allied herself with the rebellious Babylonians 
against the Assyrian suzerainty, and was assisted by IJazael, 
the chief of the Qedar (Assyrian Kidri) tribe, whose headquarters 
were in Palmyrena. 

Esarh addon about 676 suppressed a rebellion headed by 
Uaite*, the son and successor of yazael, who, "to save his life, 
forsook his camp, and, fleeing alone, escaped to distant (parts)"- 3 
Evidently the Bedouins proved a thorn in the side of the Assyrian 
empire and were incited to revolt by both Egypt and Babylonia, 
On his famous march (670) to the conquest of Egypt, the terrible 
Assyrian was so unnerved by his fearful privations in the North 
Arabian desert that he saw "two-headed serpents" and other 
frightful reptiles that "flapped their wings". 4 Isaiah (30 : 6), in his 
"burden" of the beasts of the south, mentions "the viper and 
fiery flying serpent". Herodotus 5 assures us that "vipers are 
found in all parts of the world; but the winged serpents are 
nowhere seen except in Arabia, where they are all congregated 
together". 

In his ninth campaign, directed against the Arabian tribes, 



1 Luckeubill, vol. ii r § 18. 
a Luckenbill, vol. ii, § 946. 
* Bk. Ill, ch. 109. 



* Nielsen, Rar.dhuch % rol. t, pp, 75 seq. 

* Cf. ibid. vol. ii, § 558. 



Oilk ' " E^RLY" INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 39 

Ashurbanipal(668^626 B.C.)captured Uaite' and his armies after 
a severe struggle* 

Many references are made in the Assyrian annals to Arabian 
chicfs^'kissing the feet" of the kings of Nineveh and offering 
them among other presents gold, precious stones eyebrow dyes 
(kohl, antimony), frankincense, camels and donkeys* In fact 
we read of no less than nine different campaigns undertaken 
by Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal to 
chastise the unconquerable Bedouins who were for ever harassing 
the Assyrian provinces in Syria, interfering with the caravan 
routes and receiving aid and comfort from Egypt and Baby- 
lonia, both hostile to Assyria. The "Urbi" mentioned in these 
campaigns must have been mainly Bedouins, and their land, 
"Aribi", must have been the Syro-Mesopotamian desert, the 
Sinaitic peninsula and North Arabia. In Sinai the Midianites of 
the Old Testament and not the Nabataeans were those brought 
under Assyrian control. The Sabaeans proper in south-western 
Arabia were never subjugated by Nineveh. The Assyrians, 
(hough rightly called the Romans of the ancient world, could 
not have brought under even nominal rule more than the oases 
and a few tribes in North Arabia. 

Among the settlements of the north at this period Tayma* 4. Neo- 
{Tema and Te-ma-a of the Assyro-Babylonzan records) won JJj^J" 
special distinction as the provincial residence of Nabomdus Persian re 
($56-539 B*C), the last king of the Chaldaeans. The Chaldaeans 
Jiad fallen heir to the Assyrian empire, which included, since the 
days of Tjglath-Pileser III (745-727 B.C.), Syria and a portion 
of North Arabia. In the third year of his reign Nabonidus, in the 
words of a cuneiform inscription, "slew the prince of Tenia" and 
'established himself in that oasis. 1 

>'<The most significant reference in cuneiform literature to this 
Arabian oasis occurs in a chronicle relating to the fall of Babylon 
(S39 B.C.) into the hands of the Persians. The chronicle states 
'that Nabonidus was in "al Terna" in the seventh, ninth, tenth 
_and eleventh years of his reign, while his son (i.e. Belshazzar) 
and the soldiers were in Babylonia. 

j I n 5^5 Cambyses, the son and successor of the founder of the 
-Persian empire, passed through northern Arabia and made an 
alliance with its people while on his way to the conquest of 
r s Dougherty, Ncbonidus end Behhazzor (New Haven, 1929), pp. 1067. 



40 



THE PRE4SLAMIC AGE 



PARTI 



Egypt. Speaking of Darius, Herodotus 1 remarks: "The Arabians 
were never reduced to the subjection of Persia". 

The Tayma* stone, bought by Huber (1883) and now deposited 
in the Louvre, bears one of the most valuable Semitic inscrip- 
tions ever found. Its date goes back to the fifth century B.C. 
Written in Aramaic, it records how a new deity, Salm of Hajam, 
was introduced into Tayma* by a certain priest who further pro- 
vided an endowment for the new temple and established a heredi- 
tary priesthood. 4 The new deity is represented in the Assyrian 
fashion and below him stands his priest who erected the stela, 
s. Con- The Jews were geographically next-door neighbours of the 
the* Arabians and racially their nearest of kin. Echoes of the desert 
Hcbrws origin of the Hebrews abound in the Old Testament. 3 Hebrew and 
Arabic, as we have learned before, are cognate Semitic tongues. 
Some of the Hebrew Old Testament names are Arabic, e.g. those 
of almost all of Esau's sons (Gen. 36: 10-14; 1 Ch. 1 : 35-7)* A 
South Arabian would havebut little difficulty in understanding the 
first verse of Hebrew Genesis. 4 The rudiments of the Hebrew re- 
ligion, modern research shows, point to a beginning in the desert. 

On their way to Palestine from Egypt about 1225 B.C. the 
Hebrew (Rachel) tribes sojourned about forty years in Sinai and 
the Nufud. In Midian, the southern part of Sinai and the land 
east of it, the divine covenant was made. Moses married an 
Arabian woman, the daughter of a Midianite priest, 6 a wor- 
shipper of Jehovah who instructed Moses in the new cult. Yahu 
(Yahweh, Jehovah) was apparently a Midianite or North 
Arabian tribal deity. He was a desert god, simple and austere. 
His abode was a tent and his ritual was by no means elaborate. 
His worship consisted in desert feasts and sacrifices and burnt 
offerings from among the herds. 8 The Hebrews entered Palestine 
as nomads; the heritage of their tribal life from desert ancestors 
continued to be well marked long after they had settled among, 
and become civilized by, the native Canaanites. 
The Hebrew kingdom in its heyday included the Sinaitic 

* Bk. Ill, ch. 88. 

a G. A, Cooke, A TtxUBook of North- Semitic Inscriptions (Oxford, 1903), 
pp. 195-6. 3 Hos 9 : 10, Jer. 2 : 2; Dcut. 32: 10, etc. 

* B. Montz in Zeitschrtft fur die Alttestamenthche Wtssensckaft, n. ser., 
vol. lii (1926), pp 81 seq.\ D. S, MaTgohouth, The Relations between Arabs ord 
Israelites (London, 1924), pp. 8, 15. Consult James A. Montgomery, Arabia and 
the Bible (Philadelphia, 1934), pp 149 seq. 

* r*. 3 : 1, 18 : 10-12, ~ * Ex, 3 * 18, 5 : 1; Num. 10 : 35-6. 



y Nearly international relations 41 

,peninsula> Solomon had his fleet in the Gulf of al~ f Aqabah. Ophir, 
whence the navy of Hiram and Solomon brought gold, algum 
and precious stones (i K. 9 * 2 7~%* *<> • "1 2 Ch. 9 : 10), was 
probably ?afar in 'Urnan. By the time of Job (22 : 24) Ophir 
had become a synonym for a gold-producing land. Over a 
century after Solomon, Jehoshaphat (873-849 B.C.) still held 
sway over Elath (Ezion-geber, modern al- f Aqabah) and the 
trade routes leading thither and received tribute from the 
Arabians who "brought him flocks" (2 Ch. 17 : 11). In report- 
ing his third campaign, directed (701) against Syria-Palestine, 
Sennacherib proclaims: "As for Hezekiah, the terrifying splen- 
dor of my majesty overcame him and the Urbi (Arabs) and his 
mercenary (?) troops which he had brought in to strengthen 
Jerusalem, his royal city, deserted him". 1 Hezekiah (1 Ch. 
4 : 41), and before him Uzziah (2 Ch* 26 : 7), fought against the 
Minaeans in and around the oasis of Ma r In (modern Maan). 
Uzziah (792-740 B.C.) restored Elath to Judah and rebuilt the 
town (2 K. 14 : 22). The Chronicler (2 Ch. 21 : 16, 17) reports 
a South Arabian raid against Judah which resulted in the loss 
of King Jehoram's (848-844 B.C.) sons, wives and treasures, 
although it is difficult to see how distant Sabaeans, "the 
Arabians, that were near the Ethiopians", could have carried 
out such a raid. By the time of Nehemiah, 2 in the middle of the 
fifth century B.C., the Jews were beginning to look upon their 
south-eastern neighbours as enemies. 

^ Etymologically *Arab is a Semitic word meaning "desert" or Biblical 
the inhabitant thereof with no reference to nationality. In this ^^Sid 
sense Hebrew 'Ereb is used in Is. 21 : 13, 13 : 20 and Jer. 3 : 2. Testament 
In the Koran drab is used for Bedouins. Second Mac. 12 : io^** 1 "** 
makes Arabs and nomads synonymous. The first certain instance 
of the biblical use of the word as a proper name occurs in Jer. 
25:24; "kings of Arabia* 1 . Jeremiah's prophetic career fell 
between 626 and $86 B.C. The "kings" referred to were in all 

*■ probability sheikhs of northern Arabia and the Syrian Desert. 

r By the third century B.C. the term was beginning to be used for 

- any inhabitant of the peninsula, for 2 Ch. 21:16 makes mention 
^ of M the Arabians, that were near the Ethiopians", leaving no 
" doubt that the people whom the writer had in mind were the 

- Arabians of the south-west, i.e. Sabaeans. Of the four best- 



42 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART I 



known kingdoms of ancient Arabia, viz. Saba*, Ma'ln, rjadra- 
mawt and Qataban, the first three — and these were the important 
ones — are mentioned in the Old Testament. In the commercial 
chapter of Ezekiel (f after 572 B.C.) Arabia is coupled with 
Kedar, and the articles of merchandise listed are exactly what 
we would expect in the way of products from Arabia, From 
verse 21 in this chapter (27), we learn that the Arabians of the 
sixth century B.C. were engaged, as they are still engaged today, 
in breeding cattle which they sold to the neighbouring settlers. 
From Jer. 3 : 2 it is also evident that they were then notorious 
for highway robbery. Jer. 25 : 23 (American Revised) indicates 
that they had their heads shaved except for a tuft at the top, 
a practice similar to that of the Bedouins today. 

Dedan (Ar. Daydan), referred to and mentioned repeatedly 
in the Old Testament (Is. 21 ; 13; Jer. 25 : 23; Ezek. 25 : 13), is 
modern al-*Ula, an oasis in northern al-rlijaz. For some time it 
was the headquarters of the Sabaeans in the northern part of 
the peninsula. At the height of their commercial power the 
Sabaeans evidently exercised control over the transport routes 
leading through al-Hijaz northward to the Mediterranean ports 
and had colonies planted along these routes. 

The Kedar (Heb. Qedar) mentioned by Ezekiel, 1 the "Kidri" 
of the Assyrian annals 2 and the "Cedrei na of classical literature, 
held sway over North Arabia. Palmyrena with the region south- 
east of Damascus was their habitat* 

The Shunammite damsel whose beauty is immortalized in the 
Song ascribed to Solomon (6: 13, 1 : 5; cf. 1 K. 1 : 3) was 
probably an Arabian of the Kedar tribe. If historical, the Queen 
of Sheba (Arabic Bilqis), who brought to the wise king of 
Israel gifts of unique value characteristic of South Arabia 
(1 K. 10: 10; 2 Ch. 9:9), must have had her headquarters 
neither in al-Yaman nor in Ethiopia, but in one of those Sabaean 
posts or garrisons in the north on the caravan route. Not until 
two centuries after the age of Solomon {ca* 1000 B.C.) do the 
Yamanite kings begin to figure in inscriptions. 

In Job 6 : 19 the Sheba (Ar. Saba*) are associated with Tema 
(ravina'). Job, the author of the finest piece of poetry that the 
ancient Semitic world produced, was an Arab, not a Jew, as me 

* See also Is. 21 : 16; Gen* 25 • 13 » LuckenbiU, \ol. 11, §§ 820. $69. 

» Pliny, Bk. V, ch 12. 



Or'tvV EARLY INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 43 

form of his name (lyyob t At. Ayyub) and the scene of his book, 
North Arabia, indicate. 1 The appendix to the Book of Proverbs 
contains the wise sayings a of Agur son of Jakeh (Prov. 30 ; 1) 
and of Lemuel (Prov, 31 : i), the two kings of Massa, a tribe of 
Ishmael (Gen. 25 : 14). The names of these two persons occur 
in some form in certain Minaean and other ancient South 
Arabic inscriptions. In Baruch 3 : 23 there is a reference to "the 
Agarenes [sons of Agar = H agar, i.e. Ishmaelites or North 
Arabians] that seek wisdom upon earth". 

"QedenV* and "Bene Q^dem" of the Old Testament, rendered 
in the English versions (Gen* 29: 1; Num. 23 : 7; Is. 1 1 : 14; 
Jud. 6 : 33; Ezek. 25 : 4; Job I : 3) "east", "children of the east' 1 , 
"people of the east", etc., correspond to Arabic skarq and 
shafgTyunfast and easterners). In particular, the terms mean the 
land and the Bedouins east of Palestine; in general, Arabia and 
the Arabians. "Saracen" comes from this same Arabic stem and 
is one of a half-dozen words of Arabic origin which occur in 
Old English, this word being used as early as the ninth century. 
It had had a history of its own before the rise of Islam and can 
be applied to others besides Arabians and Arabs. 3 Job, whose 
book is considered a masterpiece of wisdom as well as poetry, 
Was a chief of the Bene Qedem (Job 1 : 3). In wisdom Solomon 
alone excelled this tribe (x K. 4 : 30). The "wise men from the 
east" (Matt. 2 : t), therefore, who followed the star to Jerusalem 
Were possibly Bedouins from the North Arabian desert rather 
than Magi from Persia. 

In the post-exilic literature the word Arab usually signifies 
Nabataean (2 Mac. 5 : 8; 1 Mac. 5 * 39)* F irst Maccabees 9 : 35 
mmthns the Nabataeans as such. At the time of Paul the Naba- 
taean kingdom extended as far north as Damascus. The Arabia 
to which Paul retired (Gal, 1:17) was undoubtedly some desert 
tract in the Nabataean district. The Arabians in Acts 2:11 
ware also in all probability Nabataeans. 

1 technicalities of biblical Hebrew poetry, including parallelism, as illus- 

trated in Job resemble Arabic poetical technique: in both cases the verse is a couplet 
^? st !? s °f two parts which complement each other either appositionally or ama- 

t ^ ft Mlddle AgesHetnw grammar modelled after Arabic grammar. 
Cf, with those of Luqman, Koran 3* : li. 

In this book, therefore, such terms as "history of the Saracens", "Saracenic art", 
« tt5? m » ? rcHtcctljrei, > et<^ ha* e been avoided. An attempt has been made to use 
Arabian for an inhabitant of th* peninsula and "Arab" for any Arabic-speiUng 
person, particularly if a Moslem, To Moslems "Muhammadan" is objectionable. 



44 THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE pa*ti 

6. in Arabia and the Arabians were familiar to the Greeks and 

m^Se Romans. The country lay across their path to India and China 
and produced commodities highly prized in the markets of the 
west Its inhabitants were the middlemen of the southern seas, as 
their kinsmen, the Phoenicians, had been earlier of the Mediter- 
ranean. 

The classical writers divided the land into Arabia Felix, 
Arabia Petraea and Arabia Deserta, corresponding to the tripar- 
tite political division of the land in the first Christian century, the 
first being independent, the second subject to Rome and the third 
nominally controlled in part by Parthia. Arabia Deserta included 
the Syro-Mesopotamian desert (the Badiyah). Arabia Petraea 
(the rocky) centred on Sinai and the Nabataean kingdom, 
having Petra for its capital. Arabia Felix comprised the rest of 
the Arabian peninsula, the interior of which was then but little 
known. Its restriction to the Yaman, the region best known to 
Europe, was a medieval error. The name itself, meaning "happy", 
may have been an attempt to translate Ar. yaman (to the right 
hand), confused with yumn, happiness* The district was called 
Yaman because it lay to the right side, i.e. south of al-rjijaz, 
in opposition to al-Sha*m, i.e. Syria, which lay to the left or 
north. 1 Marcian (ca. A.D. 400) of Heraclea* uses the term 
"Saraceni". Before Marcian, Ptolemy, 8 who flourished in the first 
half of the second century of our era, refers to the Saracens. 
Ammianus Marcellinus,* a native of Antioch who wrote in the 
latter half of the fourth Christian century, identifies the Saracens 
with the Scenite Arabs. 

The first mention of the Arabians in Greek literature was made 
by Aeschylus 6 ($25-456 B.C.), the reference being to a dis- 
tinguished Arabian officer in the army of Xerxes. Herodotus • 
{ca. 484-425 B.C.) follows with a reference to the Arabians in 
Xerxes' army, who were evidently from eastern Egypt. 

1 The "Sabaei" (Sabaeans), "Mmaci" (Minacans), "Homcritae" (tfimyarites), 
"Scenitac" (tent-dwellers = Bedouins), "Nabataei" (Nabataeans), "Catabanei" 
(Qatabiinites), "Chatramo&tae" (people of tfadramawt), "Omarutae'* fUmatutes), 
"Sachahtae" (inhabitants of the Sam!, i e. the coast-line, m this case the southern 
coast line, medieval al-Shihr) — all these figure in Greek and Roman geographies 
and histories. 

* Pertptus of the Outer Sea, tr. Wilfred H. Schoff (Philadelphia, 1927), § 17a. 

* Geographic, ed Carolus F. A. Nobbe, vol 11 (Leipzig, 1887), Bk. V, ch. 17, % 3. 

* Rerum gestarum, BlcXXlI, ch. 15, § 2, Bk XX1H, ch. 6 t § 13. 

* Persians, I. 320. • l.k VII, § 69 



ctf.IV^' EARLY INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 45 

f To the classical authors from the Greek Eratosthenes (f ca. 
196 B.C.) — the source of Strabo— to the Roman Pliny (f a.D. 79) 
'Arabia is a land of fabulous wealth and luxury; it is the country 
of frankincense and other spices; its people love and enjoy 
liberty- Indeed, what particularly struck Western Writers was 
the characteristic last mentioned. The independent character of 




ARABIA OF THE CLASSICAL AUTHORS 



the Arabian people has formed a theme of praise and admira- 
*i? n ^ European authors from the remotest times to the days of 
* Gibbon. 1 

" T*l at & e Arabians themselves were conscious of those superior 
^ advantages which their natural environment afforded may be 
inferred from the debate with the Persian Chosroes in the 
^ presence of the Byzantine, Indian and Chinese deputies, in the 

V Gibbon, The Dtcline and Fall cj tkr Roman Empire, *L T. B. Bury 



46 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART I 



course of which the Arab delegation brought out as eloquently 
and forcefully as possible the points in which their nation 
excelled. 1 Diodorus Siculus* (fl. 2nd half of 1st cent. B.C,) 
affirms that the Arabians "highly prize and value their liberty". 
In his Geography? Strabo (f A.D. 24), on the authority of an 
earlier Greek, states that the Arabians were the only people 
who did not send their ambassadors to Alexander, who had 
planned "to make Arabia the seat of empire".* 
Roman Masters of the world, as they were, the Romans failed to 
expedition ^ y 0 fc e U p 0 n Arabian necks. Their famous expedition 

of 10,000 men conducted from Egypt under the leadership of 
its prefect Aelius Gallus in 24 B.C., during the reign of Augustus 
Csesar, and supported by their Nabataean allies, proved a signal 
failure. Its object was admittedly to capture those transport 
routes monopolized by the South Arabians and tap the resources 
of al-Yaman for the benefit of Rome. After months of southward 
penetration the decimated army turned back to "Negrana" 
(Najran), which it had captured previously, made the coast of 
die Red Sea and ferried across to the Egyptian shore. The 
return trip took sixty days. The farthest point in Arabia reached 
was "Mariaba", which was probably not MaVib the Sabaean 
metropolis but Manama to the south-east. The celebrated Greek 
geographer Strabo, historian of the expedition and himself the 
personal friend of Gallus, blames the many misfortunes on the 
perfidy of its guide, "Syllaeus the minister of the Nabataeans".* 
Thus ended ignominiously the first, and indeed the last, military 
campaign of major importance that any European power ever 
ventured to conduct in inland Arabia. 
The wo- To Herodotus* "the whole of Arabia exhales a most delicious 
fragrance", it being "the only country which produces frank- 
incense, myrrh, cassia, cinnamon and ladanum. . . . The trees 
which bear the frankincense are guarded by winged serpents, 
small in size and of varied colours, whereof vast numbers hang 
about every tree." 7 But the geographer Strabo is slightly more 
judicious than the over-credulous "father of history". To him also 
South Arabia is "the aromatic country", 8 but its "snakes, a 

1 Ibn-'Abd-Rabbihi, al'Iqd al-Farxd (Cairo, 1302), vol, i, p. 125, 

* Btbhotheca hrstorica, Bk. II, ch. 1, § 5 

* Bk XVI, ch. t, § II. * Bk XVI, ch 4, § 27. 
« Bk. XVI, ch 4, § 23. < Bk. Ill, ch. 113. 

* Bk. Ill, ch. 107. • Bk XVI, ch. 4, § 25. 



CH, iv \ ^nKLY INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 47 

'/ span in length, spring up as high as a man's waist". 1 Diodorus 
Siculus ' reiterates the same view of Arabia as a spice-producing 




- — ft- y s 



'\ tod the very soil of which is redolent. Pliny, who in his Natural 
Jtetory {Bk. VI) summarizes the Roman knowledge of the 
. .Eastern countries as of A, D. 70, also emphasizes this characteristic 

iV ,1 V v X V?» ^4,5 19. * Bk. II, ch. 49, §§ 3-3. 



48 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



of the land 1 and adds, in another connection, that the Sabaei are 
"the best known of all the tribes of Arabia on account of their 
frankincense".* Clearly rjadramawt was in those days the frank- 
incense land par excellence. The Greeks and Romans evidently 
presumed that all the commodities in which the Arabians dealt 
were native products of their own land, so jealously did the 
merchants guard the secrets of their other sources in Abyssinia 
and India and so strict was the monopoly. 

Those same classical writers were greatly impressed by the 
wealth of the South Arabians. Strabo 3 mentions cities "adorned 
with beautiful temples and palaces". Pliny, 4 using Aelius Galius 
for authority, concurs. 
Gold While frankincense and spices were the products for which the 

land was most famous, almost equally prized were the mineral 
deposits, particularly gold, found along the western coast of the 
peninsula from Midian to al-Yaman and to some extent in the 
central portion of the land. Diodorus* asserts that Arabia 
possessed mines of gold so pure that no smelting was necessary. 
AJ-Maqdisi 6 and al-Hamdani 7 (tenth century) devote a para- 
graph each to the minerals of Arabia, emphasizing particularly 
its gold. 

Other treasured scraps of information are embedded in the 
Greek and Latin records. Strabo 8 tells us that in South Arabia 
polyandry of the type in which a number of brothers married 
the same wife prevailed, that people lived incestuously and that 
the law of primogeniture, by which the eldest became the chief/ 
was observed. He further states that the greater part of their 
wine was made of dates and that instead of olive oil sesame oil 
was used. 0 

In his geography, written between A.D. 150 and 160, Ptolemy, 
whose projection of the known world was to determine the geo- 
graphical ideas of both Europeans and Asians for many cen- 
turies to come, gives us the result of an attempt to put into 
scientific form the records and personal impressions of merchants 
and travellers of his time. His map of Arabia is the first sketch 
based on such information. 

* Bk. XII, ch. 30. * Bk. VI, ch. 32. * Bk. XVI, ch. 4, § 3- 

* Bk VI, ch 32. • Bk. II, ch. 50, § 1* 

* Afrscrt al-TcqasIm t ed, de Goeje (Lc>den ( 1877), pp. ioi-2. 

* fxfatjasxrot al-Arab, edL D. H MOller (Leyden, 1884), pp 153-4. 

« Bk XVI, ch. 4, § 25. » fbtd. § 26, Phny, Bk. VI, ch. 32. 



CHAPTER V 

THE SABAEAN AND OTHER STATES OF SOUTH ARABIA 



The Sabaeans were the first Arabians to step within theTheSouth 
threshold of civilization. They figure in the late cuneiform in- 
scriptions. The oldest reference to them in Greek literature is cham* 
in Theophrastus (f 288 B.C.), Htstoria plantarum} The south- 
western comer of the peninsula was the early home of the 
Sabaeans. 

The fertility of that felicitous rain-favoured land, its proximity 
to the sea and its strategic location on the India route were all 
determining factors in its development. Here were produced 
spices, myrrh and other aromata for seasoning foods or burning 
in the ceremonial of the court and the ritual of the church; fore- 
most among these was incense, that most valuable commodity 
of ancient trade. Thither did rare and highly prized products, 
such as pearls from the Persian Gulf, condiments, fabrics and 
swords from India, silk from China, slaves, monkeys, ivory, 
gold and ostrich feathers from Ethiopia, find their way in transit 
to Western marts. The author of The Periplus of the Erythraean 
Sea* has left us (A.D, 50-60) a bird's-eye view of the market of 
* "Muza", present-day Mukha (Mocha): 

4 The merchandise imported there consists of purple cloths, both fine 
i and coarse; clothing in the Arabian style, with sleeves; plain, ordinary, 
embroidered, or interwoven with gold; saffron, sweet rush, muslins, 
cloaks, blankets (not many), some plain and others made in the local 
fashion; sashes of different colors, fragrant ointments in moderate 
quantity, wine and wheat, not much. 

The Sabaeans were the Phoenicians of the southern sea. They 
knew its routes, reefs and harbours, mastered its treacherous 
monsoons and thus monopolized its trade during the last 
~ millennium and a quarter before our era. The circumnavigation of 
Arabia,stated as a theoretical possibility by Alexander's admiral, 
Nearchus, was in their case an actuality. To the Greco-Roman 
a. ; * Bk * 4» § * Tr. W, H. Schoff (New York, 1912), § 24. 

49 



THE PRE-ISLAM1C AGE 



PART I 



pilots the frankincense country was "mountainous and for- 
bidding". 1 "Navigation", according to the Peripliis? "is danger- 
ous along this whole coast of Arabia, which is without harbors, 
with bad anchorages, foul, inaccessible because of breakers and 
rocks, and terrible in every way." 

Through the Red Sea the main maritime route led from Bab 
ai-Mandab toWadi al~y ammamat on the coast of Middle Egypt. 
The inherent difficulty of navigating this sea, especially in its 
northern parts, caused the Sabaeans to develop land routes 
between al-Yaman and Syria along the western coast of the 
peninsula, leading through Makkah and Petra and forking 
at the northern end to Egypt, Syria and Mesopotamia. The 
Syrian branch strikes the Mediterranean outlet at Ghazzah 
(Gaza). From Hadramawt, particularly rich in frankincense, a 
caravan road led to MaVib, the Sabaean capital, where it joined 
the main commercial artery. Along this south-to-north route a 
number of Sabaean colonies were planted. From these may have 
come the Sabaeans who figured in the Assyrian and Hebrew 
records. An historical snapshot has been preserved for us 
in Gen. 37 : 25 of a "caravan of Ishmaelites" coming down 
"from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and 
myrrh". 

South The conquests which the South Arabians achieved were in 
sorptions" commerce and trade* The kingdoms they built were not military 
states. The outline of their history can be delineated from such 
references as those cited above in the ancient Semitic and Greco- 
Roman writings, from the semi-legendary traditions preserved 
in early Moslem literature — particularly the works of Wahb 
ibn-Munabbih (fin San*a\ ca* A.D. 728), al-Hamdani 3 (f A.D, 
945) and al-Himyari (f A.D. 1 177) — but above all from the local 
sources made accessible mainly through the discoveries of 
Halevy and Glaser. All this native South Arabian literature, how- 
ever, is epigraphic — on metal and stone. Whatever perishable 
material was used for recording business transactions, histori- 
cal narratives, or strictly literary productions has entirely dis- 
appeared. The earliest inscriptions found are mostly boustro- 

1 Erythraean Sea t § 29. 

* Ibid, § 20; D. H. M tiller, Die Burgen und Schlosser Sudaraliens naeh dem 
Ikltl des Hamddnt, 2 pts. (Vienna, 1879-St). 

* Bk. VIII, ed. Nabih A. Fans (Princeton, 1940); The Antiquities of South 
Arabia (Princeton, 1938); Bk. X, ed. Mufrbb-al-Din al-KhaJib (Cairo, 1368). 



c&Y SABAEAN AND OTHER STATES OF SOUTH ARABIA 51 

phedon, dating from the eighth or ninth century B.C. The in- 
scriptions may be classified as follows: (1) votive, engraved on 
tablets of bronze placed in the temples and dedicated toAlmaqah 
(Ibnuqah), *Athtar and Shams; (2) architectural, occurring on 
the walls of the temples and other public edifices to commemo- 
rate the name of the builder of or the contributor to the construc- 
tion; (3) historical, reporting a battle or announcing a victory; 
(4) police ordinances, inscribed on pillars in the entry; (5) funer- 
ary, attached to sepulchres. Of special significance are a few legal 
documents which reveal a long constitutional development. 

Carsten Niebuhr was the first to announce (1 772) the existence 
of South Arabic inscriptions. Joseph Halevy, who since Aelius 




Entwine* on^dtidiia lie foil crura g lutcrtjmon 
Snm "Jiwrml pf th* ficyat G&grapkttal S0*t*ty u (1837) 

THE RUINS OF NAQAB AL-HAJAR AND TWO LINES OF INSCRIPTION 
WHICH FURNISHED EUROPE WITH ITS FIRST SIGHT OF SOUTH 
ARABIC INSCRIPTION 

Gallus (24 B.C.) was the first European to visit Najran in al- 
Yaman (1869-70), brought back copies of 685 inscriptions 
T from thirty-seven different localities. Between 1882 and 1894 
Eduard Glaser undertook four scientific expeditions to al~ Yaman 
which yielded some 2000 inscriptions, of which some are still 
unpublished* In all we possess today about 4000 such. inscriptions, 
extending in date as far back as the seventh century B.C. Th. S. 
Amaud, who discovered the ruins of Ma*rib, copied in 1843 at 
the risk of his life about sixty inscriptions. James R. Wellsted, 
an English naval officer, published in 1837 a part of the inscrip- 
/ tion of Naqab aM^ajar and this furnished Europe with its second 
^ sight of South Arabian writing. The decipherment was accom- 
* \ plished by Emil Rodiger of Halle (1837) and by Gesenius (1841), 



5* 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PARTI 



As revealed by these inscriptions, the South Arabic or 
Minaeo-Sabaean language (also called IJimyaritc) has twenty- 
nine letters in its alphabet. The characters represent in all prob- 
ability an early forking from the Sinaitic, which constitutes the 
connecting link between the Phoenician alphabet and its Egyp- 
tian ancestor. These symmetrical rectilinear letters (al-musnad) 
point to a long development. 1 Its alphabet, like other Semitic 
forms, consists of consonants only. In noun formation, verb 
conjugation, personal pronouns and vocabulary, South Arabic has 
certain affinities with Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian) and Ethi- 
opic (Abyssinian). But it has the broken plural which character- 
izes North Arabic and Ethiopic. Akkadian, South Arabic and 
Ethiopic represent in certain respects the older form of Semitic 
speech. With the decay of the Yamanite culture South Arabic 
practically disappeared and North Arabic was substituted. The 
literary fairs of the north, such as the Suq *Ukaz, the annual 
heathen pilgrimage to the Ka'bah and the commercial relations 
with Makkah hastened the process of substitution, 
j. The The first major kingdoms discernible through the mists of 
Wngdom South Arabian antiquity were the Sabaean and the Minacan, 
which during a considerable part of their history were con- 
temporaries. Both kingdoms began as theocracies and ended as 
secular kinships. 

The Sabaeans were the most distinguished branch of the 
entire South Arabian family. Saba*, biblical Sheba, their original 
homeland, lay south of Najran in the Yaman district. The 
Sabaean period, according to the school of Arabists who hold 
for the low (or short) chronology extended from about 750 B.C. to 
115 B.C. with a change in the royal title at about 610 B.C.; the 
Minaean from about 700 B.C., to the third pre-Christian century. 8 
Mukarrib 3 was the title of the priest-king who stood at the head 
of the state. Two early Sabaean mukarribs, Yatha'-amar and 
Kariba-il, are cited in the royal Assyrian annals of Sargon II 
and Sennacherib 4 and must have reigned in the late eighth and 

1 For specimens sec Corpus inscriptionum Semtttcarum, pars iv (Paris, 1889 ft). 

* Cf. Nielsen, Handbuch, vol. i, pp. 64 seq ; F. V. Wmnett in Bulletin , American 
Schools of Oriental Research % no. 73 (1939), pp. 3-9; G. Ryckmans in Bulletin, 
School of Oriental and African Studtes,vo]*xiv (1952), pp. 1 sea.; Jacques Ryckmans, 
VInstitution tnonarchque en Arabic miridtonale avant VIslam (Louvain, 1§S 1 )* 
pp 257^. 

8 MKRB, \ocaIizatton uncertain* 

* See above, pp 37-S. 





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54 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART f 



early seventh century. In their heyday the kings of Saba* ex- 
tended their hegemony over alt South Arabia reducing their 
neighbour, the Minaean kingdom, to a state of vassalage. Sir- 
wah, a day's journey west of Ma'rib, was the capital of Saba\ 
Its principal building was the temple of Almaqah, the moon-god.* 
Its principal ruins, now called al-Kharibah, house a village of a 
hundred persons. An inscription records that its surrounding wall 
was built by Yada*-il, an early mukarrib. Another inscription 
records the victorious campaigns of Kariba-il Watar(r^.4So B.C.), 
who first assumed the title fl MLK [king of] Saba". 
Ma'nb In the second period of the Sabaean kingdom (ca. 610- 
dttra 115 B.C.) the ruler appears shorn of his priestly character. 
MaVib, some sixty miles east of San'a*, then became the capital. 
This city lay 3900 feet above the sea. It has been visited by only 
a few Europeans, first among whom were Arnaud, HaleVy and 
Glaser. It was the meeting-place of the trade routes connecting 
the frankincense lands with the Mediterranean ports, particu- 
larly Ghazzah. Al~Hamdani in his IklU 2 refers to three citadels 
in Ma'rib, but the construction for which the city was particu- 
larly famous was the great dam, Sadd MaVib. 3 This remarkable 
engineering feat, together with the other public works of the 
Sabacans, reveal to us a peace-loving society highly advanced 
not only in commerce but in technical accomplishment as well. 
The older portions of the dam were constructed in the mid- 
seventh pre-Christian century. The inscriptions make Sum- 
hu'alay Yanuf and his son Yatha f «amar Bayyin the main builders 
and cite restorations in the time of Sharahbi-Il Ya'fur (A.B. 449- 
450) and Abraha the Abyssinian (a.d. 543). But al-Hamdani, 
and after him al-Mas*udi, 4 al-Isfahani 5 and Yaqut, 6 regard 
Luqman ibn- f Ad. a mythical personage, as the builder. 
2. The The Minaean kingdom flourished in the Jawf of al-Yaman 
Wn^om anc * * n * ts ne y^ a y included most of South Arabia. The original 
Arabic form Ma'an (biblical Ma'on, Me'un, Me'm as a place 

1 Ahmed i'akhry, An Arc/toeologieai Journey to Yem «, vol i (Cairo. 1952). pp 
29-56, Wendell Phillips, Qataban and Sheba (New York 1955); Richard L. Bowen 
and Frank P Albright Arckacofasr*c<tf Dttcfmrr** >» Souih 4rahto 'Baltimore 
1958) 

* Fans, p 45 tor description oj rum?. s>ee al- A?m, pi. 2, pp 50 yey 
MurSf al-t>hahab % ed. and tr de Meynard and de Courteille vol ni (Paris. 18641. 

p. 366 

* Ta ti&Ji Stm MuMkai-Artfw-ahAntnya ,ed GotttvaJdt (Leipzig, 1844), p is6 
c Sultan* vol iv ( p 383 



CH.Y SABAEAN AND OTHER STATES OF SOUTH ARABIA 55 

name) was later vocalized Ma'm, meaning spring-water. The 
name survives in present-day Ma'an (south-east of Petra), an im- 
portant colony on the northern trade route, Minaean inscriptions 
near al- f Ula l and Tabuk attest the existence of several colonies 
in this region serving as warehouses and relay posts* The Minaean 
capital Qarnaw, visited by Halevy in 1870, is modern Ma'In 
(in southern al-Jawf, north-east of San'a ). The religious metro- 
polis, Yathil, also in southern al-Jawf, is present-day Baraqish, 
north-west of MaVib. The Minaeans spoke the same language as 
the later Sabaeans, with only dialectal differences. The so-called 
Minaean inscriptions include the Qatabanian royal inscriptions 
and few rjadramawt texts. Carvings in the temple ruins of al- 
}}zzm, provincial capital of al-Jawf, represent suspended vessels, 
probably wine offerings, gazelles and other sacrificial animals, 
snakes which were divine symbols, dancing girls who were temple 
servants, and ostriches evidently kept in sacred parks. 

Other than the Minaean and Sabaean kingdoms two other 3. 
important states arose in this area Qataban and Hadramawt. ^ 
The land of Qataban lay east of the site of *Adan, that of nw 
I;Ia$ramawt about where it is today. The Qataban monarchy, 2 
whose capital was Tamna* (now Kuhlan), lasted from about 
400-50 B.C.; that of yadramawt, whose capital was Shabwah 
(classical Sabota), lasted from the mid-fifth century before 
Christ to the end of the first Christian century. At times these 
kingdoms were under Sabaean and Minaean hegemony. Arab 
historians knew nothing about all these peoples whose inscrip- 
tions extend from North Arabia to Ethiopia, who organized the 
spice trade and undertook amazing public works. 

From 1 1 5 B.C. onwards the entire area falls under new masters «. 
xvho stemmed from the southwestern highlands, the tribe of £ 
Hirayar. Thence the civilization is referred to as yimyarite, 
though the royal title remains "king of Saba* and dhu-Raydan". 
Raydan later became known as Qataban, This marks the begin- 
ning of the first IJimyarite kingdom, which lasted till about 
A.D. 300. The word "Homeritae" occurs first in The Periplus of 
the Erythraean Sea (about A.D. 60) and then in Pliny. The 

J UhySmte capital ca 500-300 ac. See above p 42 
r * p 24? * ^ or a hst of kngs see MuJtcr, Dit Bvrgeti, pt. 2, pp 6o-6?« 

W sud simxttgues, %ol i (Louvain, »934). PP 3* 

tl, St. J, B Philhy, Tkt Background of Islam (Alexandria, 1947), pp. 



56 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART X 



Himyarites were close kinsmen of the Sabaeans and, as the 1 
youngest branch of the stock, became the inheritors of the 
Minaeo-Sabaean culture and trade. Their language was practi- 
cally the same as that of the Sabaeans and Minaeans before them. 
Piiny's references to agriculture are confirmed by the wells, 
dams and cisterns repeatedly mentioned in the inscriptions. The 
collection of frankincense, considered a religious act, was still 
the source of greatest income. 

£afar (classical Sapphar and Saphar, Sephar of Gen. 10 : 30), 
the inland town, about one hundred miles north-east of Mukha 
on the road to San'a\ was the capital of the Himyarite dynasty. 
It displaced MaVib of the Sabaeans and Qamawof the Minaeans. 




Bntuh Mustum 

HIMYARITE SILVER COIN 



Obv. male head with monogram; rev. male head with inscription reading 
KfcB'L wtr (Kariba-itu Watar) 
Ca. a.o. 50 



lis ruins can still be seen on the summit of a circular hill near 
the modern town of Yarim. At the time of the composition of 
The Periplus its king was Kariba-il Watar (Charibael of The 
Pertpltts). 

It was during this Himyarite period that the ill-fated Roman 
coluihn under Aelius Galius penetrated as far as Manama. The 
"Hasanis" of Strabo, who was the ruler at that time, is Ili- 
shariha Yahdub of the inscriptions. 
The Another notable occurrence in the early part of this period 

Semitic was ^ e establishment of Arabian colonists from ai-Yaman and 

origin 

of tht yadramawt in the "land of Cush", where they laid the basis of 
^ S5ia ' the Abyssinian kingdom and civilization and ultimately developed 
a culture which the native negroes could probably never have 
achieved. The displacement of South Arabian tribes about the 
middle of the fifth century of our era (connected by popular 
tradition with the breaking of the great dam of Ma*rib), which 



« V SABAEAN AND OTHER STATES OF SOUTH ARABIA 57 

carried some to Syria and al-'Iraq, may havcresulted in augment- 
ing the earlier South Arabian settlements in Abyssinia. Along 
the whole coast of East Africa there was an infusion of Arabian 
blood of far earlier origin than the Moslem invasion. The 
beginnings of the kingdom of Aksum (Axum), the original The 
nucleus of later Abyssinia, belong to the first century after SS^aL 
Christ. 

To another Ili-shariha (Ltsharh ibn-Yah$ub of Yaqut 1 ), of 
the first century after Christ, is ascribed the most celebrated 
castle of "the land of castles", as al-Yaman has been called, 
Ghumdan in San*a\ As a measure of protection against Bedouin 
raids the urban Ijtimyarites found it necessary to erect well- 
fortified palaces. Al-Hamdani, and following him Yaqut, have 
left us detailed descriptions of Ghumdan, though by their time 
it was but a gigantic ruin. The citadel, according to these geo- 
graphers, had twenty stories, each ten cubits high — the first 
skyscraper in recorded history. It was built of granite, porphyry 
and marble. The king had his court installed in the uppermost 
story, the roof of which was covered with one slab of stone so trans- 
parent that one could look through it skyward and distinguish 
between a crow and a kite. The four facades were constructed 
of stones of various colours. At each corner-stone stood a brazen 
lion which roared whenever the wind blew. In a poem al-Hamdani 
refers to the clouds as the turban of Ghumdan and marble as 
its belt The structure survived until the rise of Islam and was 
apparently destroj'ed in the course of the struggle which estab- 
lished Moslem supremacy in al-Yaman. 

v The king of this first rjimyarite period appears as a feudal 
lord, residing in a castle, owning land and issuing coins of gold, 
silver and copper, with his image on one side and an owl (the 
Athenian emblem) or a bull's head on the other. Certain older 
coins bear the head of Athena and show South Arabian depend- 
ence on Athenian models as early as the fourth century before 
our era. Besides coins, bronze figures of Hellenistic and Sasanid 
workmanship are occasionally unearthed in al-Yaman. Native 
art shows no high antiquity. Semitic genius nowhere expressed 
itself through such a channel. 
The social organization of the Sabaeo-PJimyarite community 
revealed by the inscriptions represents a curious biend of the 
* BvJf&Sn, toL m t p. Sj t, I S. 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PARTI 



old tribal system, caste stratification and feudal aristocracy and 
monarchy, presenting phenomena many of which may be dupli- 
cated elsewhere but which in their aggregate seem unique. 

In the course of this first Himyarite period the zenith of the 
South Arabian power was passed. So long as the Yamanites 
monopolized the maritime trade of the Red Sea they prospered; 
but now the control was slipping out of their hands. The Peri- 
Smetradc of the Erythraean Sea (A.JO- 50-60), the first record of 
organized trading with the East in vessels built and commanded 
by subjects of a Western power, marks the turning-point of the 
tide of commerce. The great overland route through the Fertile 
Crescent and connecting Europe with India, which was a source 



The 
Romans 
displace 
the 

Arabians 
in roan- 




Brttnh Museum 

HIMYARITE SILVER COIN 

Ohv. head of Athena, on her cheek Sabaean letter nun, rev owl. with olive spray 
and crescent. Coin belongs to 3rd or 2nd cent B C, imitation of the old Attic 
type of 4th cent. B.C. 

of endless friction between the Parthian and Roman empires, had 
been threatened before this time by Alexander; but the southern 
maritime route to India remained in the hands of Arabians 
until almost the first century after Christ. Their task consisted 
in collecting the products of their own land together with those 
of East Africa and Indm and carrying them by camel northward 
from Ma'rib through Makkah to Syria and Egypt, thus avoiding 
the hazards of the Red Sea. If, however, transportation by sea 
seemed preferable the route ran either all the way up the Red 
Sea to the canal connecting with one of the eastern arms of the 
Nile or else through the southern part of the Red Sea to Wadi 
al«y ammamat and then across the Egyptian desert to Thebes or 
down the Nile to Memphis The land route through al-Hijaz 
was dotted with yimyarite stations. 1 Strabo* writes that the 
caravan journey from "Minaea to Aelana" (al-'Aqabah) takes 
* See Koran 34 .17-1H. • Bk XVT. ch, * §4. 



^V, SA&AEAN AND OTHER STATES OF SOUTH ARABIA 59^ 

»eventy days. As the people of the West developed more and more 
h J g taste for Oriental cloths, perfumes and spices, the South 
Arabians raised the price of their own products, especially 
frankincense and myrrh, and increased the tolls on the foreign 
goods which passed through their hands. In the meantime they 
more jealously guarded their control over the routes. Hence their 
proverbial wealth. Petra and then Palmyra became partners in 
this commercial system, links in the chain, and consequently 
shared in the ensuing prosperity. But now the whole situation 
was beginning to change. 

When Egypt under the Ptolemies became once more a world 
power the first attempt was made to contest the supremacy of 
the sea with the South Arabians. Ptolemy II (285-246 B.C.) 
reopened the Nile-Red Sea canal originally dug by Sesostris 
some seventeen centuries previously. The consequent entry of the 
Ptolemaic merchant marine into the waters separating Egypt 
from Arabia proved the beginning of the end for the I^imyarite 
commercial activity. Rome, which captured Egypt from the 
Ptolemies about the middle of the first century B.C., followed 
the Ptolemies in the policy of maritime competition against the 

■ Arabians and in the desire to free Egypt from commercial 
dependence upon al-Yaman> In the days of Pliny Roman 
citizens were already complaining of the high prices exacted by 
the South Arabian traders for commodities for which Rome had 
to pay in cash because she had so little to offer by way of goods 
they desired. 1 The Abyssinians, evidently not content with the 
share of Spoils allotted them by their neighbours to the east, 
were now courting Roman alliance. 

In the early Roman period a Greek or Roman* perhaps in 
*he Abyssinian maritime service, was initiated into the mysteries 
of the sea routes with their hazards and periodic changes of 
trtonsoons, and triumphantly returned to Alexandria with a 
£argo of the greatly desired and highly priced articles, including 
cinnamon and pepper produced in India, commodities which the 
Westerners had believed to be of Arabian origin. This Hippalus, 
cthe Columbus of early Roman trade, was followed by others who 
'thus contributed to the final break-up of the Arabian monopoly. 
But full advantage of the memorable discovery of the periodicity 
of the monsoons and the direct sea route to India was not taken 

- : - frmy Bk XII ch 4i 



6o 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



till sometime later. The entry of the Roman shipping into 
the Indian Ocean sounded the knell of South Arabian pros- 
perity. 1 Economic decline brought in its wake, as it always does, 
political ruin. One by one Petra, Palmyra and north-western 
Mesopotamia fell under the paws of the Roman wolf. 
5. The About A.D. 300 the monarchical title in South Arabia becomes 
Htajjiae "king of Saba', dhu-Raydan, Pladramawt and Yamanat". This 
kingdom means that by this time yadramawt had lost its independence. 
To this title a further addition was soon made: "and of their 
Arabians in the mountains and in the Tihamah". Yamanat 
(Yamanah) might have then embraced the entire southern coast- 
lands; Tihamah was the Red Sea coast west of San'a'. 

After an invasion from Abyssinia resulting in a short Abys- 
sinian rule (ca. 340-78) the native y imyarite kings resumed their 
long title and held their position till about A.D. 525, In the Ak- 
sumite inscriptions of the middle of the fourth century the Abys- 
sinian monarch claims to be "king of Aksum, yimyar, Raydan, 
yabashah^Salh and Tihamah". This was not the first or only 
time the Abyssinians invaded Arabia. Once before, in the second 
and third centuries after Christ, they must have succeeded in 
establishing temporary authority over parts of South Arabia. 

Nine of the imyarite kings of this period are known to us 
from inscriptions. Tubba* is the royal title that has survived in 
Islamic literature. Among the imyarite kings best known to 
later Arabic legends was one Shammar Yar'ash, who is repre- 
sented as having conquered as far as Samarqand, which, accord- 
ing to these legends, takes its name from him. Another was 
abu-Karib As'ad Kamil, the Abi-kariba As'ad (ca. A.D. 385-420) 
who is reported to have conquered Persia and who later embraced 
the Jewish faith. The memory of the latter is still kept alive in 
the Arabic ballads of adventure. This later y imyarite period 
was signalized by the introduction of Christianity and Judaism 
into al-Yaman. 

Christi- The religion of South Arabia was in its essence a planetary 
judaJmm astra * system in which the cult of the moon-god prevailed. The 
ai'Yaman moon, known in yadramawt as Sin, to the Minaeans as Wadd 
(love or lover, father), to the Sabaeans as Almaqah (the health- 
giving god?) and to the Qatabanians as 'Amm (paternal uncle), 

5 Cf George F. Houram in Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. xi (1952), 
pp. 291-5. 1 I.e Hatframawt See Nielsen, Handbuch, vol. i, p. 104. 



i CH.V SABAEAN ANP OTHER STATES OF SOUTH ARABIA 61 

T stood at the head of the pantheon. He was conceived of as a 
r masculine deity and took precedence over the sun, Shams, who 
was his consort. 'Athtar (Venus, corresponding to the Baby* 
Ionian goddess Ishtar, Phoenician *Ashtart), their son, was the 
third member of the triad. From this celestial pair sprang the 
many other heavenly bodies considered divine. The North 
Arabian al-Lat, who figured in the Koran, may have been 
another name for the sun-goddess* 

" Christianity of the Monophysite type began to trickle in from 
. the north, particularly Syria, at an early date. Syrian mission- 
r aries fleeing persecution may have entered al-Yaman at times 
unknown to us, but the first Christian embassy to South Arabia 
that we read of was that sent by the Emperor Constantius in 356 
under the leadership of Theophilus Indus, an Arian, The real 
.motive behind the mission lay in the international politics of the 
rday and the rivalry between the Roman and Persian empires for 
" spheres of influence in South Arabia. Theophilus succeeded in 
building one church at *Adan (Aden) and two others in the 
country of the I-Iimyarites, Najran, into which Christianity of 
k the Monophysite communion is said to have been introduced 
l by £ a holy man from Syria named Faymiyun (Phemion), em- 
braced the new faith about A.D, 500. Ibn-Hisham 1 and ai-Tabari* 
give us the legend of this ascetic, who was captured by an Arab 
caravan and brought to Najran. Ya*qub of Saruj (fS^i) ad- 
dressed a comforting letter in Syriac to the Christians of Najran. 
The second caliph/Umar, deported (A.D. 635-6) to al-*Iraq those 
of them who had failed to embrace Islam. 5 As late as A.D. 840 
t ysrc hear of a Mar Petrus, bishop of San*a* and al-Yaman. 

Judaism also became widely spread in al-Yaman under the 
second yimyarite kingdom. It must have found its way early 
_ into North Arabia, perhaps consequent to the conquest of Pales- 
tine and the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in A.D. 70. Judging 
by the names preserved most of the Jews in Arabia must have 
been Judaized Aramaeans and Arabians rather than descendants 
Of Abraham. In the early part of the sixth century the Hebrew 
religion had such a hold upon al-Yaman that the last 1} imyarite 
king, dhu-Nuwas (a descendant of the Tubba' As'ad Kamil), 

1 Str&&, ecL WGstenfeJd (G6ttingcn» r#5S), pp 20-25. 
* Tartkfi ai.J? H sul,*& tie Goeje. vol. 1 (Lcyden, t88i-2) r pp, 919-25. 
* t M&aW Fuftifip. 66 » Mitti, Ongtnx, pp, 101-2. See below, p. 169, 



6* THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE PAUT I 

was a Jew. Virtually all the hundred thousand Jews in al-Yaman 
have been, after 1948, transferred to Israel. 

Rivalry between the South Arabian converts of the two newly 
introduced monotheistic religions led to active hostility. Evidently 
dhu-Nuwas, representing the nationalistic spirit, associated the 
native Christians with the hated rule of the Christian Abys- 
sinians. To this Jewish monarch is ascribed the famous massacre 
of the Christians of Najran in October 523 (sur. 85 : 4). 1 Daws 
dhu-Tha'laban (or Thu'luban) survived, according to Arabic 
tradition, and implored the Emperor Justin I for aid, the 
Byzantine emperor at that time being regarded as the protector 
of Christians everywhere. The emperor wrote to the Negus 
(Najashi) of Abyssinia (Kaleb Ela Asbelja in the inscriptions), 
for he represented the Christian power nearest the scene of 
trouble. The Negus is said to have sent 70,000 men across the 
Red Sea to Arabia under a certain Aryat. This campaign there- 
fore falls within the network of the international politics of that 
age: Byzantium was seeking through Abyssinia to bring the 
Arabian tribes under her influence and use them against Persia. 5 
The Abyssinians were victorious in 523 and again in 525. The\ 
leader on the latter occasion was Abrahah (variant of Abraham), 
originally an officer under Aryat, but who by this time had 
fallen out with his commander and taken over the supreme 
command. According to al-Tabari, 3 dhu-Nuwas, setting spurs 
to his steed, "plunged it into the waves of the sea and was never 
seen again* \ Thus came to his end the last Himyarite monarch, 
and with him the period of the independence of al-Yaman was 
terminated. All that remains of the glorious memory of the 
ancient yimyarite dynasty is today perpetuated in the name of 
an obscure tribe, rjimyar, east of *Adan. 
The The Abyssinians came as helpers, but as often happens 

AblnmUn remamec * as conquerors. They turned colonists 4 and remained ^ 
rule from 525 to 575 in control of the land whence their ancestors 
had long before emigrated to the African "shore. Abrahah, the 
acknowledged Aksumite viceroy, built in San*a\ now the capital, 
one of the most magnificent cathedrals of the age, called by 
the Arabian writers al-Qalis (al-Qulays, al-Qullays, from Gr. 

1 See Axfcl Moberg, Tht Book of (he Htmyaritts (Lund, 19214). 

* Procopius, History cf the Wars, ed and tr. H. B Dewing (London, 1904), 
Bk. 20, 

* Vol. i, pp 927-$. * Procopjus, Bk. I, ch. 20, §§ 2, 6. 




*tsx*y siuwr uak. 



«4 THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE part I 

ckk?esia t church). The cathedral, of which little is left today but 
the site, was built from the ruins of ancient Ma'rib. 

The Christian Abyssinians were evidently intent upon con- 
verting the land "and creating a rival to pagan Makkah, the 
centre of pilgrimage in the north, for pilgrimage was a source 
of great income to those who dwelt in the city to which the pil- 
grims travelled or beside the roads leading thither. In the 
establishment of a southern religious shrine that would draw 
large crowds, to the detriment of the rjijaz sanctuary, the Abys- 
sinian overlords were evidently successful. Indeed the memory 
of this economic-religious rivalry has been perpetuated in the 
local tradition in which two Arabian pagans of the Fuqaym 
tribe, attached to the cult of the Ka'bah, polluted the San'a* 
cathedral on the eve of a festival, causing Abrahah to undertake 
a disciplinary expedition against Makkah. The incident is said 
to have taken place in the year of the birth of the Prophet 
(570 or 57*)> which year has been dubbed *dm al-ftl t the year of 
the elephant, after the elephant which accompanied Abrahah 
on his northward march and which greatly impressed the 
Arabians of al-ljijaz, where elephants had never been seen. The 
Abyssinian army was destroyed by smallpox, "the small pebbles" 
(szjjil) of the Koran. 1 
The To this period should also be assigned the memorable event 

of Ma'nb * mrnortanze d in Islamic literature as "the bursting of the great 
dam dam" of MaVib occasioned by the great flood. 1 Al-Isfahani* 
who devotes the eighth book of his annals (finished A.D. 961) to 
y imyarite kings, puts the tragic event four hundred years before 
Islam, but Yaqut* comes nearer to the truth when he assigns it 
to the reign of the Abyssinians, The ruins of this dam are visible 
to the present day. A dated South Arabic inscription (date 
corresponding to A.D. 542-3) by Abrahah dealing with one of 
the breaks has been discovered and published by Glaser. 6 

This breach in the time of Abrahah was preceded by one in 
A.D. 450 when the water broke the dam. But the works were 
then restored* The final catastrophe alluded to in the Koran 
(34:15) must have taken place after 542 and before 570, 
Connected with one of the early breaches in the dyke was the 

1 105 : 1-3. See al-Tabari, Tafslr aUQufan (BulSq, 1329), vol. sxx, p. 193; ibn» 
Hisham, StraA, p. 36. 
9 Koran 34 : 15. * Op. <£L p. 126. « Buldar, vol. W, p. 3S3. 

* In Mtttiilungm der vorderasialtschen Gtsdlschcft (Berlin, 1&97), pp. 360*48$. , 



1 



CH.V 5ABAEAN AND OTHER STATES OF SOUTH ARABIA 65 

migration of the banu-Ghassan to the IJawran region in Syria, 
where they became the bulwark of Roman rule, and of the banu- 
Lakhm to the rjfrrah region, where a number of South Arabic 
inscriptions have recently been unearthed. The banu-Ghassan 
chose the year of the breaking of the dam as the starting-point 
for an era of their own. 1 Besides the Ghassan and Tanukh of 
Syria and al-*Iraq, the banu-Tayyi\ Kindah and other large 
and powerful tribes of North and Central Arabia claim South 
Arabian origin. There are today families in Syria which trace 
their entry into the country back to this same event. 

Later Arab imagination seized upon this spectacular episode 
of the great flood and bursting of the dam to explain the whole 
age-long process of decline and decay in South Arabian trade, 
agriculture, 2 prosperity and national life; a decline due, as we 
have already learned, to the entry of Roman shipping into the 
Red Sea, the introduction of the divisive influence of new religions 
and the subsequent submission to foreign rule. The legend of 
"the bursting of the dam" — for so it became in later annals — 
is perhaps to be analysed as a concentrated and dramatic re-telling 
of a long history of economic and sociological causes that led 
to the disintegration and final downfall of South Arabian society 
'and as the crystallization of the results of a long period of decay 
into one single event. And, with what appears to be a subtle 
* appreciation of the intangible quality of the true causes lead- 
ing up to this tragedy, the chroniclers 3 report that a rat turned 
bver a stone which fifty men could not have budged, and thus 
brought about the collapse of the entire dam. Muzayqiya* ('Amr 
^ ibn-*Amir Ma'-al-Sama') was according to tradition the ruler 
" ^uring whose reign this rat did its momentous and epoch-making 
'work. 

- m The national movement to free al-Yaman from Abyssinian Then 
rule found its hero, so the tradition goes, in a scion of the old jjjjjjjj 
^ Ijitnyar royal line, Sayf ibn-dhi-Yazan, The successful struggle 
tfifrefi) of Sayf in his romance found a place in the Arabic saga 
and, revised and embellished in Egypt in the course of the four- 
^ teenth century, is still recited by Arab story-tellers in the cafe of 

" AUtes'adl, KtM cUTenbtht cd dc Gotje {Levdcn, 1893), p 202. 

For the thcorr of climatic desiccation there is no sufficient evidence in historic 
ton; Alois Musi!, KcrShern Ntgi (New York, 1978), pp 304-19 
\ w tf Ma5 Af "™J* vol. ui, p. 383, YaqGt, Suidin, vol. tv, p. 384, cf. Mas'udi, 



66 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PAUT t 



Cairo, Beirut and Baghdad* Sayf, according to tradition, sought, 
but naturally failed to receive, Constantinople's aid against 
Abyssinia, for the latter power was Christian and therefore 
friendly to Byzantium. He was then presented by the Arab king 
of al-rjirah to the Persian sovereign, Kisra Anusharwan, at the 
Sasanid court in al-Mada*in (Seleucia-Ctesiphon). The destinies 
of the world were then chiefly in the hands of the Christian 
Byzantines and Mazdean Persians, Aksum acting as the un- 
official agent of Byzantium. The Christian Arabians were pro- 
Byzantine and looked to Constantinople for protection and 
countenance; the Jewish and pagan Arabians were pro-Persian 
and expected aid from Ctesiphon. In response to Sayf s prayers 
the Persian emperor in 575 sent eight hundred men under 
Wahraz (or Wahriz), who routed the Abyssinian garrison in 
al-Yaman and freed the country from the hated African rule. 
At first a system of joint administration was instituted with Sayf 
as titular head. Sayf took up his residence in the ancient castle 
of Ghumdan, which was evidently in ruins during the Abys- 
sinian rule. But soon al-Yaman was converted into a Persian 
satrapy and the South Arabians found they had only changed 
one master for another. 

In this tradition we have preserved for us a clear recollection 
of the rivalry between the two powers on either side of Arabia 
— Zoroastrian Persia and Christian Abyssinia (backed by By- 
zantium) — to inherit their neighbour, the defunct South Arabian 
kingdom. The native Christian Arabian sympathy with Byzan- 
tium served as a wedge for Abyssinian intervention, while Jewish 
and pagan leanings toward Persia gave the latter its opportunity. 
With the Syro-Arabian desert in the north barring the penetra- 
tion of world powers South Arabia thus acted as the gateway 
through which these powers found their way into the peninsula. 

In 628, the sixth year after the Hijrah, Badhun, the fifth 
Persian satrap of al-Yaman, embraced Islam. With the birth 
of this new religion the centre of interest in the peninsula shifted 
to the north. Henceforth the stream of Arabian history flowed 
in northern channels, with al-ftijaz replacing al-Yaman in 
public consideration. 



CHAPTER VI 



THE NABATACAN AND OTHER PETTY KINGDOMS OF 
NORTH AND CENTRAL ARABIA 



ASIDE from the South Arabian kingdoms a few petty states t. The 
evolved during the pre-Islamic period in the northern and central 
parts of the peninsula. These North Arabian states, like those 
of the south, drew their strength mainly from commerce and 
were in no sense militaristic either in their inception or in their 
development. The earliest among them was the Nabataean 
kingdom. 

We read of no Assyrian campaign directed against the 
Nabataeans, because they were not then on the main route to the 
west. In the early part of the sixth century B.C. the Nabataeans 
(al-Anbaf, classical Nabataei) 1 came as nomadic tribes from 
what is today called Transjordan and occupied the land of the 
Edomites (Idumaeans, the descendants of Esau), from whom they 
later wrested Petra. The predecessors of the Edomites in this 
"land of Seir 1 ' were the Horites (Hurris). 5 The Nabataeans, 
from their metropolis Petra, came into possession of the neigh- 
bouring territory. Petra, a Greek word meaning rock, is a trans- 
lation of the Hebrew Sela* mentioned in Isaiah 16 : x, 42 : xi 
and 2 Kings 14 ; 7.* Al-Raqlm 4 is the Arabic correspondent and 
the modern name is Wadi Musa (the valley of Moses). The 
ancient city, located on an arid plateau three thousand feet high, 
presents today the spectacle of a vast glowing necropolis hewn 
in a rock (Umm al-Biyarah) whose sandstone strata exhibit 
almost ail the colours of the rainbow. 

For upwards of four hundred years, beginning toward the end 
of the fourth century B.C., Petra was a key city on the caravan 
route between Saba* and the Mediterranean. 

Our first detailed account of the early history of the Naba- 

* Heb Nabayuth, Ass>r Nabaitaj, Nabaitu, are apparently not the Nabataeans. 
Gtn, 14-6,36:20 5 CfaCb2 5 ia,Jkr. 49**6, Ob 3* 

Sec Joscphus, Anitqmiscs, Bk. 1V» ch 4l § 7, ch. ?, § 1, 

67 



68 THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE Mm 

y 

taeans comes from Diodorus Siculus (f after 57 B.C.). About 
312 B.C. they were strong enough to resist two expeditions sent 
against them by Antigonus, Alexander's successor as king of 
Syria, and returp victoriously to "the rock". 1 They were then, 
within the Ptolemaic sphere of influence. Later they became 
the allies of Rome and nominally co-operated in the famous in- J 
vasion of Arabia in 24 B.C. by GaDus. In the reign of rjarithath 
(al-rjarith, Aretas III, ca. 87-62 B.C.) the Nabataeans first came 
into close contact with the Romans, It was then that the royal 
coins were first struck. Julius Caesar in 47 B.C. called on Maliku 
(Malik, Malchus I) to provide him with cavalry for the Alexan- 
drian war. His successor, 'ObTdath f Ubaydah, Obodas III, ea.2&- 
9 B.C.), was the ruler under whom the Roman expedition to Arabia 
took place. Arabia Petraea, whose capital was Petra, reached its 
height under Irlarithath IV (9 B.C. to A.D. 40). At the time of 
Christ the Nabataean kingdom extended north as far as Damas- 
cus, which together with Coele-Syria was wrested from Seleucid 
hands by IJanthath III (ca~ 87 B.C.). It was an ethnarch of 
yarithath IV who endeavoured to arrest Paul in Damascus. 5 
Al-rjijr (Mada'in Salih) in northern al-Hijaz must have also in 
the first century of our era been included in the Nabataean 
kingdom, as the inscriptions there attest. The names of all the 
Nabataean monarchs from tJarithath I (169 B.C.) to the last 
independent ruler, Rabbll II (A.D. 70-106), are known to us. 3 
In A.D. 105 the Emperor Trajan put an end to the Nabataean 
autonomy and in the following year their territory became a 
regular Roman province. 

After Diodorus, Josephus (f ca. A.D. 95) is our chief source of 
information about the Nabataeans, but Josephus was interested 
in them only as they crossed wires with the Hebrews. To him 
Arabia meant the Nabataean state reaching eastward as far as 
the Euphrates. Malchus or Malichus (Ar. Malik), mentioned by 
Josephus 4 as the "king of Arabia" whom Herod and his father 
had befriended , and the Malchus 5 (Malchus II, A.D. 40-70) who 
about A.D. 67 sent 1000 horse and 5000 foot to the assistance of 
Titus in his attack on Jerusalem, were both Nabataeans. In 
I Mac. 5 : 25 and 2 Mac. 5 : 8 the Nabataeans are identified 
1 Diodonis, Bk. XIX, §§ 94-7. * 2 Cor. 1 1 : 32. 

* See the list in Cooke, North-Semitic Inscriptions > p 216 

* Atittfut/fts, Bk. XIV, ch. 14, § I; The Jewish War, Bk. I, ch. 14, § I. 

* Jewish War, Bk. Ill, ch. 4, § 2, 



70 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



parti 



with the Arabians. The modern yuwaytat Bedouins are regarded 
as the descendants of the Nabataeans. 

Though they spoke Arabic as an everyday language the Naba- 
taeans, in default of an Arabic script at that early date, used the 
Aramaic characters of their northern neighbours. Diodorus 1 
refers to a letter of theirs written to Antigonus "in Syriac charac- 
ters". Aramaic was used by them as the language of learning and 
trade, but the mistakes made in the Aramaic inscriptions which 
have survived, the Arabic proper names and the use of such 
Arabic expressions as ghayr (other than) betray the Arabic 
vernacular of their authors. 

This Nabatacan cursive script, taken from the Aramaic, 
developed in the third century of our era into the script of the 
North Arabic tongue, the Arabic of the Koran and of the present 1 
day. More particularly it was transformed into the round nasihi t 
script in distinction to the angular Kufi (Kufic), which owes its 
name to al-Kufah — though employed before it was founded— 
and was used almost exclusively for the Koran and early official 
documents, monuments and coins. One of the oldest Arabic in- " 
scriptions is that of al-Namarah in eastern rjawran, which goes 
back to A.D. 328 and was set up as an epitaph on the tomb of 
Imru'-al-Qays, a Lakhmid king of al-lrlirah. No Nabataean 
literature has come down to us other than epigraphic. 
Tht The Sinaitic peninsula, close to the Nabataean homeland and 

on^n C t ^ ie scene °f promulgation of the Ten Commandments, has 
ofihe within the last years yielded probably the oldest alphabetic 
alphabet j nscrl ptf ons cver found. These inscriptions were discovered at 
Sarablt al-Khadim and removed to the Cairo Museum. Many 
attempts have been made at their decipherment. The writing was 
done presumably by Sinaitic workers in the turquoise mines and 
dates from about 1850 B.C. — some eight centuries before the 
Ahiram inscription of Jubayl (ancient Gebal, Gr. Byblos) found 
by Montet and considered one of the earliest Phoenician in- 
scriptions. 

After the development of the Sinaitic alphabet its characters 
were carried into northern Syria, and there turned into actual 
cuneiform, as the Ra*s al-Shamrah tablets of the late fifteenth 
century indicate. 3 This newly discovered script is clearly alpha- 

* Bk, XIX, ch 96. 

■ F.-A SchaefFcr in Syria, vol. x (1929), pp. 285 97, Charles Virolleaud, tbia\ 
pp. 304-10. 



*.CH;'VI $ltl&% ViUDfi l J\Jbt\n-.:4*JXiJ, \f x j- ; xv a x- x ivxix uvu ;vio y y t 

•:&rS\*^^^ . ' ■ - • " " ■■ ■ ' r • 

Jbeti^andrSem clay 

ftablcfe its ^ett^/wcre not borrowed from the earlier Surncro- 

|Akka<3i4n^ In it the Sinaitic alphabet was conven- 

^j^i^iintd'mdge-shaped signs. 

it. has been recognized by modem scholars 

rthat : &e^Hoenxcians, who were the first to use an exclusively 

^j&abeUc system of writing, must have originally received the 

f$asis:fpf their system from Egyptian hieroglyphic sources, but the 

:gap^)ilways -seemed wide between the two systems. The Sinaitic 

i^togjiiow^ comes in to bridge that gap. The Sinaitic Semite 

^p^:w':i^tmce t from the hieroglyphics the sign for ox-head 

V(npt cmhg'-what l4 ox-«head" was in the Egyptian language) and 

lulled this sign by the name of the ox-head in his own language, 

^/^.,Theri'according to the principle of acrophony he used this 

;sigri for the Bound a. The same treatment he accorded to the sign 

:]foi*;*{Kbiise", calling it beth and using it for the sound b and so on. 

;?l^iiis :Sinaitic origin of the alphabet explains how it could have 

: )hi^ on the one hand to South Arabia, where it 

;%n3enmitan independent development and was employed by the 

|Mmaeahs perhaps as early as isooB.C, and howon theother hand 

ytf $ij& ! came~a* northward to the Phoenician coast. With the trade 

^itu^^bi^rwhich the Arabs sold to the Phoenicians, went the 

/^pfiabct^ust as it later went with the trade from the Phoenicians 

^tojthei Greeks to become the mother of all European alphabets. 

^The^insm discovered in the volcanic Safa region of 

-^^wan^which;date from.about A.D. 100 or later, 1 as well as the 

|Dcdam{e^ ai-'Ulain northern al-rjijaz 

|(me^sd^caHe'd prbto-Araoic) of the seventh to the third century 

■iB^and t^ writings of the same region, particularly 

V^al^yj^^arid. Xayma* (of the fifth century B.C. to the fourth 

v^^-^^^fy); represent in their epigraphy by-forms of the 

t^j^M ^ ut *e language of all these inscrip- 

}J?§^\?s^Nort but little from the well-known 

^^s^ graffiti are a development of the 

another, development of which is seen in the 

If^fS^^ ;The^§afe inscriprions are the northernmost South 

fc'iiV^"^* V * AVInnetti^ Study of ths Likyanitt and Thamudic Inscriptions 

^;;i?^iP^^»^^^«s^x'« 'Syrit avant V Islam (Paris, 1907), pp. 57-73; 
:^^d^a cu $ a fc et dans U Djtbtl ed-Drux 

/(Pans ioQt), p P ^^ 4 ; - - ' 



72 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PARTI 



Arabian writings found. The South Arabic script has also sur- 
vived in Ethiopia 

The historical relations of the three northern peoples who used 
these similar scripts, Safaitic, Lihyanite and Thamudic, have not 
been completely determined. The Lihyanites, whom Pliny 1 
mentions under the name Lechieni, were an ancient people, 
probably a section of the Thamud, and their capital Daydan 
was once a Minaean colony on the great trade route which 
carried the merchandise of al-Yaman and India to the Medi- 
terranean ports. After the fall of Petra (A.D. 105) the Lihyanites 
seem also to have held the important Nabataean centre al-PJijr 
(modern Mada*in Salih), once a Thamudic town- The Minaean 
as well as the Nabataean civilization greatly influenced the later 
Lihyanite culture. The ruins of al-'Ula, which include tombs 
decorated with sculptures in high relief, indicate an advanced 
pre-Islamic civilization of which very little is known.* 
Pen* Petra reached its greatest wealth and prosperity in the first 

century of our era under the patronage of the Romans, who 
treated it as a buffer state against Parthia. On three sides, east, 
west and south, the city was impregnable. Carved out of the 
solid rock, it was surrounded on all sides by precipitous and 
almost impassable cliffs and was entered through a narrow 
winding defile. The city provided the only spot between the 
Jordan and Central Arabia where water was not only abundant 
but invitingly pure. Here the South Arabians obtained on their 
northward caravan march fresh relays of camels and drivers. 
Thus the Nabataeans formed an important link in the com- 
mercial chain by which South Arabia flourished. The spectacular 
ruins of Petra still attract many tourists and constitute an im- 
portant source of income to the modern state of Transjordan. 

Petra had a kind of Ka'bah with Dushara (Dusares), wor- 
shipped under the form of a black rectangular stone, at the head 
of the pantheon; Allat, identified by Herodotus 8 with Aphrodite 
Urania, was the chief female deity. Dushara (dhu-Shara, i.e. 
the lord of Shara) was later associated with the vine, intro- 
duced to the land of Nabataeans in the Hellenistic period, and 

* Bk. VI, ch. 32. 

* Consult Eduard Glaser, Skizze der Geschichte und Geographic Arabtem (Berlin, 
iSoo), vol. 11, pp. 98*127; Jausscn and Savignac, Mission crchiologiqut en Arabi$ 
(Paris, 1909), pp. 250-91. 

» Bk. Ill, ch. 8. 



Cll.Vi THE NABATAEAN AND OTHER PETTY KINGDOMS 73 

as the god of wine borrowed some of the traits of Dionysus- 
Bacchus. 




/>ow AfrxanStr Kennedy , "to Hi History and M(*»ut»*^ts { Caurfrt Lif* ) 

PETRA* THE DAYR 



* In the first two centuries after Christ, as the sea route to India 
became more and more familiar to the Roman sailors, as the 



74 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART I 



caravan route from east to west was gradually diverted to a 
more northerly region centring at Palmyra, and as the north- 
to-south trade took a course farther east corresponding to the 
later pilgrimage route and the present rjijaz Railway, Petra lost 
its advantageous position and the Nabataean state began to 
decline. After the reduction of the city in A.D. 105 through the 
cupidity and short-sightedness of Trajan, Arabia Petraea was 
incorporated (106) into the Roman empire under the name 
Provincia Arabia, and henceforth the history of Petra remained 
almost a blank for many centuries. 1 

The new conditions created in Western Asia by the Parthian 
conquest of Mesopotamia and the new routes which began to be 
used on a large scale after the first century of our era gave 
prominence to a city situated in an oasis in the middle of the 
Syrian desert and whose fame has since become world wide. 
This is the city of Palmyra (Ar. Tadmur), whose present ruins 
are among the most magnificent and least-studied remains of 
antiquity. Located between the two rival empires of Parthia 
and Rome, Palmyra depended for its security upon the main- 
tenance of a balance between the two and in profiting by its neu- 
trality. 2 Its geographic position, with its plentiful supply of fresh 
and mineral waters, afforded a rendezvous not only for the eastern 
and western trade but for the south-to-north commerce starting 
in South Arabia. The "chief of the caravan" and the "chief of the 
market" figure in inscriptions as leading citizens. 3 In the course 
of the second and third centuries of our era this desert metropolis 
became one of the richest cities of the Near East. 

Tadmor (the early Semitic name of Palmyra) must have been 
a very ancient settlement, for it was cited under the name Tad- 
mar of Amurru* in an inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I (ca* 
1 100 B.C.). So impressed by its ruins were the Arab story-tellers 
that they ascribed its origin to the jinn who, they believed, had 
built it for King Solomon* 

Exactly when the Arabs came into possession of Palmyra local 

tradition does not seem to remember. The first authentic mention 

of the town is when Mark Antony in 42-41 B.C. made a vain 

1 A recently identified Nabataean site, 'RM, tv.cnty-five miles east of al-'Aqabab, 
is koranic Iram (stir. 89 : 6). 

* Plmy, Bk. V, ch. 21. * Cooke, pp. 274, 279. 

* Luckenhill, vol, t, §§ 287, 30S. The Hebrew chronicler (2 Ch. 8 : 4) and the 
Greek translator of 1 K. 9 : 18 confused it with Tamar in Idumaea built by Solomon* 
Cf. Ezek. 47 : 19, 48 : 28. 



CK.VI THE NABATAEAN AND OTHER PETTY KINGDOMS 75 

' attempt to possess himself of its riches. Its earliest native inscrip- 
tion goes back to 9 B.C., at which time Palmyra was already an 
important trade centre between the Roman and Parthian states, 
t The city must have come within the Roman political orbit 
early in the imperial period, for we find decrees relative to its 
customs duties issued in A.D. 17. In the time of Hadrian (A.D. 
II7-38) Palmyra and its dependent cities became vassals of 
Rome. As a consequence of Hadrian's visit in 130, the city 
received the name Hadriana Palmyra* Septimius Severus (A.D. 
193-2 1 1) transformed Palmyra and its towns into provincial 
cities of the empire. At the beginning of the third century Pal- 
myra assumed the status of a colony, but even then it must have 
enjoyed administrative independence with only a nominal recog- 
nition of Roman suzerainty. Palmyrenes then began to add to 
their names Roman ones. The Romans recognized the city's 
military importance, for their road from Damascus to the 
Euphrates passed through it. 

Palmyra reached its period of splendour between A.D. 130 
and 270. To this period most of its inscribed monuments belong, 
Its international trade extended as far east as China, and as a 
city created by the caravan trade it became the true heir of Petra. 

The Palmyrenes did not distinguish themselves as warriors odaynath 
until their chieftain Odaynath (Odenathus, Ar. Udhaynah) ^ pbm 
drove out of Syria Shapur I, who in A.D. 260 had captured the cn ° m 
Emperor Valerian and conquered a large portion of Syria. 
Odaynath pursued Shapur to the very walls of his capital, 
Ctesiphon (al-Mada'in). In the protracted struggle between the 
H Romans and the Sasanids, who succeeded (226) the Parthians, 
the Palmyrene chief sided with the former and was appointed in 
262 dux Orienti$ % vice-emperor over the Orient. The Emperor 
i Gallienus bestowed on him the honorific title of Imperator and 
acknowledged him master of the Roman legions in the East 
This meant that over Asia Minor and Egypt the supreme author- 
ity was nominally in his hand; over Syria, North Arabia and 
possibly Armenia it was virtually so. Thus did Palmyra become 
^mistress of Western Asia. Four years later (266-7) Odaynath and 
, his eldest son were treacherously assassinated at yims (Emesa), 
- possibly atthe instigation of Rome, which had suspected him of 
^disloyalty. r < 

; Odaynath's beautiful and ambitious wife Zenobia (Aramaic 



76 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART I 



Bath-Zabbay, Ar. al-Zabba , also Zaynab) proved a worthy 
successor. Ruling on behalf of her young son Wahb-AUath (the 
gift of al-Lat, Greek Athenodorus) she arrogated to herself the 
title of Queen of the East and for a time defied the Roman empire. 
With masculine energy she pushed forward the frontiers of her 
kingdom so as to include Egypt and a large part of Asia Minor, 
where the Roman garrisons in 270 were thrust back as far as 
Ankara (Ancyra). Even in Chalcedon opposite Byzantium a 
military attempt was made to establish her rule. Her victorious 
troops in the same year occupied Alexandria, the second city 
of the empire, and her minor son, who was then proclaimed 
King of Egypt, issued coins from which the head of Aurelian 
was omitted. Her success on the battlefield was due in the main 
to her two Palmyrene generals, Zabbay and Zabda. 

Aurelian at last bestirred himself. In a battle at Antioch 
followed by another near yims he defeated Zabda, and in the 
spring of 272 he entered Palmyra. The proud Arab queen fled 
in despair on a swift dromedary into the desert, but was finally 
taken captive and led in golden chains before the chariot of the 
victor to grace his triumphal entry into Rome. En route to his 
capital Aurelian was informed of an uprising in Palmyra and 
thereupon speedily returned to the city, completely destroyed 
its walls and dissolved its commonwealth. The ornaments of the 
glorious Temple of the Sun (Bel) he transferred to the new temple 
he erected in Rome to the sun-god of the East in memory of his 
notable victory. The city was left in ruins, in practically the same 
state as at present. Thus did the brilliant and meteoric glory of 
Palmyra come to an end. 

The Palmyrene civilization was an interesting blend of Greek, 
Syrian and Parthian (Iranian) elements. It is significant not 
only in itself but, as in the case of the Nabataean civilization 
which we have already studied, as an illustration of the cultural 
heights which the Arabians of the desert are capable of attain- 
ing when the proper opportunities present themselves. That the 
Palmyrenes were of Arabian stock is evidenced from the proper 
names and the frequent occurrence of Arabic words in their 
Aramaic inscriptions. The language they spoke was a dialect 
of Western Aramaic not unlike the Nabataean and Egyptian 
Aramaic. Their religion had the prominent solar features that 
characterized the religion of North Arabians. Bel, of Babylonian 



7 8 



THE PRE4SLAMIC AGE 



PART 1 



origin, stood at the head of the pantheon; Baal Shamin (the lord 
of the heavens) figured in votive inscriptions and no less than 
twenty other names of deities occur in Palmyrene. 

With the fall of the ephemeral kingdom of Palmyrena land 
traffic sought and found other paths. Busra (Bostra) in IJawran 
and other Ghassanid towns became beneficiaries of the desert 
city as that city had itself once been the beneficiary of Petra. 
3 The The Ghassanids claim descent from an ancient South Arabian 
tribe, headed formerly by f Amr Muzayqiya* ibn- c Amir Ma*-al- 
Sama', which is supposed to have fled to IJawran x and al- 
Balqa* from al-Yaman towards the end of the third Christian 
century at the destruction of the Ma'rib dam. Jafnah, a son of 
'Amr, is regarded as the founder of the dynasty, for which abu-al- 
Fida' 2 claims thirty-one sovereigns, rjamzah al-Isfahani 3 thirty- 
two, and al-Mas f udi 4 and ibn-Qutaybah 6 only eleven. These 
figures show how obscure Jafnid history has remained to Arab 
chroniclers. 

This Yamani tribe displaced the Sallh, the first Arabians to 
found a kingdom in Syria, and established itself in the region 
south-east of Damascus at the northern end of the great trans- 
port route that bound MaVib with Damascus. In course of time 
the banu-Ghassan were Christianized and Syrianized, adopting 
the Aramaic language of Syria without, however, abandoning 
their native Arabic tongue. Like other Arabian tribes in the 
Fertile Crescent they thus became bilingual. About the end of the 
fifth century they were brought within the sphere of Byzantine 
political influence and used as a buffer state to stay the overflow 
of Bedouin hordes, serving a purpose not unlike that of Trans- 
jordan under the British today. Facing the Byzantine empire 
as they did, the Ghassanids adopted a form of Christianity which, 
though of the local Monophysite variety, still coincided with 
their political interests. Their capital was at first a movable 
camp; later it may have become fixed at al-Jabiyah in the 
Jawlan (Gaulanitis) and for some time was located at Jilliq. 6 
TheSyro- The Ghassanid kingdom, like its rival and* relative at al- 

Arab 

kingdom i Assyrian JjfaurSnu (cf. LucUnbill, vol. i, §§ 672, 82 1), bxbbcal Bashan, classical 
hlw t Aurambs. 

g * Ta'rikk {Constantinople, 12S6), vol. i, pp. 76*7. 

* Op. cit. pp 115-22. * Muruj l vol iu, pp. 217-21. 

* A/'Afa'drzf, cd. F, Wustenfcld (Gotttngen, 1850), pp 314-16. 

f Consult Leone Caetani, Ann alt dclV Islam (Milan, 1910), vol. ni, p, 92S. 



CH. VI THE NABATAEAtt AND OTHER PETTY KINGDOMS 79 

girah, the kingdom of the Lakhmids, attained its greatest 
importance during the sixth century after Christ. In this century 
al-$arith II ibn-Jabalah of Ghassan (fa. 529-69) and al-Mun- 
dhir III ibn-Ma-al-Sama 1 of al-Hlrah (Alamundarus of Byzan* 
tine histories, f 554) dominate Arab history. This al-IJarith 
(nicknamed al-A'raj, the lame, by Arab chroniclers) is the first 
authentic name and by far the greatest in Jafnid annals. His 
history can be checked with the Greek sources. 1 As a reward for 
defeating his formidable Lakhmid rival, al-Mundhir III, the 
Byzantine Emperor Justinian appointed him (529) lord over all 
the Arab tribes of Syria and created him patricius and phylarch 
—the highest rank next to that of the emperor himself. In Arabic 
the title was rendered simply rnalik, king. 

The greater part of al-^arith's long reign was occupied with 
wars in the service of the Byzantine interests. About 544, in a 
battle with al-Mundhir III, the latter captured a son of al- 
ftarith and offered him as a sacrifice to al- c Uzza, the counterpart 
of the Greek Aphrodite. 2 But ten years later al-J^an'th took his 
revenge and slew his Lakhmid enemy in a battle in the district 
of Qinnasrln. This battle is perhaps the "Day of yallmah" of 
Arabic tradition, yalimah being the daughter of al-IJarith who, 
before the battle, perfumed with her own hands the hundred 
Ghassanid champions ready for death and clad them in shrouds 
ofjvvhite linen in addition to coats of mail. 3 
* Inv$63 al-ftarith paid a visit to the court of Justinian I at 
Constantinople. 4 The appearance of this Bedouin phylarch left a 
deep impression on the emperor's entourage. During aUyarith's 
stay in Constantinople he secured the appointment of the Mono- 
physite bishop Jacob Baradaeus (Ya'qub al~Barda*i) of Edessa 
as prelate of the Syrian Arabs. So zealous was this Jacob in the 
propagation of the faith that the Syrian Monophysite church 
became known after him as Jacobite. 

AWJarith's successor was his son al-Mundhir, also Alarnun- Ai- 
dants in Byzantine chronicles. Like his father, al-Mundhir proved 
an ardent protector of Monophvsitism, 5 and this temporarily ai- 

A Frocopius, Bk. I, ch. l? r §§ 4?«8, Joannes Malalas, Chronographs, cd. L. 

» 1? rf (Bonn ' lS 3 l >* PP* 435» 461 st?. * Procopius, Bk. II, ch. 28, § 13. 

Ihn-Qutayhah, pp. 314*15; cf. ahu*al-Fida , vol. i, p. 84. 

* Theophanes, Chronograph^ ed. C. de Boor (Leipzig, 1S83), p. 240. 
„ John of Bphesus, EcckstGstical Htstary, ed. Wilham Curcton (Oxford, 1853), 
PpJSSUT, tr. R 4 £ayne Smith (Oxford, iS6o), pp. 584-5. 



8o 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PARTI 



alienated the sympathy of Byzantium and resulted in an open 
rebellion on the part of the Ghassanids. In 580 he visited Con- 
stantinople with his two sons and was received with great honour 
by Tiberius II, who replaced the precious diadem on his head 
with a still more precious crown. In the same year he successfully 
raided and burned al-rlirah, 1 the capital of his Lakhmid foes. 
But this was not enough to remove the suspicion of treachery to 
the imperial cause with which his father before him had been 
charged. At the dedication of a church in Huwarln, between 1 
Damascus and Palmyra, he was apprehended and taken prisoner 
to Constantinople, later to be incarcerated in Sicily. Likewise his 
son and successor, al-Nu f man, who ventured to raid and devas- 
tate Byzantine territory, was carried away to Constantinople. 
F»n of After al-Mundhir and al-Nu*man anarchy seems to have pre- 
Gb«gfin* va ^ ec * * n Ghassanland. The various tribes in the Syrian desert 
chose their own chieftains. The capture of Jerusalem and 
Damascus (613-14) by the Sasanid Khusraw Parwlz dealt the 
last blow to the Jafnid dynasty. Whether Heraclius on his 
reconquest of Syria in 629 restored the Syro-Arab phylarchate 
is uncertain, Arab chroniclers make Jabalah ibn-al-Ayham the 
last king of the house of Ghassan. On the memorable battlefield 
of Yarmuk (636) this monarch fought on the Byzantine side 
against the Arabians, but later adopted Islam. As he was cir- 
cumambulating the Ka*bah in the course of his first pilgrimage, 
so the story goes, a Bedouin stepped on his cloak and the 
ex-king slapped him on the face. The Caliph *Umar decreed 
that Jabalah should either submit to a similar blow from the 
hand of the Bedouin or pay a fine, upon which Jabalah renounced 
Islam and retired to Constantinople. 3 

The degree of culture attained by the Ghassanids, neighbours 
of the Byzantines, was undoubtedly higher than that to which 
their rivals on the Persian borderland, the Lakhmids, ever 
attained. Under their regime and during the earlier Roman 
period a peculiar civilization seems to have developed along the 
entire eastern fringe of Syria from a mixture of Arabic, Syrian 
and Greek elements. Houses of basalt, palaces, triumphal arches, 
public baths, aqueducts, theatres and churches stood where today 
there is nothing but utter desolation. The eastern and southern 

1 John of Epbcsus, p. 415 (text),= p. 385 (tr.). 
* Ibn-'Abd-Rabbihi, Vqd, vol. i f pp 140-41. 



CH.V1 THE NABATAEAN AND OTHER PETTY KINGDOMS Si 



slopes of Ilawran have preserved the ruins of almost three hun- 
dred towns and villages where only a few exist at the present day* 

A number of the pre-lslamic poets of Arabia found in the 
Ghassanid phylarchs munificent patrons. Labid, the youngest of 
the seven poets who composed the famous "Mu'allaqat", fought 
on the Ghassanid side in the battle of IJallmah. When al- 
Nabighah al-Dhubyani fell out with the Lakhmid king he found 
in the court of the sons of al-Harith a haven of refuge. The 
Madfnese poet Hassan ibn-Thabit (lx ca. 563), who claimed kin- 
ship with the banu-Ghassan, visited their court in his youth before 
he became the poet laureate of Muhammad and made a number 
of references to it in his dtwdn (anthology). In an apocryphal 
passage ascribed to him 1 we have a glowing account of the 
luxury and magnificence of Jabalah's court with its Makkan and 
Babylonian and Greek singers and musicians of both sexes and 
its free use of wine.* 

From time immemorial streams of Arabian wanderers have 4- 
been want to trickle slang the eastern coast of their peninsula. 
to the Tigro-Euphrates valley and settle therein. About the 
beginning of the third century of our era a number of such 
tribes, calling themselves Tanukh and said to have been of 
Yamanite origin, found an abode in the fertile region west of the 
Euphrates. Their advent may have coincided with the disturb- 
ances consequent to the fall of the Arsacid Parthian and the 
establishment of the Sasanid dynasty (a.D. 226), 

The Tanukh lived first in tents. Their temporary camp 
developed in course of time into permanent al-ftlrah (from 
Syriac fierta, camp), which lay about three miles south of 
al-Kufah, not far from ancient Babylon. This al-IJlrah became 
the capital of Persian Arabia. 

The native population was Christian belonging to the East 
Syrian (later Nestorian) Church and was referred to by Arab 
authors as *ibdd % i.e. worshippers (of Christ). 3 Some of the Tanukh 
were subsequently Christianized and domiciled in northern 
Syria. The Tanukhs who later came to southern Lebanon and 
professed the secret Druze religion trace their origin to the 
Lakhmid kings of ai-yirah.* 

* Abu-al*Faraj aMsbahani, al-AghSm (BOiaq, 12S4-5), vol. xvi, p. 15. 
Among the Christian families living today in southern Lebanon arc some which 
traccthcir descent to Ghassanid origin. » Cf. Tabari, vol. i, p 770, 

i <X Hitti, The Origins cf the Druu People and Reheum (New York, 1028 
reprint to$6)» p 21 ^ 



82 THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE * paktx 

Traditionnames Malik ibn-Fahm al-Azdi 1 as the first chieftain 
of this Arab settlement in ai-'Iraq and makes his son Jadhimah 
al-Abrash a vassal of Ardashir. But the real founder of the 
Lakhmid kingdom was f Amr ibn-'Adi ibn-Nasr ibn-Rabi'ah 
ibn-Lakhm, a son of Jadhlmah's sister, who had married a 
scrvantof Jadhimah/Amr established himself in al-rjlrah, which 
he made his capital. 

With the establishment of the Nasrid or Lakhmid dynasty in 
the latter part of the third century of our era we begin to tread 
on firm historical ground. The names of some twenty Lakhmid 
kings have been handed down to us, but the first clearly deline- 
ated personage is Imru'-al-Qays I (f A.D. 328), whose epitaph 
is the oldest proto-Arabic inscription yet discovered. The script 
is a variation of the Nabataean character and shows many signs 
of transition towards the later North Arabic script, particularly 
in the matter of joining the letters.* 

A descendant of Imru*-al-Qays was al-Nu'man I al-A f war (the 
one-eyed, ea. 400-418), celebrated in poetry and legend. He 
is credited with having built al-Khawarnaq, a famous castle 
near al-rjfirah, as a residence for Bahrain Gor, the son of Yaz- 
dagird I (399-420), who was anxious to have his son brought up 
in the salubrious air of the desert, Al-Khawarnaq was declared 
a miracle of art and was ascribed by later historians to a Byzan- 
tine architect who suffered the fate common to many legendary 
architects in being put to death on the completion of his work 
— a favourite motif in such stories — so that the construction 
might never be duplicated. Al-Nu'man remained a pagan 
throughout his life and at one time persecuted his own Christian 
subjects and prevented the Arabs from visiting St, Simeon 
Stylites, though in the latter part of his life he felt more kindly 
disposed towards Christianity. Simeon was himself an Arab 
and the crowds of the desert flocked to see the wonderful sight 
of this ascetic living on a pillar-top. The erection of al-Sadir, a 
castle associated in poetry with ai-Khawarnaq and lying "in the 
midst of the desert between al-rjlirah and Syria**, 3 is also 
attributed to al-Nu'man. Al-Sadir and other Lakhmid Jfirahs 
are today but names. None are identified except al-Khawarnaq. 
Ai-Hirah Under ai-Nu'man's son and successor, al-Mundhir I (ta. 

at the 

height of 1 The A*d and the Tanukh v,erc confederated into one tribe in al-'Iraq. 

its power t Dussaud, Les Arcbes en Syrit, pp. 34.5, * Yfcqut, vol. ii, p. 375. 



CH*Yi.THE NABATAEAN AND OTHER PETTY KINGDOMS 83 

A J). 4tS-62), al-fj!irah began to play its important role in the 
events of the day. So great was al-Mundhir's influence that he 
could force the Persian priests to crown Bahram, once the 
protege of his father, over the claims of a powerful pretender to 
the throne. In 421 he fought beside his Sasanid suzerain against 
the Byzantines. 

In the first half of the sixth century al-Hlrah was ruled by 
another Mundhir, al-Mundhir III (ca. 505-54), whom the 
Arabs call ibn-Ma -al-Sama 5 ,Ma*-al-Sama' (the water of heaven) 
being a sobriquet of his mother Mariyah or Mawlyah. His 
was the most illustrious rule in Lakhmid annals. He proved 
a thorn in the side of Roman Syria, His raids devastated the 
land as far as Antioch until he found more than a match in 
the Ghassanid ai-PIarith. 1 About this al-Mundhir, al-Ag/idni* 
relates the curious story of the two boon-companions whom he 
is said to have buried alive in the course of a carousal. 

His son and successor, *Amr, surnamed ibn-Hind(A.D. 554-69), 
though tyrannical was a munificent patron of poets. The greatest 
bards of Arabia then living, such as Tarafah ibn~al-*Abd, al- 
Harith ibn-Hillizah and \Amr ibn-Kulthum (three of the seven 
reputed authors of ''Golden Odes", Mu*allagdt) f flocked to his 
court. e Amr, like other Lakhmid and Jafnid monarchs, recognized 
in the contemporary poets leaders of public opinion and potential 
publicity agents. Hence the lavish bounties which he and other 
patrons, with the hope of seeing their influence extended among 
the Bedouins, bestowed on the poets who frequented their courts. 
f Amr met his death at the hand of his proteg6 ibn-Kulthum, 
who thus avenged an insult to his mother by the king. 

Hind, the mother of * Amr, was a Christian princess of Ghas- The 
san; others say of Kindah. She founded in the capital a convent gg^ 
which survived into the second century of Islam; 3 Yaqut 4 has Chns* 
preserved for us its dedicatory inscription. In this inscription l5ani,ed 
Hind calls herself "the maid of Christ and the mother of His 
slave [*Amr] and the daughter of His slaves". That there were 
^Christians among the populace professing the East Syrian creed 
* is indicated by the many references to the bishops of al-rjirah, 
one of whom lived as early as A.D. 410. 

1 * £*copn*s, Bk. I, ck J7, §§ Malalas, pp. 434-5, 445, 460 

- T*b*n. rot it, pp. 188a, 1903. * Vol, ii. p. 709* 



84 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART I 



The Lakhmid dynasty came to an end with al-Nu'man III 
abu-Qabus (ca. 580-602), son of al-Mundhir IV. He was a 
patron of the famous poet al-Nabighah al-Dhubyani before the 
latter was driven from ai-I^Irah as a result of a false accusation. 
Having been brought up in a Christian home, al-Nu'man was 
converted to Christianity and became the first and only Christian 
Lakhmid king- That no member of the Lakhmid house saw fit 
before this time to adopt Christianity, the faith of the Byzantines, 
may be explained on the ground that the IjTrah kings found it 
to their political interest to remain friendly with Persia. Al- 
Nu'man was baptized into the East Syrian (Nestorian) com- 
munion, the one least objectionable to Persia. 

The Arab civilization of al-rjirah, which faced Persia, did not 
attain the high degree reached by the Arab civilizations of Petra, 
Palmyra and Ghassanland under Syro- Byzantine influence. The 
Arabs of al-rjlrah spoke Arabic as a daily language but used 
Syriac in writing, just as the Nabataeans and Palmyrenes spoke 
Arabic and wrote in Aramaic. The Christians in the lower valley 
of the Euphrates acted as the teachers of the heathen Arabs in 
reading, writing and religion. From al-rjirah the beneficent 
influences spread into Arabia proper* There are those who hold 
that it was the Syrian church of al-rjlrah which was responsible 
for the introduction of Christianity into Najran. According to 
traditions preserved in ibn-Rustah 1 it was from al-Hlrah that the 
Quraysh acquired the art of writing and the system of false 
belief. 2 From this it is clear that Persian cultural influences 
likewise found their way into the peninsula through the Lakhmid 
kingdom. 

After al~Nu*man Iyas ibn-Qabtsah of the Tayyi* ruled 
(602-1 1), but beside him stood a Persian resident in control of 
the government. The Persian kings thus incautiously abolished 
the system of Arab vassalage and appointed Persian governors 
to whom the Arab chieftains were subordinate. Such was still 
the arrangement in 633 when Khalid ibn-al-Walld at the head 
of the Moslem army received the submission of al-rjirah. 8 

As the Ghassanids stood in relation to the Byzantines and the 
Lakhmids to the Persians so did the Kindite kings of Central 

1 Al*A % I&g al-Nafisah, ed. de Goeje (Leyden, 1892), p. 192, U. 2-3, and p. 217, 
U. 9-io. Cf. lbn-Qutaybah, pp. 273-4. 

* At. zanda$ch t from Per*, zandlk - Magian, fire-worshipper; Manicbaean, 
heretic, 1 Today where al-tflrah once stood lie ft few low mound*. 



CH.vr THE NABATAEAN AND OTHER PETTY KINGDOMS 85 



Arabia stand in relation to the last Tubba's of al-Yaman, 
.Within the peninsula they were the only rulers to receive the title 
of maJik (king), usually reserved by the Arabians for foreign 
potentates. 

' Though of South Arabian origin and, at the time preceding 
the rise of Islam, settled in the region to the west of Fladramawt, 
the powerful Kindah tribe is not mentioned in early South 
Arabian inscriptions; the first mention in history is in the fourth 
century of the Christian era. The reputed founder of the dynasty, 
rjujr, surnamed Akil al-Murar, was according to tradition a 
stepbrother of the yimyarite Hassan ibn-Tubba f and was 
appointed by the latter about A.D. 480 ruler of certain tribes 
whom the Tubba* had conquered in Central Arabia. 1 In this 
position rjujr was succeeded by his son 'Amr. 'Amr's son al- 
rjarith, the most valiant king of Kindah, was the one who for 
a short time after the death of the Persian Emperor Qubadh, 
rendered himself master of al-yirah, only to lose it (about 529) 
to the Lakhmid al-Mundhir III. Al-Mundhir put al-yarith to 
death in 529 together with about fifty other members of the 
royal family, a fatal blow to the power of Kindah- Al-rjarith 
may have resided at al-Anbar, a city on the Euphrates about 
forty miles north-west of Baghdad. 

The discord among the sons of al-rjarith, each heading a 
, tribe, led to the dissolution of the confederacy and the final 
downfall of the ephemeral kingdom. The remnant of Kindah 
were forced back to their settlements in fladramawt. This 
brought to an end one of the two rivals of al-rjirah in the 
three-cornered fight for supremacy among the North Arabians, 
the other rival being the Ghassanids. The celebrated poet 
Irnru*-al-Qays, composer of one of the greatest of the Golden 
Odes,* was a descendant of the royal Kindah line and made many 
vain attempts to regain a part of his heritage, H is poems are bitter 
with rancour against the Lakhmids. In quest of aid he went as 
far as Constantinople, hoping to win the sympathy of Justinian, 

( the enemy of al-rjllrah. On his way back, so the tradition goes, 
he was poisoned (about 540) at Ankara by an emissary of the 
emperor. 3 

1 Isfahan*, Ta'rttA, p. 140; ibn^Qutaybali, p. 30S; Gunnar Ohtider, The Kings cf 
A*K«fe (Lurid, J927)»PP 3^9- * See below, p 94. 

* At-Ya'qQbi, Tctrm, cd. M. Th. Houtsraa (L^den, 18S3), vol i, p, 251; OHnder, 



86 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART I 



In early Islam a number of Kindites came into prominence. 
Chief among these was al-Ash*ath lbn-Qays, the rladramawt 
chieftain who distinguished himself in the conquest of Syria 
and al-*Iraq and was rewarded by the governship of a Persian 
province. The descendants of al-Ash*ath held important posts 
under the Umayyad cahphs in Syria. Al-Muqanna', 1 the veiled 
prophet of Khurasan who posed as an incarnation of the deity and 
for years defied the forces of the 'Abbasid Caliph al-Mahdi, was 
probably a Persian, not a Kindite. The earliest philosopher of 
Arabian blood was Ya'qub tbn-Ishaq al-Kmdi, 2 whose millen- 
nium Baghdad celebrated in 1962 

Kindah's rise is interesting not only in itself but as the first 
attempt in inner Arabia to unite a number of tribes around the 
central authority of one common chief As such the experiment 
established a precedent for al-Hijaz and Muhammad 

A hero of Thomas Moore's Lath Rookh See below, p 370 




NABATAEAN BRONZE COIN 

Obv- Trajan's head; rev. city goddess of Pctra, to be identified with 
Aliat-Manutu 



1 



CHAPTER VII 
AL^IJAZ ON THE EYE OF THE RISE OF ISLAM 



IN its broad outline Arabian history comprises three main 
eras; 

I. The Sabaeo-Himyarite period, ending at the beginning of 
the sixth century after Christ; 

z^The JahilTyah period, which in a sense extends from "the 
creation of Adam" down to the mission of Muhammad, but more 
particularly, as used here, covers the century immediately pre- 
ceding the rise of Islam; 

3. The Islamic period, extending to the present day. 

The term jahtliyah> usually rendered "time of ignorance" or Thejahi- 
"barbarism", in reality means the period in which Arabia had Kyah day * 
no dispensation, no inspired prophet, no revealed book; for 
igtiorauce and barbarism can hardly be applied to such a cul- 
tured "and lettered society as that developed by the South 
Arabians* The word occurs several times in the Koran (3 i 148, 
5 * 55> 33 * 33* 48 : 26). In his anxiety to wean his people 

'frompre-Islanuc religious ideas, particularly from idolatry, the 
intensely monotheistic Muhammad declared that the new 
religion was to obliterate all that had gone before it. This was 

later interpreted as constituting a ban on all pre-Islamic ideas 
and ideals. But ideas are hard to kill, and no one person's veto 
is strong enough to cancel the past. 

Unlike the South Arabians the vast majority of the population 
of North Arabia, including al-IJijaz and Najd, is nomadic. The 
history of the Bedouins is in the main a record of guerilla wars 
called ayydm al-Arab (the days of the Arabians), in which there 
was a great deal of raiding and plundering but little bloodshed. 
The sedentary population of al-IJijaz and Najd developed no 

"ancient culture of its own. In this they were unlike their neigh- 
bours and ^kindred, the Nabataeans, Palmyrenes, Ghassanids 
* and Lakhmids, The Nabataeans, and to a larger extent the 

s 7 



88 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PARTI 



Palmyrenes, were partially Aramaicized; the Ghassanids and 
Lakhmids were South Arabian colonists amidst Syro-Byzantine 
and Syro-Persian cultures. Ourstudy of the J ahiliyah period there- 
fore limits itself to a survey of the battles between the northern 
Bedouin tribes in the century preceding the Hijrah and to an 
account of the outside cultural influences operating among the 
settled inhabitants of al-$ ijaz preparatory to the rise of Islam. 

The light of authentic record illumines but faintly the Jahi- 
liyah age* Our sources for this period, in which the North 
Arabians had no system of writing, are limited to traditions, 
legends, proverbs, and above all to poems, none of which, how- 
ever, were committed to writing before the second and third 
centuries after the Hijrah, two to four hundred years after the 
events which they were supposed to commemorate. Though 
traditional and legendary this data is none the less valuable; for 
what a people believe, even if untrue, has the same influence 
over their lives as if it were true. The North Arabians developed 
no system of writing until almost the time of Muhammad. The 
only three pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions thus far found 
(besides the proto-Arabic inscription of Imru*-al-Qays in al- 
Namarah, 328) are those of Zabad south-east of Aleppo (512), 
of r^arran in al-Laja (568) and umm-al-Jimal (same century). 

The term Arabians, as already explained, includes in its 
broad sense all the inhabitants of the peninsula. In its narrow 
sense it implies the North Arabians, who did not figure in inter- 
national affairs until the unfolding of the Islamic power. Like- 
wise the term Arabic signifies the rlimyarite-Sabaean as well as 
the northern dialect of al-Hijaz, but since the latter became the 
sacred language of Islam and utterly superseded the southern 
dialects of al-Yaman it became the Arabic par excellence. 
Therefore, when we speak after this of the Arabians and of 
Arabic we have particularly in mind the North Arabian people 
and the language of the Koran, 
The "days The Ayyam al-'Arab were intertribal hostilities generally 
Arab!™" arising from disputes over cattle, pasture-lands or springs. They 
afforded ample opportunity for plundering and raiding, for the 
manifestation of single-handed deeds of heroism by the cham- 
pions of the contending tribes and for the exchange of vitriolic 
satires on the part of the poets, the spokesmen of the warring 
parties. Though always ready for a fight the Bedouin was not 



3T.VH AWHJAZ ON THE EVE OF THE RISE OF ISLAM 89 

lecessarily eager to be killed* His encounters, therefore, were 
lot as sanguinary as their accounts would lead one to believe. 
Nevertheless these Ayyam provided a safety valve for a possible 
Overpopulation in Bedouin land, whose inhabitants were norm- 
Jly in a condition of semi-starvation and to whom the fighting 
nood was a chronic state of mind. Through them vendetta 
jecameone of the strongest religio-social institutions in Bedouin 
ife. 

» The course of events on each of these "days", as reported to us, 
bllows somewhat the same pattern. At first only a few men 
:ome to blows with one another in consequence of some border 
iispute or personal insult. The quarrel of the few then becomes 
he business of the whole. Peace is finally restored by the inter- 
vention of some neutral party. The tribe with the fewer casualties 
>ays its adversary blood money for the surplus of dead. Popular 
nemoty keeps the recollection of the heroes alive for centuries 
o come. 

s Such was the case of the Day of Bu'ath, 1 fought between the 
wo related tribes of al-Madlnah, the Aws and the Khazraj, some 
tars before the migration of the Prophet and his followers to 
hat town* The Days of al-Fijar (transgression), so called because 
hey fell in the holy months during which fighting was prohibited, 
vere fought between the Prophet's family, the Quraysh, and their 
allies the Kinanah on one side, and the Hawazin on the other. 
Muhammad as a young man is said to have participated in one 
>f the four combats. 3 

One of the earliest and most famous of these Bedouin wars was The 
he IJarb al-Basus, fought toward the end of the fifth century of 
rorera between the banu-Bakr 3 and their kinsmen the banu- 
Taghlib in north-eastern Arabia. Both tribes were Christianized 
md\ considered themselves descendants of Wa*iL The conflict 
trose over nothing more than a she-camel, the property of an 
»W woman of Bakr named Basus, which had been wounded 
>y a Taghiib chief. 4 According to the legendary history of the 
tyyam this war was carried on for forty years with reciprocal 
aiding and plundering, while its flames were fanned by poetical 

J vol. ii, p. 162. 

Hm-HfchSm, pp. 1 17*19; quoted by Yfiqut, vol. p. 570. 
* j iS*? ° f Dt y 5r - Bakr (Diarbekr) still bears the name of this tribe. 

vol »v f pp. 140-52; Abu.Tanjmam, ffamasak> pp. 420*23; m Itf % vol. ui, 



! 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



*ARTI 



exhortations. The fratricidal struggle was brought to an end 
about 525 through the intercession of al-Mundhir III of al- 
Birah, but only after the exhaustion of both sides. The names of 
the leaders on the Taghlib side, Kulayb ibn-Rabfah and his 
brother, the hero-poet Muhalhil (f ca. A.D. 531), as well as the 
name of Jassas ibn-Murrah on the Bakr side, are still household 
words in all Arabic-speaking lands. This Muhalhil became the 
Zir of the still popular romance Qtssat al-Zir. 
Tb« Hardly less famous is the Day of Dahis and aI-Ghabra\the best 

D&^« f known event of the pagan period. This war was fought between 
the f Abs and its sister tribe Dhubyan in Central Arabia. Ghata- 
fan was the traditional ancestor of both. The occasion was the 
unfair conduct of the Dhubyanites in a race between a horse 
called Dahis belonging to the chieftain of *Abs and a mare 
named al-Ghabra owned by the sheikh of Dhubyan. The struggle 
broke out in the second half of the sixth century, not long after 
the conclusion of the Basus peace, and persisted at intervals for 
several decades into Islamic times. 1 It was in this war that 
'Antarah (or e Antar) ibn-Shaddad al- f Absi (ca. A.D. 525-615), 
the Achilles of the Arabian heroic age, distinguished himself as 
a poet and warrior. 
North No people in the world, perhaps, manifest such enthusiastic 
£ r ?te c admiration for literary expression and are so moved by the word, 
influence spoken or written, as the Arabs. Hardly any language seems 
language capable of exercising over the minds of its users such irresistible 
influence as Arabic. Modern audiences in Baghdad, Damascus 
and Cairo can be stirred to the highest degree by the recital of 
poems, only vaguely comprehended, and by the delivery of 
orations in the classical tongue, though it be only partially 
understood. The rhythm, the rhyme, the music, produce on them 
the effect of what they call "lawful magic" (siftr haldl). 

Typical Semites, the Arabians created or developed no great 
art of their own. Their artistic nature found expression through 
one medium: speech. If the Greek gloried primarily in his statues 
and architecture, the Arabian found in his ode (qasidah) and the 
Hebrew in his psalm, a finer mode of self-expression, "The 
beauty of man", declares an Arabic adage, "lies in the eloquence 
of his tongue." "Wisdom", in a late saying, "has alighted on three 
things: the brain of the Franks, the hands of the Chinese and the 
* Aghanii vol. ix, p. 150, vol. vii, p 150. 



cn + vii AL-KIJAZ ON THE EVE OF THE RISE OF ISLAM $r 

tongue of the Arabs*" 1 Eloquence, i.e, ability to express one's 
self forcefully and elegantly in both prose and poetry, together 
with archery and horsemanship were considered in the Jahi- 
Hyah period the three basic attributes of "the perfect man" 
{al-kamit). By virtue of its peculiar structure Arabic lent itself 
admirably to a terse, trenchant, epigrammatic manner of speech. 
Islam made full use of this feature of the language and of this 
psychological peculiarity of its people. Hence the "miraculous 
character*' (fjas) of the style and composition of the Koran, 
adduced by Moslems as the strongest argument in favour of the 
genuineness of their faith. The triumph of Islam was to a certain 
extent the triumph of a language, more particularly of a book. 

From the heroic age of Arabic literature, covering the Jahi- The 
liyah period and extending from about A.D. 525 to 622, we have ^ 01C 
preserved for us a few proverbs, certain legends and in particular 
a fairly abundant amount of poetry — all compiled and edited in 
later Islamic days. No scientific literature existed beyond a few 
magical, meteorological and medicinal formulas. Proverbs con- 
stitute a fair index of folk mentality and experience. Luqrnan 
the Sage {al->hakhn) t in whose mouth many of the ancient words 
of wisdom were put, was either an Abyssinian or a Hebrew* 
Tradition has handed down the names of a number of wise men 
and women of the JahilTyah, e.g. Aktham ibn-Sayfi, rjajib ibn- 
Zurarah and Hind the daughter of al-Khuss. In the Majma aU 
Amthal hy al-Maydani* (f 11 24) and in the Amtltdl al-Arab 
of al-Mufaddal al-Dabbi 3 (f 786) we have many specimens of 
this pre-Islamie wisdom literature. 

Prose could not have been well represented in the JahiHyah 
literature since no system of writing had then been fully 
developed. Yet we have a few pieces, mainly legends and tradi- 
tions, composed in Islamic days, which purport to have come 
from earlier times. These stories deal mostly with genealogies 
{ahs£b) and the intertribal combats, the above-discussed Days of 
the Arabians. The Arabian genealogist, like his brother the 
Arabian historian, had a horror vatuiznd his fancy had no diffi- 
culty in bridging gaps and filling vacancies; in this way he has 
succeeded in giving us in most instances a continuous record 

* Cf k ai'J&td?, McjmiiGt Rcsail (Cairo, 1324), pp. 41-3; 'Zgd s Vol. i, p. 125. 

a vole. (Oiro, *3io); G. Frcytag, Arabum prcvtrbia (Bonn, i$38-43)< 
J 2 \ols. (C<mstantlni>plc, 1300); a]-Mufad<Jal Hm-Salamah (t ea. 920). «£ 
FdBir, «L a- A, Storey {I^en, 191$), 



92 



THE TRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART 1 



from Adam or, in more modest compass, from Ishmael and 
Abraham. Ibn-Durayd's Kitab al-IshtiqSq 1 and the encyclo- 
pedic work of abu-al-Faraj al-Isbahani (or Isfahan!, f A.D. 967) 
entitled Kttdb al-Aghani (the book of songs) comprise most 
valuable data on the subject of genealogies. Specimens of rhymed 
prose attributed to pre-Islamic oracles have likewise survived. 

It was only in the field of poetical expression that the pre- 
Islamic Arabian excelled. Herein his finest talents found a field. 
The Bedouin's love of poetry was his one cultural asset. 

Arabic literature, like most literatures, sprang into existence 
with an outburst of poetry; but, unlike many others, its poetry 
seems to have issued forth full grown. The oldest pieces of poetry 
extant seem to have been composed some one hundred and 
thirty years before the Hijrah in connection with the War of 
al-Basus, but these odes, with their rigid conventions, presuppose 
a long period of development in the cultivation of the art of 
expression and the innate capacities of the language. The poets 
of the middle part of the sixth century have never been sur- 
passed. The early Moslem poets as well as the later and present- 
day versifiers regarded and still do regard the ancient produc- 
tions as models of unapproachable excellence. These early 
poems were committed to memory, transmitted by oral tradition 
and finally recorded in writing during the second and third 
centuries of the Hijrah. Modern critical research makes it 
evident that numerous revisions, editions and modifications 
were made to bring them into accord with the spirit of Islam 2 

The rhymed prose used by the oracles and soothsayers 
Qzuhhatt) may be considered the first stage in the development 
of the poetical form. The Koran exhibits such a style. The song 
of the camel-driver (Jtudd*) may have been the second. Native 
Arabic tradition which tries to explain the origin of poetry in the 
attempt of the cameleer to sing in time with the rhythmic move- 
ments of the carnePs pace may after all contain a germ of truth 
The word kadi t singer, is synonymous with sd*iq, camel-driver. 

Rajas, consisting of four or six feet to the line, evolved out 
of rhymed prose and constitutes the oldest and simplest metre. 
"It is the first-born child of poetry", so runs the Arabic defini- 
tion/'with rhymed prose [saj ] for a father and song for a mother/ 

1 Ed. F. WQsteafcld (Gfcttingen, 1854). 
» Cf. Taka tfusayn, al+Adcb cl-J&hxh (Cairo, 1927). 



CB.vn AL-HtjAZ ON THE EVE OF THE RISE OP ISLAM 93 

In this heroic age of literature poetry was the only means of The 
literary expression. The qastdah (ode) represented the only, as |£* m 
well as a most finished, type of poetical composition. Muhalhil classical 
(t ca. 531), the Taghlib hero of the Basus War, is credited with pcnod 
being the first to compose these long poems. It is very likely that 
the ode developed in connection with the Days of the Arabians, 
particularly among the Taghlib or Kindah tribes. Imru*-al- 
Qays (f ca. $40), originally a Qahtani from South Arabia, 
belonged to ICindah. Though one of the most ancient of bards, 
he is generally esteemed the greatest, the amir (prince) of poets. 
'Amr ibn-Kulthum (f ca» 600), on the other hand, was a Tagh- 
hbite of the Rabi*ah from North Arabia. Though speaking 
different dialects these poets produced odes which exhibit the 
same literary form. 

Appearing with Homeric suddenness the qasidah surpasses 
even the Iliad and the Odyssey in metrical complexity and 
elaborateness. And when it makes its first appearance on the 
pages of history the qastdah seems governed by a fixed set of 
conventions: stereotyped beginning, common epithets, stock 
figures of speech and same choice of theme* — all of which 
point to a long period of development. Rich in animated passion, 
expressed in forceful and compact language, the ode is poor in 
originalideas, in thought-provoking imagery, and is consequently 
lacking in universal appeal. The poet and not the poetry is 
more often the thing to be admired. Translated mto a foreign 
y language it loses its value. The personal, subjective element 
prevails. The theme is realistic, the horizon limited, the point 
of view local. No national epic was ever developed by the 
Arabians and no dramatic work of first-class importance. 

Among the ancient odes the so-called "Seven Mu'allaqat" The 
(suspended) hold first place. They are still honoured throughout JJ^f " 
♦he Arabic-speaking world as masterpieces of poetical composi- 
tion. Legend has it that each of these odes was awarded the 
annual prize at the fair of 'Ukaz and was inscribed in golden 
letters and suspended on the walls of the Ka'bah. 1 Their genesis 
is explained in this way: at *Ukaz, between Nakhlah and al- 
TaMf in al-$ijaz, was held an annual fair, a sort of literary 
congress whither hero-poets resorted to celebrate their exploits 
and contend for the coveted first honour. A poet made a name 

* Al-SuyGfi, al-Mmkir {Cairo, 1282), voL «, p. 240. 



94 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PARTI 



for himself here or nowhere. The Fair (su#) of *Ukaz stood in 
pre-Islamic days for a kind of Academic francaise of Arabia. 

The annual fair, we are told, was held during the sacred 
months when fighting was taboo. The pagan Arabian calendar 
was like the later Moslem one, lunar, the first thtee months 
of its spring season, i.e. dhu-al-Qa'dah, dhu-al-JJijjah and 
Muharram, coincided with the period of peace. The fair pro- 
vided ample opportunity for the exhibition of native wares, and 
for trade and exchange of commodities. We can easily visualize 
the sons of the desert flocking to these annual peaceful gather- 
ings, lingering around the booths, sipping date wine and enjoy- 
ing to the full the tunes of the singing girls. 

Though the first ode said to have won the favour of the judges 
of f Ukaz was that of Imru*~al-Qays (f ca. 540), no collection of 
the Mu*allaqat was attempted until the latter Umayyad period. 
I;Iammad al-Rawiyah, the famous rhapsodist who flourished in 
the middle of the eighth century, chose the Seven Golden Odes, 
undoubtedly from among many others, and compiled them into 
a separate group. This collection has been translated into most 
European languages. 1 
The pre Aside from the famous Seven Odes we have from pre-Islamic 
po« miC poetry a collection named, after its compiler, al-Mufaddal al- 
Dabbi (f ca, 785), al-Mufaddaliydt* containing one hundred 
and twenty odes composed by lesser lights, a number of diwdns 
(anthologies) and a large number of fragments and excerpts in 
the Diwan al-Hamdsah^ edited by abu-Tammam (f ca, 845) and 
in the Kitab al-Agham of al-Isbahani (f 967). 

The Arabian poet (skatr) t as the name indicates, was origin- 
ally one endowed with knowledge hidden from the common man, 
which knowledge he received from a demon, his special shay tan 
fsatan). As a poet he was in league with the unseen powers and 
could by his curses bring evil upon the enemy. Satire (htja) was 
therefore a very early form of Arabic poetry. 3 

As his office developed the poet acquired a variety of func- 
tions. In battle his tongue was as effective as his people's 
bravery. In peace he might prove a menace to public order by 
his fiery harangues. His poems might arouse a tribe to action in 

1 Sec William Jones, Works (London, 1799), vol iv, pp. 245-335* Anne and 
Wilfrid S. Blunt, The Seven Golden Odes 0/ Pagan Arabia (London, Z903). 
1 Ed C.J. Lyall, 3 vols (Oxford & Leydcn, 1921-4). 
* Balaam was a type of primitive Arabian satirist (Num. 23 : 7). 



at vit aLhijAz on the eve of the RISE OF ISLAM 9S 

1 the same manner as the tirade of a demagogue in a modern 
political campaign. As the press agent, the journalist, of his 
day his favour was sought by princely gifts, as the records of the 
courts of aKrlirah and Ghassan show. His poems, committed 
to memory and transmitted from one tongue to another, offered 
an invaluable means of publicity. He was both moulder and 
agent of public opinion. Qaf al-lisdn (cutting off the tongue) was 
the formula used for subsidizing him and avoiding his satires. 

Besides being oracle, guide, orator and spokesman of his 
community the poet was its historian and scientist, in so far 
as it had a scientist. Bedouins measured intelligence by poetry. 
"Who dares dispute my tribe ... its pre-eminence in horsemen, 
poets and numbers?" exclaims a bard in al-Aghani} In these 
three elements, military power, intelligence and numbers, lay 
the superiority of a tribe. As the historian and scientist of the 
tribe the poet was well versed in its genealogy and folklore, 
cognizant of the attainments and past achievements of its mem- 
bers, familiar with their rights, pasture-lands and border-lines. 
Furthermore, as a student of the psychological weaknesses and 
historical failures of the rival tribes it was his business to expose 
these shortcomings and hold them up to ridicule. 

Aside from its poetic interest and the worth of its grace and 
.elegance, the ancient poetry, therefore, has historical import- 
ance as source material for the study of the period in which it 
was composed. In fact it is our only quasi-contemporaneous data. 
It throws light on all phases of pre-Islamic life. Hence the adage, 
"Poetry is the public register [dtwdn] of the Arabians". a 

The ideal of Arab virtue as revealed by this ancient pagan 
poetry was expressed in the terms muruak> manliness (later Bedouin 
virttts), and Hrd (honour). 5 The component elements of murtVak 
were courage, loyalty and generosity. Courage was measured by foted m 
the number of raids (sing, ghazw) undertaken* Generosity mani- poetry 
fested itself in his readiness to sacrifice his camel at the coming 
of a guest or on behalf of the poor and the helpless. 

The name of IJatim aUTa i (f ca. A.D. 605) has been handed 
down to the present day as the personification of the Bedouin 
ideal of hospitality* As a lad in charge of his father's camels he 



VoL vih, p, 77. * Muthir, vol. ii, p. 235. 

On nuru'ah and Vr& see articles by Bxshr Fares in Encyclopedia of fslcm, 
Supp. 



9<5 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PARTI 



once slaughtered three of the animals to feed passing strangers 
and distributed the rest among them, which caused his father 
to expel him from home. 1 

The name of 'Antarah ibn-Shaddad al-'Absi (ca. 525-615), 
evidently a Christian, has lived through the ages as the paragon 
of Bedouin heroism and chivalry. Knight, poet, warrior and lover, 
'Antarah exemplified in his life those traits greatly esteemed 
by the sons of the desert. His deeds of valour as well as his love 
episodes with his lady, 'Ablah, whose name he immortalized in 
his famous Mu'allaqah, have become a part of the literary 
heritage of the Arabic-speaking world. But 'Antarah was born 
a slave, the son of a black maid. He was, however, freed by his 
father on the occasion of an encounter with an enemy tribe in 
which the young man refused to take active part, saying, "A 
slave knows not how to fight; milking camels is his job". 
"Charger* shouted his father, "thou art free." 5 

Judged by his poetry the pagan Bedouin of the Jahillyah age 
had little if any religion. To spiritual impulses he was lukewarm, 
even indifferent. His conformity to religious practice followed 
tribal inertia and was dictated by his conservative respect for 
tradition. Nowhere do we find an illustration of genuine devotion 
to a heathen deity. A story told about Imru'-al-Qays illustrates 
this point. Having set out to avenge the murder of his father 
he stopped at the temple of dhu-al~Khalasah 3 to consult the 
oracle by means of drawing arrows. 4 Upon drawing "abandon" 
thrice he hurled the broken arrows at the idol exclaiming, 
"Accursed one! had it been thy father who was murdered thou 
wouldst not have forbidden my avenging him". 6 

Other than the poetical references, our chief sources of in- 
formation about pre-Islamic heathenism are to be found in the 
remains of paganism in Islam, in the few anecdotes and tradi- 
tions embedded in the late Islamic literature and in al-Kalbi's 
(f 819-20) al-A$ndm (the idols). The pagan Arabian developed 
no mythology, no involved theology and no cosmogony com- 
parable to that of the Babylonians, 

1 Ibn*Qutaybah, al~Sh\r xv-al'Shuarf, ed. de Goeje (Lcyden, X904), p. 124. 

* Agkdnii vol. vii, pp. 149-50; ibn-Qutaybah, p. J30. 

* The tcmpJe stood seven days' journey south of Makkah; its deity was a white 
stone; al-Kalbi, al-Afn&m, ed. Ahmad Zaki (Cairo, 1914), p. 34- 

* See below, p. xoo. Divining by arrows forbidden in Koran 5 : 4, 92. 

* Agh&ni, vol. viii, p. 70. 



< CH- vtt AL-EtlJAZ ON THE EVE OF THE RISE OF ISLAM 97 



The Bedouin religion represents the earliest and most primi- 
tive form of Semitic belief. The South Arabian cults with their 
astral features, ornate temples, elaborate ritual and sacrifices 
represent a higher and later stage of development, a stage reached 
by sedentary society. The emphasis on sun-worship in the 
cultured communities of Petra and Palmyra implies an agricul- 
tural state where the association has already been made between 
the life-giving rays of the sun and the growth of vegetation. 

The Bedouin's religion, like other forms of primitive belief, 
is basically animistic. The striking contrast between oasis and 
desert gave him perhaps his earliest definite conception of the 
specialized deity. The spirit of the arable land became the 
beneficent deity to be catered to; that of the arid land the male* 
ficent* the demon, to be feared. 1 

Even after the conception of a deity was formed, natural 
objects such as trees, wells, caves, stones, remained sacred 
objects, since they formed the media through which the wor- 
shipper could come into direct contact with the deity. The well in 
the desert with its cleansing, healing, life-giving water very early 
became an object of worship. Zamzam's holiness, according to 
Arabian authors, was pre-Islamic and went back to the time 
when it supplied water to Hagar and IshmaeL 2 Yaqut, 8 and after 
him al-Qafcwini,* speak of travellers carrying away water from 
the Well of 'Urwah and offering it as a special present to their 
relatives and friends. Caves became holy through association 
cvith underground deities and forces. Such was originally Ghab- 
ghab in Nakhlah, where the Arabians sacrificed to al-*Uzza. 6 
BaV represented the spirit of springs and underground water 
and must have been introduced into Arabia at the same time as 
the palm tree. The word left an interesting survival in the 
Moslem system of taxation, where a distinction is drawn between 
what Ba r I waters (i,e. land that needs no irrigation) and what 
the sky waters, 

;,'sThe Bedouin's astral beliefs centred upon the moon, in whose Solar 
Sight he grazed his flocks. Moon-worship implies a pastoral wpcct3 
si^fetyi- whereas sun-worship represents a later agricultural 
stagey In our own day the Moslem Ruwalah Bedouins imagine 
\ '* At. taftrd, piety^is from a stem meaning: "to be on one's guard, to fear*'. 
- * Ibn-Hisbam, Sirak, p. 71. * Vol. 1, p. 434, 

* fjfft chMckhtiigei, cd. F. Wustcnfeld (Gottingen, 1849), p. 200. 
* 1 Raibi, pp. 18, 20; VSqGt, voL its, pp."7?2-3, 



9 3 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



fcARTl 



that their life is regulated by the moon, which condenses the 
water vapours, distils the beneficent dew on the pasture and 
makes possible the growth of plants. On the other hand the sun, 
as they believe, would like to destroy the Bedouins as well as all 
animal and plant life. 

One characteristic feature of all elements of religious belief is 
their tendency to persist in some form when a higher stage of 
development has been attained. The survival represents a com- 
promise between these two stages of religious development. 
Hence Wadd (Koran 71 : 22), the moon-god who stood at the 
head of the Minaean pantheon. Ibn-Hisham 1 and al-Tabari* 
speak of a sacred palm tree in Najran. Gifts were offered to the 
tree in the form of weapons, garments and rags which were 
suspended from it. Dhat-Anwat 3 (that on which things are 
hung), to which the Makkans resorted annually, was perhaps 
identical with the tree of al-*Uzza at Nakhlah. 4 Al-Lat in 
al-Ta'if was represented by a square stone, 5 and dhu-al-Shara 
in Petra by a quadrangular block of unhewn black stone four 
feet high and two feet wide. Most of these deities owned each a 
reserved grazing-land (fttma). 
jinn The Bedouin peopled the desert with living things of beastly 

nature called jinn or demons. These jinn differ from the gods not 
so much in their nature as in their relation to man. The gods are 
on the whole friendly; the jinn, hostile. The latter are, of course, 
personifications of the fantastic notions of the terrors of the 
desert and its wild animal life. To the gods belong the regions 
frequented by man; to the jinn belong the unknown and un- 
trodden parts of the wilderness. A madman (jnajnwi) is but one 
possessed by the jinn. With Islam the number of jinn was 
increased, since the heathen deities were then degraded into such 
beings. 8 

The Among the urban population of al-fjijaz, and only about 

ff 'aiuiT sevcnteen P er cent * °f *ke population was such, the astral stage 
of paganism was reached early. Al-*Uzza, al-Lat and Manah, 
the three daughters of Allah, had their sanctuaries in the land 
which later became the cradle of Islam. In a weak moment the 
monotheistic Muhammad was tempted 7 to recognize thesepower- 

* Sirah, p 22. 8 Vol. i, p 922. « Sfrah, p. 844. 

* Kalbi, pp. 24-7 • Ibtd. p t6. * Koran 37 ; 15s, 6 : 100. 

? Cf. Koran 22 : 51-2, 17 : 74*& 



CH, YH AL-HIJAZ ON TH& JbVii, Ut ltt& Ki^ii UJf ii>i,Aivx 99 

ful deities of Makkah and al-Madinah and make a compromise 
ia their favour, but afterwards he retracted and the revelation 
is said to have received the form now found in surah 53 : 19-20. 1 
Later theologians explained the case according to the principle 
of ptisikk and inanstlkk, abrogating and abrogated verses, by 
means of which God revokes and alters the announcements of 
His will; this results in the cancellation of a verse and the sub- 
stitution of another for it (Koran 2 : 100). Al-Lat (from al- 
Ilahah, the goddess) had her sacred tracts {hima and haravi) 
near al-Ta'if, whither the Makkans and others flocked for 
pilgrimage and sacrifice. Within such an enclosure no trees could 
be felled j no game hunted and no human blood shed. Animal 
and plant life therein partook of the inviolability of the deity 
there honoured. Of similar origin were the cities of refuge in 
Israel. Herodotus 2 mentions this goddess under the name Alilat 
among the Nabataean deities. 

^Al-'Uzza (the most mighty, Venus, the morning star) had her 
cult in Nakhlah east of Makkah. According to al-Kalbi, 3 hers 
was the most venerated idol among the Quraysh, and Muham- 
mad as a young man offered her a sacrifice. Her sanctuary con- 
sisted of three trees. Human sacrifice characterized her cult, She 
was the Lady *U2zay-an to whom a South Arabian offered a 
golden image on behalf of his sick daughter, Amat~*Uzzay-an* 
(the maid of al-*Uzza). \Abd-al-*Uzza was a favourite proper 
name at the rise of Islam. 

Manah^from manlyah % allotted fate) was the goddess of 
destiny $ , and as such represented an earlier phase of religious 
life.* Her main sanctuary consisted of a black stone in Qudayd 
on the road between Makkah and Yathrib (later al-Madlnah) 
and she was especially popular with the Aws and the Khazraj, 
„who rallied to the support of the Prophet on his fateful Hijrah 
from Makkah. As an independent deity her name, associated 
with, dhu-al-Shara, appears in the Nabataean inscriptions of 
^1-fjijrJ -To the present day Arabic versifiers blame all mis- 
fortunes on ahmanaya or aUdahr (time). 




Cwfce, pp. 2ir t 2*9; lidsbtofci, Bpktmerzs, vol. iii, 1909-15 (Giesscn, 



TOO 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART t 



Since the mother's blood rather than the father's formed the 
original bond of kinship among the Semites and because the 
family organization was first matriarchal, the Arabian goddess 
preceded the god as an object of worship. 

Hubal (from Aram, for vapour, spirit), evidently the chief 
deity of al-Ka'bah, was represented in human form. Beside him 
stood ritual arrows used for divination by the soothsayer (kdhin, 
from Aramaic) who drew lots by means of them. The tradition 
in ibn-Hisham, 1 which makes "Amr ibn-Luhayy the importer 
of this idol from Moab or Mesopotamia, may have a kernel of 
truth in so far as it retains a memory of the Aramaic origin of the 
deity. £ At the conquest of Makkah by Muhammad Hubal shared 
the lot of the other idols and was destroyed. 

The pagan Ka'bah, which became the Palladium of Islam, was 
an unpretentious cube-like (hence the name) building of primi- 
tive simplicity, originally roofless, serving as a shelter for a black 
meteorite which was venerated as a fetish. At the birth of Islam 
the structure was that rebuilt in 608 probably by an Abyssinian 
from the wreckage of a Byzantine or Abyssinian ship destroyed 
on the shore of the Red Sea. 3 The usual sacred territory (/taram) 
spread around it. Annual pilgrimages were made thither and 
special sacrifices offered. 

Moslem tradition maintains that the Ka'bah was originally 
built by Adam according to a celestial prototype and after the 
Deluge rebuilt by Abraham and Ishmael.* Its custody remained 
in the hands of the descendants of Ishmael until the proud 
banu-Jurhum, and later the banu-Khuza'ah,who introduced idol 
worship, took possession of it. Then came the Quraysh, who 
continued the ancient Ishmael ite line. While engaged in the 
rebuilding Ishmael received from Gabriel the Black Stone, still 
set in the south-east corner of the structure, and was instructed 
in the ceremonies of the pilgrimage {hajj). 

Allah (allah, al-ildl^ the god) was the principal, though not the 
only, deity of Makkah. The name is an ancient one. It occurs in 
two South Arabic inscriptions, one a Minaean found at al-'Ula 
and the other a Sabaean, but abounds in the form HLH in the 
Lihyanite inscriptions of the fifth century B.C. 5 Libyan, which 

1 Sir ah y pp. 50 stq ♦ 

* The Arabic word for idol, fanan, is clearly an adaptation of Aramaic fiUrt* 

* Cf. al-Azraqi, AkhbSr Makkah, ed. Wustcnfeld (Leipzig, 1858), pp. 104-7; 
Va'qubi, Tarfflt, vol. ii, pp. 17- 1 8. * Koran 2 : x 18-21. * Winnett, p. 3a 



CIt VH^AL-flljAZ ON THE EVE OF THE RISE OF ISLAM ioi 

evidently got the god from Syria, was the first centre of the 
worship of this deity in Arabia. The name occurs as Hallah in 
the Safa inscriptions five centuries before Islam * and also in a 
pre-Islamic Christian Arabic inscription found in umm-al-Jimal, 
Syria, and ascribed to the sixth century. 2 The name of Muham- 
mad's father was *Abd-AHah ('Abdullah, the slave or wor- 
shipper of Allah). The esteem in which Allah was held by the 




from Ah Bey, "Tratth ' 

THE BLACK STONE OF AL-KA'BAH 

pre-Islamic Makkans as the creator and supreme provider and 
the one to be invoked in time of special peril may be inferred 
from such koranic passages as 31 : 24, 31; 6 : 137, 109; 10 ; 23. 
Evidently he was the tribal deity of the Quraysh. 

Though in an inhospitable and barren valley with an inclement 
and unhealthy climate this sanctuary at Makkah made al-I^ijaz 
the most important religious centre in North Arabia. 

Other pagan deities such as Nasr a (vulture), *Awf (the great 
bird) bear animal names and suggest totemic origin. As for 
future life, nowhere in the authenticated ancient literature do 
we find expressed a clear and precise idea of it. The few vague 

1 Dussaud, Us Arches m Syrit, pp. 141*2. 

* "E™0 litttnann, Zettschrift fur Semitistik und vcrwandte Gcbtete, vol. vii 
Pi>- 197-204. * Koran 71 : 23. 



102 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART 1 



references may be explained as an echo of Christian dogma. 
The hedonistic Arabian character was too much absorbed in the 
immediate issues of life to devote much thought to the here- 
after. In the words of an old bard: 

We spm about and whirl our way through life, 
Then, rich and poor alike, at last seek rest 

Below the ground m hollow pits slate-covered; 
And there we do abide 1 

As the Bedouins frequented the settled towns of al-rjijaz for 
the exchange of their commodities, and particularly during the 
four months of "holy truce", they became inoculated with some 
of the more advanced urban beliefs and were initiated into 
ritualistic practices of the Ka'bah and the offering of sacrifices. 
Camels and sheep were offered at Makkah and at various stones 
(ansdb) elsewhere which were regarded as idols or altars. In the 
pilgrimage to some great shrine of the urban Arabians lay the 
most important religious practice of the nomad. The "holy 
truce" included what became in the Moslem calendar the 
eleventh, twelfth and first months of each year (dhu-al-Qa'dah, 
dhu~al-yijjah and Muharram) together with a fourth month 
in the middle (Rajab). The first three were especially set aside 
for religious observance, and the fourth for trade. Al-rjijaz, 
through its somewhat central position, its accessibility and its 
location on the main caravan route running north and south, 
offered an unexcelled opportunity for both religious and com- 
mercial activity. Thus arose its *Ukaz fair and its Ka'bah. 
Thethre* Al-rjijaz, the barren country standing like a barrier (Jtijaz) 
Tl^Hij-iz k et wcen the uplands of Najd and the low coastal region called 
al-TaV Tihamah (netherland), could boast only three cities: al-Ta if and 
the two sister cities Makkah and al-Madinah. 

Al-fa*if, nestling among shady trees at an altitude of about 
6000 feet and described as "a bit of Syrian earth", was, as it 
still is, the summer resort of the Makkan aristocracy. Burck- 
hardt, who visited the town in August 1 8 14, declared the 
scenery en route the most picturesque and delightful he had 
seen since his departure from Lebanon. 2 Its products included 
honey, water-melons, bananas, figs, grapes, almonds, peaches 

1 Abu-Tamxnam, p 562, cf Lyall, Translations, p, xxvu 
* John L. Burckhardt, Travels tn Arabia (London, 1829), vol. i, p. 122. 



CAvn AL-yijAZ Ott THE EVE OF THE RISE OF ISLAM 103 

and pomegranates. 1 Its roses were 'famous For the attar which 
provided Makkah with its perfumery. Its vines, according to a 
tradition handed down in al-Aghani? were introduced by a 
Jewess who offered the first slips as a present to a local chief. Its 
wine, though in great demand, was less expensive than the foreign 




Fr#nt IbrJhln Jiif at* "Jffr'jtf at- {foramen" 



MAKKAI1 FROM THE MOUNTAIN OF ABU-QUBAYS, WITH 
* MOUNT UIRA* IN THE BACKGROUND, 190$ 

brand celebrated in Arabic poetry. Of all places in the peninsula 
aKTa if came nearest to the koranic description of Paradise in 
surah 47 : 16-17. 

The name Makkah, the Macoraba of Ptolemy, 3 comes from Matkah 
Sabaean Makuraba, meaning sanctuary, which indicates that h 
owes its foundation to some religious association and therefore 
must have been a religious centre long before Muhammad was 
born. It lies in the Tihamah of southern al-lfUjaz, about forty- 
eight miles from the Red Sea, in a barren, rocky valley described 
in the Koran (14 : 40} as "unfit for cultivation". The thermo- 

/< 1 Cf, ibn-BaftfiJah, Tuft/at <?/-iWsf?f<£r, c& and tr. C. Defr&nery and B. R. 

'\S«igmttttt5, 3rd impressiofc, vol, i (Paris, 1S93), pp. 304-5. 

^ * * -Vt&W, p/75j 11 * Ceo^r<tphia t «L Nobbe, Bk, VI, du 7, § 32. 



104 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART! 



meter in Makkah can register almost unbearable heat. When 
the famous Arab traveller ibn-Battutah 1 of Tangier attempted 
the circumambulation of the Ka'bah barefooted, he failed 
because of the "flames" reflected by the stones. 

Older still than the south-to-north "spice road" which passes 
through it, the city early became a midway station between 
MaVib and Ghazzah. The commercially minded and progressive 
Makkans soon rendered their city a centre of wealth. A Makkan 
caravan which was involved in the Badr skirmish (Mar. 16, 624) 
while returning from Ghazzah consisted of a thousand camels, 
according to al-Waqidi, 3 and carried merchandise worth 50,000 
dinars (about £20,000). Under the leadership of the Quraysh, 
the custodians of the Ka'bah, who were evidently responsible 
for making that sanctuary a national shrine and the 'Ukaz fair 
a commercial and intellectual rendezvous, Makkah's pre-emin- 
ence became secure. 
ai- Yathrib (YTHRB of the Sabaean inscriptions, Jathrippa of 

M«dm*h Ptolemy), 5 lay some 300 miles north of Makkah and was much 
more favoured by nature than its southern sister. Besides lying 
on the "spice road", which connected al-Yaman with Syria, the 
city was a veritable oasis, especially adapted for the cultivation 
of date-palms. In the hands of its Jewish inhabitants, the banu- 
Na^Ir and banu-Qurayzah, the town became a leading agricul- 
tural centre. Judging by their proper names and the Aramaean 
vocabulary used in their agricultural life these Jews must have 
been mostly Judaized clans of Arabian* and Aramaean stock, 
though the nucleus may have been Israelites who fled from 
Palestine at the time of its conquest by the Romans in the first 
century after Christ. It was possibly these Aramaic-speaking 
Jews who changed the name Yathrib into Aramaic Medinta, 
the explanation of the name al-Madinah (Medina) as "the 
town" (of the Prophet) being a comparatively late one. The two 
leading non-Jewish tribes were the Aws and the Khazraj, who 
came originally from al-Yaman. 
Cultural Though not in the main stream of world events, pre-Islarnic 
influence* a ^yjj^ z cou \d hardly be said to have been in a backwater. Its 
tfij** t exclusiveness is post-Muhammadan and dates from the eighth 

f * Sabft « Vol. i, p. 2S1. 

1 AI-Maghazty cd, Alfred von Krcmer (Calcutta, 1855-6), p> 198. 

* Bk, VI, ch. 7, § 3*; variant Lathnppa. 

* Ya'qubi, vol. ii, p. 49, designate* the Arabian tribes from which they descended. 



CH. VH AL-91JAZ ON THE EVE OF THE RISE OF ISLAM toj 

year of the Hijrah, when Makkah was captured and the twenty- 
eighth verse of surah nine revealed. 1 In the first century after 
Muhammad, however, there flourished in his birthplace a num- 
ber of Christian and Jewish physicians, musicians and merchants* 

The earlier South Arabian civilization could not have alto- 
gether passed away without leaving some trace in its northern 
successor. The 'inscription (542-3) of Abrahah dealing with the 
break of the Ma'rib Dam begins with the following words: 
"In the power and grace and mercy of the Merciful [Rak- 
man-an] and His Messiah and of the Holy Spirit". 2 The word 
Rahman-an is especially significant because its northern equi- 
valent, al-Rahmdn % became later a prominent attribute of Allah 
and one of His names in the Koran and in Islamic theology. 
Surah nineteen is dominated by al-Rahmdn? Though used in 
the inscription for the Christian God, yet the word is evidently 
borrowed from the name of one of the older South Arabian 
deities* Al-Rakzm (the compassionate) also occurs as the name 
of a deity (RHM) in pre-Islamic and Sabaean inscriptions. 4 
Another South Arabic inscription uses s/tirk, association in the 
sense of polytheism, the kind of shirk against which Muham- 
mad vehemently and fervently preached and which consisted 
of the worship of one supreme being with whom other minor 
deities were associated. In the same inscription occurs the 
technical term denoting unbelief, KFK, as in North Arabic. 5 

The Semitic population of the south-western coast of the Red 3. 
Sea found its way thither, as we have learned, by gradual in- s " 
filtration from south-western Arabia. These Abyssinians, as they 
were later called, formed an important part of the great inter- 
national commercial "trust", which under Sabaeo-Himyaritc 
leadership monopolized the ancient spice trade, the main artery 
of which passed through al-Hijaz. For about fifty years prior to 
the birth of the Prophet, the Abyssinians had their rule estab- 
lished in al-Yaman, and in the year of his birth we find them 
at the gates of Makkah threatening its precious Ka'bah with 

" 1 See below, p. 11S; cf. Bayijawi, vol. i, p. 383; Tabari, Tefsir, vol. x, p. 74. 

£. Glaser, Mtttctlztr.gen dcr vsrdtrastatischtn Gtselisehaft (Berlin, 1897), 
PP^B^ 401 \ cf. Corpus inscriptionum Semittcarttm, pars iv, t. i, pp. 15-19. 
x j KaAmanSn appears as title of the Christian God in a fifth-centurv South Arabic 
inscription. 

4 Dussaad and Macler, Voyage crchiehgiqtte, p. 95, h ro; Dussaud, Arabes, 

? *, *!' ^ordlmann and I>, H. Muller in JVhtser Zetisehnfi fur die Kundt del 
f MC&ttfondtSt \ot X (1896), pp. 285-05. " * 



io6 



THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART! 



destruction. Makkah itself was the abode of an Abyssinian, 
presumably Christian, colony. Bilai, 1 whose stentorian voice 
won him the unique distinction of becoming the Prophet's 
muezzin, was an Abyssinian negro. The koranic references to , 
the sea and its tempests (surahs 1 6 : 14, 10 ; 23-4, 24 : 40), which 
are characterized by unusual clarity and vividness, are an echo 
of the active maritime intercourse between al-rjijaz and Abys- 
sinia. When the infant Moslem community was hard pressed by 
the pagan Quraysh it was to Abyssinia of all lands that they 
turned for refuge.* 
n Persia In the century preceding the establishment of Islam, Zoroas- 
trian Persia was contesting with Abyssinia for supremacy over 
al-Yaman. Knowledge of the military art of Persia was passing 
into Arabian possession from the south and also from the north 
through Persian Arabia, with its capital al-rjlrah. Tradition 
relates that it was Salman the Persian who taught the Prophet 
how to dig a trench for the defence of al-Madlnah. 5 

Al-ft Irah, the Arab satellite of Persia, was the main channel 
through which not only Persian cultural influences but, later, 
Aramaean Nestorian influences percolated into the Arabia of 
pre-Muhammadan days. As these Nestorians formed later the 
main link between Hellenism and nascent Islam, so now they 
acted as a medium for transmitting northern cultural ideas, 
Aramaic, Persian and Hellenic, into the heart of pagan Arabia. 
4.Ghas- Just such an influence as the Nestorians of al-rjirah had on 
saoiand ^ c Arabs of the Persian border was exerted by the Mono- 
physites of Ghassanland upon the people of al-rlijaz. For four 
centuries prior to Islam these Syrian ized Arabs had been bring- 
ing the Arab world into touch not only with Syria but also with 
Byzantium. Such personal names as Dawud (David), Sulay- 
man (Solomon), *Isa (Jesus), were not uncommon among the 
pre- Islamic Arabians, 

1 His tomb is still standing in Damascus. 

* Such Ar. -words of Ethiopic origin as burkan (proof)» fun&8riy£n (Christ's 
disciples), jahannam (hell, originally Heb,), ma'tdak (table), match (angel, 
originally Heb.), mihrab (niche), mtnbar (pulpit), ir.tishaf (holy book), shay tan 
(Satan), point to Christian Abyssinian influence over Moslem Hijaz. Al-5uyuji 
cites in ch, 38 of his al-Itgdn (Cairo, 1925), vol. i, pp. 135-41, u8 foreign wordis in 
the Koran. 

* See below, p 117. Ar. firind (sword), firdaivs (Paradise, sur. 18 : 1 07; 23 : 11), 
tijjti (stone, sur. 105 : 4), barzakh (obstacle, sur. 23 : 102; 55 : 20, 25 : 55), xanjaBU 
(ginger, sur. 56 : 17, see below, p. 667), etc., are of Persian derivation. 



cn* Vfl AMHJAZ ON THE EVE OF THE RISE OF ISLAM 107 

, Thisnorthern influence, however, should not be over-estimated, 
for neither the Monophysite nor the Nestorian church had 
enough vitality to make its religious ideas contagious* The 
material collected by Pere Cheikho 1 does not suffice to show that 
Christianity had struck deep root anywhere in North Arabia, 
yet it reveals many pre-Islamic poets as familiar with certain 
floating Christian ideas and Christian terms. A considerable 
number of Aramaic words passed into the ancient Arabic 
vocabulary* 2 

The monotheism affecting Arabia was not entirely of thes- 
Christian type, Jewish colonies flourished xn al-Madinah and Jc 
various oases of northern a!-£Ijja2 4 3 Ai-Jumahi (f 845) devotes 
a section of his biographies 4 to the Jewish poets of al-Madinah 
and its environs* Al-Agk3ni cites a number of Jewish poets of 
Arabia, But the only supposedly Jewish poet who left us a 
dtwan was al-Sarnaw'al (Samuel), 8 of al-Ablaq near Tayma*, a 
contemporary of Imru'-al-Qays, His poetry, however, has nothing 
to differentiate it from the current heathen type, and therefore 
al-Samaw'aTs Judaism has been rightly suspected. In al-Yaman 
Judaism is supposed to have attained the dignity of a state 
religion under the aegis of dhu-Nuwas. 

In summing up it may be safely stated that al-IJijaz in the 
Century preceding the mission of Muhammad was ringed about 
with influences, intellectual, religious and material, radiating 
from Byzantine, Syrian (Aramaean), Persian and Abyssinian 
centres and conducted mainly through Ghassanid, Lakhmid and 
Yamanite channels; but it cannot be asserted that al~yijaz was 
in such vital contact with the higher civilization of the north as 
to transform its native cultural aspect. Then too, although 
Christianity did find a footing in Najran, and Judaism in al- 
Yaman and al-IJijaz, neither seems to have left much of an 
impression on the North Arabian mind. Nevertheless the anti- 

5 MMtfrtnfyaA wa-Ad^uAa, 2 pts. (Beirut, 1912, 1919, 1923), Shtfard* 
al-Nap-artyaJi, 2 \ols. (Beirut, lSc^o) 

* KanUah and Inch (church), dumyah and furah (image, picture), qtssis (monk), 

(alms), naiur (watchman), nir (> aU)Jcdddn (acre), qwdil (lamp, origin- 
ally Utfxvicandtld) are illustrations Latin castrum gave Synac fasjrtt and Western 
Aramaic qapa from which Arabic ga?r (castle, palace) came and was re introduced 
into Europe in the form of Italian castero, Spanish ulcdza*. 

1 Jtbri! (Gabnel), s&rak (relation, chapter), jabber (most powerful), illustrate 
Hebrew words in the Arabic vocabulary* 

* T&aqU eAfAiiW, e<L J> Hell (Le>den, 1916), pp. 70 74. 
mttin oi-Samitw'a/, 2nd ed., ed. Cheikho (Beirut, 1920), 



THE PHE-ISLAMIC AGE 



PART 1 



quated paganism of the peninsula seems to have reached the 
point where it failed any longer to meet the spiritual demands 
of the people and was outgrown by a dissatisfied group who 
developed vague monotheistic ideas and went by the name of 
y anifs. 1 Umayyah ibn-abi-al-Salt (f 624), through his mother 
a second cousin of the Prophet, and Waraqah ibn-Nawfal, a 
cousin of Khadljah, were such FJanifs, though several sources 
make Waraqah a Christian. On the political side the organized 
national life developed in early South Arabia was now utterly 
disrupted. Anarchy prevailed in the political realm as it did in 
the religious. The stage was set, the moment was psychological, 
for the rise of a great religious and national leader. 

1 Loan-word from Aramaic through Nabataean; N. A. Fans and H. W. Glidden, 
Journal oftke Palestine Oriental Society vol* adx (1939), pp. 1*13; cf. Arthur Jeffery, 
The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qurdn (Baroda, 1938), pp. 112-15. Further archajo- 
Iogical and linguistic research will probably confirm the importance of the influence 
qf Nabataean culture not only on Islam but also on early Christianity. 



paut n 

THE RISE OF ISLAM AND THE 
CALIPHAL STATE 



CHAPTER VIII 
MUflAMMAD THE PROPHET OF ALLAH 



IK or about A.D. $71 a child was born to the Quraysh at 
Makkah and was given by his mother a name which may 
remain for ever uncertain. His tribe called him al-Amm l (the 
faithful), apparently an honorific title. The form which his 
name takes in the Koran (3 : 138, 33 : 4°. 4» : 29, 47 • 2) is * 
Mubammad * and once (61 : 6) Ahmad. In popular usage he is 
Muhammad (highly praised)— a name borne by more male 
children than anyother. Thebaby's father, 'Abdullah, died before 
his birth; the mother, Aminah, when he was about six years old. 
It therefore felt to the lot of his grandfather, f Abd-al-Muttalib, 
to bring up the boy, and after the grandfather's death the duty 
devolved upon his paternal uncle abu-TSlib. 
Quraysh 
Qu$ayy 
'Abd-Manaf 



■s 'Abd-Sharas Hashim 
Uraayyah ^Abd-al-Muftalib 



Al-'Abbas 'Abdullah AbuT&Hb 

When twelve years old, it is related, Muhammad accompanied 
his uncle and patron abu-Talib or * a caravan journey to Syria, 
in the course of which he met a Christian monk to whom legend 
has given the name Bahira. * 

"Though the only one of the world prophets to be born within 
thb Ml light of history, Muhammad is but little known to us in 

" - x Ibn-Hisbam, Strch t p, 125; Ya'qttW, vol. xi, p. 18; Mas'udi, voLiv, p. 

* Hame occurs in -a South Arabioinscriptioa, Ccrjtus inscrtpttonum Scmtftcorum t 
pars W, t. il ? p: 104. 

r - in 



112 



RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPH AL STATE partii 



his early life: of his struggle for a livelihood, his efforts towards 
self-fulfilment and his gradual and painful realization of the 
great task awaiting him we have but few reliable reports. The 
first record of his life was undertaken by ibn-Ishaq, who died 
in Baghdad about A.H. 150 (767) and whose biography of the 
Prophet has been preserved only in the later recension of ibn- 
Hisham, who died in Egypt about A.H. 218 (833). Other than 
Arabic sources for the life of the Prophet and the early period 
of nascent Islam we have none. The first Byzantine chronicler 
to record some facts about ,f the ruler of the Saracens and the 
pseudo-prophet" was Theophanis 1 in the early part of the ninth 
century. The first reference to Muhammad in Syriac occurs in a 
seventh century work. 8 

With his marriage at the age of twenty-five to the wealthy and 
high-minded widow Khadijah, fifteen years his senior, Muham- 
mad steps upon the threshold of clear history. Khadijah was a 
Qurayshite and, as a well-to-do merchant's widow, was conduct- 
ing business independently and had taken young Muhammad 
into her employ. As long as this lady with her strong personality 
and noble character lived, Muhammad would have none other 
for a wife. 

The competence which now entered into the economic life of 
Muhammad, and to which there is a clear koranic* reference, 
gave him leisure and enabled him to pursue his own inclinations. 
He was then often noticed secluding himself and engaging in 
meditation within a little cave (ghdr) on a hill outside of Makkah 
called HiraV It was in the course of one of these periods of 
distraction caused by doubts and yearning after the truth that 
Muhammad heard in Ghar rjira* a voice 6 commanding: "Recite 
thou in the name of thy Lord who created", etc.* This -was his 
first revelation. The Prophet had received his call. The night 
of that day was later named "the Night of Power" (Jaylat aU 
qadrf and fixed towards the end of Ramadan (610). When after 
a brief interval (fatrak), following his call to the prophetic office, 
the second vision came, Muhammad, under the stress of great 

1 Ckronograpkra, cd Carolus de Boor (Leipzig, 1885), p. 333 

* A Mingana, Sources syrtaques vol u Bar*penkayi (Leipzig, 190$), p 146 (text) 
*=p 175 (tr ) 5 Sarah 93 : 6*9 

* See Ibrahim Kifat, Mir at al-flaranayn (Cairo, 1925), vol. 1. pp 56 60 

* Al-Bukhari, $ahlh (Bulaq, 1296), vol i, p 3 

9 Koran 96 . 1-5 Koran 97 : 1 



f 

CH,vm ' MUHAMMAD THE PROPHET OF ALLAH 113 



emotion, rushed home in alarm and asked his wife to put some 
covers on him, whereupon these words "descended": ,c O thou, 
enwrapped in thy mantle! Arise and warn". 1 The voices varied 
and sometimes-came like the ''reverberating of bells" (satealat 
al-Jaras)* but later, in the Madinese surahs, became one voice, 
identified as that of Jibnl (Gabriel). 
1 In his call and message the Arabian Muhammad was as 
* truly prophetic as any of the Hebrew prophets of the Old 
Testament. God is one. He is all-powerfuL He is the creator of 
the universe. There is a judgment day. Splendid rewards in 
Paradise await those who carry out God's commands, and 
terrible punishment in hell for those who disregard them. Such 
was the gist of his early message. 

Consecrated and fired by the new task which he felt called 
upon to perform as the messenger (rasuf) of Allah, Muhammad 
now went among his own people teaching, preaching, delivering 
the new message. They laughed him to scorn. He turned 
nadhlr (Koran 67 ; 26; 51 : 50, 51), warner, prophet of doom* 
seeking to effect his purpose by vivid and thrilling description of 
the joys of Paradise and the terrors of hell, even threatening his 
hearers with imminent doom. Short, crisp, expressive and im- 
pressive were his early revelations, the Makkan surahs. 

As glorifier of his Lord, admonisher to his people, messenger 
and prophet (nabi) of Allah, Muhammad was gaining few con- 
verts. KhadTjah, his wife, predisposed through the influence of 
her ftanlf 8 cousin Waraqah ibn-Nawfal, was the first of the few 
who responded to his call. Muhammad's cousin *Ali and his 
kinsman abu-Bakr followed. But abu-Sufyan, representing the 
aristocratic and influential Umayyad branch of Quraysh, stood 
adamant. What they considered a heresy seemed to run counter 
to the best economic interests of the Quraysh as custodians of 
aWCa'bah, the pantheon of multitudinous deities and centre of a 
-pan-Arabian pilgrimage. 

As new recruits, mainly from among the slave and lower 
classes, began to swell the ranks of the believers, the ridicule 
and sarcasm which had hitherto been used unsparingly on the 
, part of the Quraysh w6re no longer deemed effective as weapons; 

1 Koran 74 : x se$* 

* BukhUri,voU,p *,1 n, Compart the call of Isaiah 6 : iseg.S<x Tor Andrae, 
JtfpAamfsfci: stm Zehcn undsetn GlauBe (Gottingcn, 1932), pp. 39 scq. 
Cfiibn-Hisham, pp. isij 143. 



U4 RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPH AL STATE *artii 



it became necessary to resort to active persecution. These 
new measures resulted in the migration to Abyssinia of eleven 
Makkan families followed in 615 by some eighty-three others, 
chief among whom was that of 'Uthman ibn-'Affan. The <£migr& 
found asylum in the domain of the Christian Negus, who was 
unbending in his refusal to deliver them into the hands of their 
oppressors. 1 Undaunted through these dark days of persecution 
by the temporary loss of so many followers, Muhammad fear- 
lessly continued to preach and by persuasion convert men from 
the worship of the many and false gods to that of the one and 
true God, Allah. The revelations did not cease to "descend", 
He who had marvelled at the Jews and Christians having a 
"scripture** was determined that his people, too, should have 
one. ; 

Soon 'Umar ibn-al-Khattab, destined to play a leading role 
in the establishment of the Islamic state, was enrolled in the 
service of Allah. About three years before the Hijrah the faith- 
ful Khadijah died, and a litde later died abu-Talib, who, though 
he never professed Islam, stood firm to the end in defence of his 
brother's son, his protege. Within this pre-Hijrah period there 
also falls the dramatic t$ra y ? that nocturnal journey in which the 
Prophet is said to have been instantly transported from ai-Ka*bah 
to Jerusalem preliminary to his ascent tyifraj) to the seventh 
heaven. Since it thus served as the terrestrial station on this 
memorable journey, Jerusalem, already sacred to the Jews and 
Christians, has become and remained the third holiest city after 
Makkah and al-Madlnah in the Moslem world. Embellished by 
later accretions this miraculous trip still forms a favourite theme 
in mystic circles in Persia and Turkey, and a Spanish scholar 3 
considers it the original source of Dante's Divine Comedy. That 
the memory of ai-Isrn 4 is still a living, moving force in Islam 
is illustrated by the serious disturbance of August 1929, in 
Palestine, centring on the Wailing Wall of the Jews in Jerusalem, 
which the Moslems consider the halting-place of the Buraq, 4 

1 Ibn-HSsham, pp 217-20; cf. ibn-Sa'd, vol. t, pt. 1, pp. 136-9. 

* Koran 17 : 1; Bukhari, vol. iv, pp 156, 230; al-Baghawi, MajaHA chSunnak 
(Cairo, 1318), vol. ii, pp. 169-72; al-Kha{Tb, Miskkal al-M&sdbth (St. Petersburg, 
1S98-9), vol ii, pp. 124.9. 

* Miguel As(n, Islam and the Divine Comedy, tr, H. Sunderland (London, 1926), 

* Probably from Ar. barq % lightning* Modern Palestinians call the tailing place 
"al-BurSq". 



116 



RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE part it 



the winged horse with a woman's face and peacock's tail on 
which Muhammad journeyed heavenward. 

About 620 some Yathribites, mainly of the Khazraj tribe, met 
Muhammad at the *Ukaz fair and grew interested in what he had 
to say. Two years later a deputation of about seventy-five men 
invited him to make Yathrib (al-Madinah) his home, hoping 
thereby to secure a means for reconciling the hostile Aws and 
Khazraj, In al-Madinah the Jews, who were looking forward to 
a Messiah, had evidently predisposed their heathen compatriots 
in favour of such a claimant as Muhammad. Having paid a 
futile propagandist visit to al-Ta'if and believing his cause lost 
in his native town, Muhammad allowed two hundred followers 
to elude the vigilance of the Quraysh and slip quietly into al- 
Madlnah, with which his mother had some uncertain connec- 
tion , he himself followed and arrived there on September 24, 622. 
Such was the famous hegira (/ttjra/t) — not entirely a "flight" but 
a scheme of migration carefully considered for some two years. 
Seventeen years later the Cahph 'Umar designated that lunar 
year (beginning July 16) in which the Hijrah took place as the * 
official starting-point of the Moslem era. 1 

The Hijrah, with which the Makkan period ended and the 
MadTnesc period began, proved a turning-point in the life of 
Muhammad. Leaving the city of his birth as a despised prophet, 
he entered the city of his adoption as an honoured chief. The 
seer in him now recedes into the background and the practical 
man of politics comes to the fore. The prophet is gradually over- 
shadowed by the statesman. 

Taking advantage of the periods of "holy truce" and anxious 
to offer sustenance to the Emigrants {muhajirmi) the Madmese 
Moslems, now termed Ansar (Supporters), under the leadership 
of the new chief intercepted a summer caravan on its return from 
Syria to Makkah, thus striking at the most vital point in the life 
of that commercial metropolis. The caravan leader abu-Sufyan 
had got wind of the scheme and sent to Makkah for reinforce- 
ment The encounter between the reinforcement and the Madl- 
nese, mostly Emigrants, took place at Badr, eighty-five miles 
south-west of al-Madinah, in Ramadan, A.D. 624, and, thanks 
to the inspiring leadership of the Prophet, resulted in the com- 
plete victory of three hundred Moslems over a thousand Mak- 

1 Taban, \ol 1, pp. 1256, 2480, Mas'Qdi, vol. ix, p. 53 



ckvin MUHAMMAD THE PROPHET OF ALLAH 117 



{cans. However unimportant in itself as a military engagement, 1 
this Ghazwat Badr laid the foundation of Muhammad's tem- 
poral power. Islam had won its first and decisive military victory. 
The victory itself was interpreted as a divine sanction of the new 
faith. 5 The spirit of discipline and contempt of death manifested 
at this first armed encounter of Islam proved characteristic of it 
in all its later and greater conquests. It is true that in the follow- 
ing year (625) the Makkans under abu-Sufyan avenged at 
Uhud their defeat and even wounded the Prophet, but their 
triumph was not to endure. Islam recovered and passed on 
gradually from the defensive to the offensive, and its propaga- 
tion seemed always assured. Hitherto it had been a religion 
within a state; in al-Madlnah, after Badr, it passed into some- 
thing more than a state religion — it itself became the state. 
Then and there Islam came to be what the world has ever since 
recognized it to be — a militant polity. 

In 627 the "confederates" (al-afrsab\ consisting of Makkans 
with Bedouin and Abyssinian mercenaries, were again measuring 
swords with the Madinese. Heathenism was once more arrayed 
against Allah. On the advice of a Persian follower, Salman, 3 
as we are told, Muhammad had a trench 4 dug round al- 
Madlnah> Disgusted with this innovation in warfare, which 
struck the Bedouin miscellany as the most unsportsmanlike 
thing they had ever seen, the besiegers withdrew at the end of a 
month after the loss of some twenty men on both sides. 5 After 
the siege had been raised Muhammad conducted a campaign 
against the Jews for "siding with the confederates", which 
resulted in the killing of six hundred able-bodied men of their 
leading tribe, the banu-Qurayzah, and the expulsion of the rest. 
The Emigrants were then established on the date plantations 
thus made ownerless. 6 The banu-Qurayzah were the first but 
not the last body of Islam's foes to be offered the alternative of 
apostasy or death, The year before, Muhammad had sent into 
exile the banu-al-Nadir, 7 another Jewish tribe of al-Madinah. 
The Jews of Khaybar, a strongly fortified oasis north of ai- 
Madinah, surrendered in 62S and paid tribute. 

1 MAVuqidi ft 207/822-3) devotes raore than a third ot his Maghazx, pp. 11-75 
10 Badr and its heroes * Koran 3 . 119, 8 : 42*3. 

1 Cf Josef Horovitx in Dcr h{am > vol aui (1922), pp. 17S-83 
4 Ar. khandaq^ from Pers. kandan (to dig) through Aramaic. 
, * Koran 33 j o«2$ discusses this battle. • Koran 33 : 26-7. 

^ ^ r Baladhuri, Fuiuh. pp 17-18 «Hnti, pp -34.5; Wriqidi. pp. 353-6 



RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CAL1PHAL STATE partii 



In this Madincse period the Arabianteation, the nationaliza- 
tion, of Islam was effected. The new prophet broke off with 
both Judaism and Christianity; Friday was substituted for 
Sabbath, the adhan (call from the minaret) was decreed in place 
of trumpets and gongs, Ramadan was fixed as a month of fasting, 
the qiblah (the direction to be observed during the ritual prayer) 
was changed from Jerusalem 1 to Makkah, the pilgrimage to 
al-Ka'bah was authorized and the kissing of the Black Stone— 
a pre-Islamic fetish — sanctioned. 

in 628 Muhammad led a band ot believers to a settlement, al- 
JSudaybiyah, nine miles from Makkah and exacted a pact in 
which Makkans and Moslems were treated on equal terms. 2 
This treaty practically ended the war with his people* the 
Quraysh. Among other members of this tribe, Khalid ibn-al- 
Walld and * Amr ibn-al-'As CAsi), destined to become the two 
mighty swords of militant Islam, were about this time received 
as recruits to the great cause. Two years later, towards the end 
of January 630 (A.H. 8), the conquest of Makkah was complete. 
Entering its great sanctuary Muhammad smashed themany idols, 
said to have numbered three hundred and sixty, exclaiming: 
"Truth hath come, and falsehood hath vanished!" 3 The people 
themselves, however, were treated with special magnanimity.* 
Hardly a triumphal entry in ancient annals is comparable to this. 

It was probably about this time 6 that the territory around 
the Ka'bah was declared by Muhammad haram (forbidden, 
sacred), and the passage in surah 9 : 28 was revealed which was 
later interpreted as prohibiting all non-Moslems from approach- 
ing it This verse was evidently intended to forbid only the poly- 
theists from drawing nigh to the Ka'bah at the time of the annual 
pilgrimage The injunction as interpreted is still effective 6 No 
more than fifteen Chnstian-born Europeans have thus far succeed* 
ed in seeing the two Holy Cities and escaping with their lives. 
The first to leave record was Ludovico di Varthema of Bologna 7 

1 Cf . I Kings 8 : 29 30, Dan. 6 : xo. 

* Baladhun.pp 33 6 = Hitti, pp 6061. 

s Ibtd p 40 = Hitti, p. 66, cf. Koran 17 : S3. 4 Waqidi, p. 416, 

1 Ibn-SaVUvol u,ptt,p 99, cf* Bajdawi, Anwar i vo! u p 383,1 10. 

* Muhammad Labib al-Batanunt, al-Rihtah al-fftjazSych (Cairo, 1329), p. 47- 

7 He declared false the widely sprcid European legend that Muhammad's body 
lay suspended in the air somewhere abo\e Makkah. See The Travels of Ludameo 
d% Varthtma m Egypt t Sypa, Arabia Dtserta and Arabia Fchx % \x» J. W.Jones 
(Hakluyt Society, vol. xxxu, London, 1863), pp. 25 s*f» 



ch vin MUHAMMAD THE PROPHET OF ALLAH m 

tn 1503^ and among the latest were an Englishman, Eldon 
Rutter, x and a Hungarian, Julius Germanus. fl The most interest- 
ing was undoubtedly Sir Richard Burton (1853). 3 

-In A.H* 9 Muhammad stationed a garrison at Tabuk, on 
the frontier of Ghassanland, and without a single engage- 
ment concluded treaties of peace with the Christian chief of 
Aylah (ai- c Aqabah) and the Jewish tribes in the oases of 
Maqna, Adhruh and al-Jarba* to the south.* The native Jews and 
"Christians were taken under the protection of the newly arising 
Islamic community in consideration of a payment later called 
jizyah. This act set a precedent far-reaching in its consequences* 

This year 9 (630-31) is called the "y ear of delegations" 
"(sanat al-vnifud). During it delegations flocked from near and 
far to offer allegiance to the prince-prophet. Tribes joined out 
of convenience if not conviction, and Islam contented itself 
^ with exacting a verbal profession of faith and a payment of 
zakah (poor tax). The large number of Bedouins who joined the 
new order may be surmised from a saying attributed to *Umar, 
"The Bedouins are the raw material of Islam". Tribes and 
'districts which had sent no representatives before sent them now. 
They came from distant r Uman, I^adramawt and al-Yaman. 
# The Tayyi* sent deputies and so did the Hamdan and Kindah. 
Arabia, which had hitherto never bowed to the will of one man, 
seemed now inclined to be dominated by Muhammad and be 
incorporated into his new scheme. Its heathenism was yielding 
to a nobler faith and a higher morality. 

in" the tenth Moslem year Muhammad entered peacefully at 
1 he head of the annual pilgnmage into his new religious capital 
Makkah. This proved his last visit and was therefore styled "the 
farewell pilgrimage". Three months after his return to al~ 
Madinah, he unexpectedly took ill and died complaining of 
severe headache on June 8, 632. 

„ To the Madinesc period in the life of the Prophet belong the 
lengthy and more verbose surahs of the Koran which contain, 
in addition to the religious laws governing fasting and alms- 
giving and prayer, social and political ordinances dealing with 
marriage and divorce and the treatment of slaves, prisoners of 
war and enemies. On behalf of the slave, the orphan, the weak 

* ^f^^CjViVr^r^fa,2%'ols.(Ix)ndoii,i928). * Allah Akbar (Berlin, X938). 
* * fierstm at Narrative of a Pilgrimage to cl-Mtdinah and Meccah, 3 vols. (London, 
\ i "SS-G). * Balfidlmri, pp. 59 ssa. ** Hittx, pp. 92 seq. 



120 RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE pamb 



and the oppressed we find the legislation of him who was himself 
once a poor orphan especially benevolent. 1 

Even in the height of his glory Muhammad led, as in his 
days of obscurity*, an unpretentious life m one of those clay 
houses consisting, as do all old-fashioned houses of present-day 
Arabia and Syria, of a few rooms opening into a courtyard and 
accessible only therefrom. He was often seen mending his own 
clothes and was at all times within the reach of his people. The 
little he left he regarded as state property. Some for love, others % 
for political reasons, he took about a dozen wives, among whom 
his favourite was 'A'ishah, the young daughter of abu-Bakr. 
By Khadijah he had a number of children, none of whom 
survived him except Fatimah, the famous spouse of 'Ali. Muham- 
mad mourned bitterly the loss of his infant son Ibrahim, born 
to him by Mary, a Christian Copt. "Serious or trivial, his daily 
behaviour has instituted a canon which millions observe at this 
day with conscious mimicry. No one regarded by any section of 
the human race as Perfect Man has been imitated so minutely." 1 

Out of the religious community of al-Madinah the later and 
larger state of Islam arose. This new community of Emigrants 
and Supporters was established on the basis of religion as the 
Ummat (congregation of) Allah. This was the first attempt in the 
history of Arabia at a social organization with religion, rather 
than blood, as its basis. Allah was the personification of state 
supremacy. His Prophet, as long as he lived, was His legitimate 
vicegerent and supreme ruler on earth. As such, Muhammad, in 
addition to his spiritual function, exercised the same temporal 
authority that any chief of a state might exercise. All within this 
community, regardless of tribal affiliation and older loyalties, 
were now brethren at least in principle. These are the words of 
the Prophet in his noble sermon at the "farewell pilgrimage": 

0 ye men! harken unto my words and take ye them to heart! Know 
ye that every Moslem is a brother unto every other Moslem, and that 
ye are now one brotherhood. It is not legitimate for any one of you, 
therefore, to appropriate unto himself anything that belongs to his 
brother unless it is willingly given him by that brother. 3 

Thus by one stroke the most vital bond of Arab relationship, 

1 Koran 2 : 172, 218-19, 4 = 4<>; 9 * 60, 24 : 33; 93 : 9. Consult Robert Roberts, 
The Social Laws of the Qcrur (London, 1925). 

* V). 0 Hogarth, Arabia (Oxford, 1922), p. 52. 

* Ibn-Hisham, p. 9$9» cf. Waqidi, pp. 433-4. 



OL vm* MUHAMMAD THE PROPHET OF ALLAH m 

that of tribal kinship, was replaced by a new bond, that of 
faith; a sort of Pax Islamica was instituted for Arabia. The 
new community was to have no priesthood, no hierarchy, 
no central see. Its mosque was its public forum and military 
drill ground as well as its place of common worship. The 
leader in prayer, the tmdm, was also to be commander in 
chief of the army of the faithful, who were enjoined to protect 
one another against the entire world. All Arabians who remained 
heathen were outside the pale, almost outlaws. Islam cancelled 
the past. Wine (khamr y from Aramaic) and gambling — next to 
women the two indulgences dearest to the Arabian heart — were 
abolished in one verse. 1 Singing, almost equally attractive, was 
frowned upon. This contrast between the old order and the new 
was vividly drawn by the apocryphal words put in the mouth of 
Ja'far ibn-abi-Talib, the spokesman of the Moslem emigrants to 
Abyssinia. Said Ja'far to the Negus: 

Jahillyah people were we, worshipping idols, feeding on dead 
animals [maytah\\ practising immorality, deserting our families and 
violating the covenant terms of mutual protection, with the strong 
among us devouring the weak. Such was our state until Allah sent unto 
us a messenger from amongst ourselves whose ancestry we know and 
whose veracity, fidelity and purity we recognize. He it was who sum- 
moned us to Allah in order to profess Him as one and worship Him 
alone, discarding whatever stones and idols we and our forbears before 
us worshipped in His stead. He moreover commanded us to be truthful 
, in our talk, to render to others what is due them, to stand by our families 
and to refrain from doing wrong and shedding blood. He forbade com- 
mitting fornication, bearing false witness, depriving the orphan of his 
legitimate right and speaking ill of chaste women. He enjoined on us 
the worship of Allah alone, associating with Him no other. He also 
ordered us to observe prayer, pay zakah [alms] and practise fasting, 3 

From al-Madinah the Islamic theocracy spread all over Arabia 
and later encompassed the larger part of Western Asia and 
North Africa. The community of al-Madinah was in miniature 
the subsequent community of Islam. 

Within a brief span of mortal life Muhammad called forth 
out of unpromising material a nation never united before, in a 

1 Koran $ 1 9*. The Kabatacans bad an anti-bacchic deity. 
1 C£ Koran zz 168. 

* S^stfeg was ordained m the Madinese period, long after the Abyssinian mim< 
i ;*Jon; Koran 2 5 17$, t8s. Ibn^Hisham, p. ax$. 



I2i RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE partji 

country that was hitherto but a geographical expression; estab- 
lished a religion which in vast areas superseded Christianity and 
Judaism and still claims the adherence of a goodly portion of the 
human race; and laid the basis of an empire that was soon to 
embrace within its far-flung boundaries the fairest provinces of 
the then civilized world. Himself an unschooled man, 1 Muham- 
mad was nevertheless responsible for a book still considered by 
one-eighth of mankind as the embodiment of all science, wisdom 
and theology. 

1 Koranic ummi (3 1 19), which Sunni (orthodox) Moslems interpret "illiterate", 
is explained by T&an, Tefstr, vol. iii, p. 143, as one among the Arabian polyt heists, 
who have no revelation. Critical scholars point out that in the Koran {7 : 156; 
3 : 68-9; 62 : 2) the term is used as if in opposition to M cUkttab (the people of the 
Book) and should therefore be taken to mean one unable to read the holy scriptures 
of the earlier revealed religions, surah 2$: 6 is quoted as suggesting Muhammad's 
ability to write Arabic 



CHAPTER IX 



THE KORAN THE BOOK OF ALtAH 

J 



THE year following the death of Muhammad, according to the 
orthodox view, abu-Bakr, on the recommendation of *Umar, 
who had observed that the Koran memorizers {kuffa?) were 
becoming extinct, ordered that the scattered portions of the 
Koran be collected* Zayd ibn-Thabit of al-Madlnah, formerly 
Muhammad*s secretary, was entrusted with the task. Fragments 
from "ribs of palm-leaves and tablets of white stone and from 
the breasts of men" 1 were brought together and a text was con* 
structed. In the caliphate of *Uthman (644-56) various readings 
in the current copies arose, due mainly to the defective nature of 
Kufic script; 'Uthman accordingly appointed in 651 the same 
Zayd as chairman of the committee on revision. Abu-Bakr's copy, 
then in the custody of rjafsah, daughter of *Umar and one of 
Muhammad's widows, was used as a basis. The original codex of 
the fresh version was kept in al-Madmah; * three copies of this 
text were made and forwarded to the three military camps in 
Damascus, al-Basrahand al-Kufah,and all others were destroyed* 
The modern scholarly view, however, doubts whether abu- 
Bakr ever made an official recension and maintains that 'Uthman 
found several metropolitan codices in Arabia, Syria and al-'Iraq 
with divergent readings. 'Uthman canonized the Madman codex 
1 and ordered all others destroyed. The text was finally fixed by 
^ the two vizirs ibn-Muqlah and ibn-*Isa in 933 with the help of 
the learned ibn-Mujahid. Ibn-Mujahid admitted seven readings, 
which had developed because of lack of vowel and diacritical 
1 markkas canonical, 3 

The Moslem view is that the Koran is the word of Allah 

* KhaJIb, Mishk&ht vol, i,T> 4 343. 

* This copy is said to have been presented by the Turkish authorities to Emperor 
William 1L See Versailles Treaty, I>r. vTtt, Sec, II, art. 246 

Arthur Jeffcty, Materials for ire History of the Text of the Koran {Leyden, 
*S37)j pp. 1*10; cf Kartwig Hirsthfdd, Jfetv Researches tnlo the Composition and 
b&tgesis of (At JCoran (London, 1902), pp. 13S 



124 



RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE MKTn 



dictated through Gabriel to Muhammad from an archetype pre- 
served in the seventh heaven (surs. 43:3, 56:76-9, 85:21-2).* Not 
only is the mcaningthereforeinspired but every word, every letter. 

The arrangement of the surahs (koranic chapters) is mechani- 
cal, in the order of their length. The Makkan surahs, about 
ninety in number and belonging to the period of struggle, are 
mostly short, incisive, fiery, impassioned in style and replete 
with prophetic feeling. In them the oneness of Allah, His attri- 
butes, the ethical duties of man and the coming retribution 
constitute the favourite themes. The Madinese surahs, the 
remaining twenty-four (about one-third of the contents of the 
Koran) which "were sent down" (unzitat) in the period of victory, 
are mostly long, verbose and rich in legislative material. In 
them theological dogmas and ceremonial regulations relating to 
the institution of public prayer, fasting, pilgrimage and the 
sacred months are laid down. They moreover contain laws 
prohibiting wine, pork and gambling; fiscal and military ordin- 
ances relating to alms-giving (sakdH) and holy war (JiJidd); 
civil and criminal laws regarding homicide, retaliation, theft, 
usury, marriage and divorce, adultery, inheritance and the 
freeing of slaves. Surahs 2, 4 and 5 contain most of this legisla- 
tive material. The often-quoted prescription for marriage (sun 
4:3)* limit rather than introduce the practice of polygamy. 
Critics consider the statutes relating to divorce (4 : 24, 33 : 48, 
2 : 229) the most objectionable, and those about the treatment of 
slaves, orphans and strangers (4 : 2, 3, 40; 16 : 73; 24 : 33) the 
most humane portions of Islamic legislation. The manumission 
of slaves is inculcated as something most pleasing to God and 
regarded as an expiation for many a sin. Flashes of the old 
eloquence and prophetic spark appear here and there in the 
Madlnese surahs, as in surah 24. 8 Among the noblest verses of 
the Koran are surah 2 : 172, 256. 

Almost alL the historical narratives of the Koran have their 
biblical parallels with the exception of a few purely Arabian 
stories relating to 'Ad and Thamud, Luqman, the "owners of 
the elephant", and two others alluding to Alexander the Great 
{Iskandar dhu-al-QaniaynY and to the "Seven Sleepers" — all 

1 Consult Baj^awi, vol. ii, pp 235, 309-10, 396. 1 Cf. sur. 70 : 29-30. 

* The verses in this surah dealing with light betray Zoroastnan influence. 
4 Siir. 18:82 stg. s vrhcre he seems to be invested with a divine commission, 
Dan 8 : 5, 21, has a clear reference to Alexander. 



THE KORAN THE BOOK OF ALLAH 125 



of which receive but very brief mention. Among the Old Testa- 
ment characters, Adam, Noah, Abraham 1 (mentioned about 
seventy times in twenty-five different surahs and having his 
name as a title for surah 14), Ishmael, Lot, Joseph (to whom 
surah 12 is dedicated), Moses (whose name occurs in thirty T four 
different surahs), Saul, David, Solomon, Elijah, Job and Jonah 
(whose name surah 10 bears) figure prominently. The story of 
the creation and fall of Adam is cited five times, the flood eight 
and Sodom eight. In fact the Koran shows more parallelism to 
the Pentateuch than to any other part of the Bible. 

All these narratives are used didactically, not for the object of 
telling a story but to preach amoral, to teach that God in former 
times has always rewarded the righteous and punished the 
wicked. The story of Joseph is told in a most interesting and 
realistic way. The variations in this and in such other instances 
as the story of Abraham's response to the call of the one true 
God (sur, 21 : 52 seg.) have their parallels in the midrash, 
Talmud and other non-canonical Jewish works. 2 

Of the New Testament characters Zachariah, John the 
Baptist, Jesus (*Isa) and Mary are the only ones emphasized. 
The last two names are generally associated, Mary the mother of 
Jesus is also the daughter of 'Imran and a sister of Aaron. 5 
Haman (Hainan), the favourite of Ahasuerus, 4 is himself tht? 
minister of Pharaoh. 5 It is worthy of note that the Arabic forms 
of the names of the Old Testament characters seem to have come 
mainly through Syriac (e.g. Nuh, Noah) and Greek (e.g. Ilyas, 
Elias; Yunus, Jonah) rather than directly from Hebrew. 

~A comparative study of the above koranic and biblical nar- 
ratives and such parallel passages as those that follow reveals 
no verbal dependence: sur. 2 ; 44-58 and Acts 7 : 36-53; sur. 
2 : 273 and Matt 6 ; 3, 4; sur. 10 : 72 and 2 Pet. 2 : 5; surs. 10 : 73, 
24: 50 and Deut 26 : 14, 17; sur. 17 : 23-40 and Ex. 20 : 2-17, 
Dcut 5 : sur. 21 : 20 and Rev. 4 ; 8; sur. 23 : 3 and Matt. 

^ * In the Madincse surahs. Abraham becomes a #anlf, a Moslem (sur. 3 : 60). He 
a held as Muhammad's ideal predecessor, the spiritual ancestor of Islam (surs. 
4: 124; 3 *60 and the founder of ai-Ka*lmh (a ; 118 seq ) As the "friend" of God 
he is cited in the Old Testament (Is 41 s S, 2 CK 20 : the New Testament (Tas. 
2 1 ?3) and the Koran (4 : 1 24), 
1 Consult The Z*gc~y of Israel, ed E. & Bevan and C. Singer (Oxford, 1028), 

Surs. 19 « i6-8 9j 3 . 31 . 40 4 Esther 3 : 1. 



126 



RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE PART ti 



6 : 7; sun 36 : 53 and 1 Th. 4 : 16; sur. 39 : 30 and Matt. 6 : 24; 
sur. 42 : 19 and Gal. 6 : 7-9; sur. 48 : 29 and Mk. 4 : 28; and 
sur. 92 : 18 and Lk. 11 : 41T The only quotation is sur. 21 : 105 
(cf. Ps. 37 : 9) where the Koran cites the Psalms as the source. 
Others which bear striking resemblance are sur* 21 : 104 and 
Is. 34:4; sur. 53:39-42 and Ezek. 18:20; sur. 53:45 and 
1 Sam. 2 : 6; and sur. 53 : 49 and 1 Sam. 2 : 7. Such verses as 
those dealing with an "eye for an eye" (sur. 5 : 49 and Ex. 
21 : 23-7), the "camel and the needle" (sur. 7 : 38 and Matt. 19 : 24), 
the "house built upon the sand" (sur. 9:110 and Matt. 7 : 24-7) 
and the "taste of death for every man" (surs. 21 : 36. 29 : 57. 
3 : 182 and Heb. 9 : 27, 2 : 9, Matt. 16 : 28) evidently represent 
old Semitic proverbs and sayings common to both Hebrew and 
Arabic. The parallels between Matthew and the Makkan surahs 
seem particularly copious. Certain miraculous acts attributed to 
Jesus the child, such as speaking in the cradle (sun 3 : 41) and 
creating birds out of clay (sur. 3 : 43). recall similar acts recorded 
in the Apocryphal Gospels, including the Injil al-Tuffdiyak. 
The only conspicuous parallel with any of the contents of the 
sacred books of Persia occurs in the picture of heaven and hell, 
sketched with a brush dipped in materialistic colours (sur. 
56 : 8-56), which has a counterpart in the late writings of the 
Parsis. The picture itself may have been inspired by Christian 
miniatures or mosaics representing the gardens of Paradise with 
figures of angels which were interpreted as being those of young 
men and young women. 

Though the youngest of the epoch-making books, the Koran 
is the most widely read book ever written, for besides its use in 
worship, it is the text- book from which practically every Moslem 
learns to read Arabic. Other than the official translation into 
Turkish no authorized Moslem translation into a foreign language 
exists; but there are unauthorized interlinear free translations 
by Moslems into several languages, including Persian, Bengali, 
Urdu, Marathi, Javanese and Chinese. In all, the Koran has 
been done into some forty languages. 1 The words (77,934), the 

4 The first transition into a foreign language was that into Latin sponsored 
(1143) by Peter the Venerable, abbot of CI any. who secured the services of three 
Christian scholars and an Arab, in an attempt to refute the beliefs of Islam. In 
English the first translation appeared in 1649 (London), "TJtc Alcoran of Mahomet^ 
translated out of Arabiquc into French; by the Sieur Du Ryer, . . . And newly 
Englished, for the satisfaction of all that desire to look into the Turkish vanities". 
Sale's translation (1734) from the original Arabic is a paraphrase influenced by the 



CH, XX THE KORAN THE BOOK; OF ALLAH 127 



verses (6236) and even the letters (323,621) 1 have been pains- 
takingly counted. This unbounded reverence for The Book 
reached its climax in the later dogma that it is "the uncreated 
word'* of God, an echo of the "Logos" theory. 8 "Let none touch it 
but the purified, 1 ' 3 In our own day the sight of a Moslem picking 
up a piece of paper from the street and tucking it carefully into 
a hole in a wall— lest the name of Allah be on it— is not rare. 

The word Qur*an itself means recitation, lecture, discourse. 
This book, a strong, living voice, is meant for oral recitation and 
should be heard in the original to be appreciated. No small 
measure of its force lies in its rhyme and rhetoric and in the 
cadence and sweep, which cannot be reproduced in translation 
without loss. Its length is four-fifths of that of the Arabic New 
Testament. The religious influence it exercises as the basis of 
Islam and the final authority in matters spiritual and ethical is 
only one -side of the story. Theology, jurisprudence and science 
being considered by Moslems as different aspects of one and the 
same thing, the Koran becomes the scientific manual, the text- 
book, for acquiring a liberal education. In such a school as al- 
Azhar, the largest Moslem university in the world, this book still 
holds its own as the basis of the whole curriculum. Its literary 
influence may be appreciated when we realize that it was due to 
it alone that the various dialects of the Arabic-speaking peoples 
have not fallen apart into distinct languages, as have the Romance 
languages* While today an 'Iraqi may find it a little difficult 
fully to understand the speech of a Moroccan, yet he would have 
no difficulty in understanding his written language, since in 
both al-'Iraq and Morocco — as well as in Syria, Arabia, Egypt 
—the classical language modelled by the Koran is followed 
closely everywhere. At the time of Muhammad there was no 
work of the first order in Arabic prose. The Koran was therefore 
the earliest, and has ever since remained the model, prose work. 
Its language is rhythmical and rhetorical, but not poetical. Its 
rhymed prose has set the standard which almost every conserva- 
tive Arabic writer of today consciously strives to imitate. 

Latin Version of Marracd's Reftltatio Alteram (1698); RodwelTs {1861) arrange* 
ftesurabs chronologically; Palmer's (1S80) tries to reproduce the Oriental flavour; 
MarmadnVe BcktliaU r s (1930) is especially successful, RichaTd Bell (1937*9) 
attempts a critical rearrangement of the verses. The earliest Arabic printing of the 
Koraa was done between 1485 and 1499 in Venice by AIessandro<le Fnganini 
* There are other enumerations, 1 Cf John Pro v.aa-so. * Sur. 36: 78.8: 



CHAPTER X 



ISLAM THE RELIGION OF SUBMISSION TO THE WILL OF 
ALLAH 



Of the three monotheistic religions developed by the Semites, 
the Islam of the Koran is the most characteristic and comes 
nearer the Judaism of the Old Testament than does the Christi- 
anity of the New Testament. It has such close affinities with both, 
however, that in the conception of many medieval European and 
Oriental Christians it stood as a heretic Christian sect rather 
than a distinct religion. In his Divine Comedy Dante consigns 
Muhammad to one of the lower hells with all those " sowers of 
scandals and schism". Gradually Islam developed into an in- 
dependent and distinct system of belief. The Ka'bah and Quraysh 
were the determining factors in this new orientation. 

In dealing with the fundamentals of their religion Moslem 
theologians distinguish between iman (religious belief), *ibadat 
(acts of worship, religious duty) and thsdn (right-doing), all of 
which are included in the term din (religion). 1 "Verily the 
religion [din] with God is Islam."* 

Iman involves belief in God and in His angels, His "books" 
and His messengers and in the last day. Its first and greatest 
dogma is: la tlaha illa-l-Lak^ no god whatsoever but Allah. In 
iman the conception of God stands supreme. In fact, over ninety 
per cent, of Moslem theology has to do with Allah. He is the one 
true God. The profession of His unity receives its most poignant 
expression in surah 112. God is the supreme reality, the pre- 
existent, the creator (surs. 16:3-17; 2:27-8), the omniscient, 
omnipotent (13 : 9-17; 6 : 59-62; 2 : 100-101; 3 : 25-7), the self- 
subsistent (2 : 256; 3:1). He has ninety-nine excellent names 
(al-asma* al-husna? sur. 7: 179) and as many attributes. The 
full Moslem rosary has ninety-nine beads corresponding to His 

1 Cf. al-Shahrastani, al-Milal w-aUNthal t ed. Cuteton (London, 1842-6), p. 27. 
■ Koran 3 • 17. 

* Al Ghazzah, a!-Maq$ad al-Asna, 2nd cd. (Cairo, 1324), pp. 12 seqs t Baghawi, 
ItfafdbJtt % vol. 1, pp. 96-7. 

128 



tH.X ISLAM THE RELIGION OF SUBMISSION TO ALLAH 129 

names. His attributes {sifdt) of love are overshadowed by those 
of might and majesty (sur. 59 : 23~4)« Islam (surs. 5 : $ , 6 : 125, 
49 ; 14) Is the religion of "submission", "surrender", to the will of 
Allah. The submission of Abraham and his son in the supreme 
test, the attempted sacrifice by the father, expressed in the verb 
aslamd (sur. 37 : 103), was evidently the act that provided 
Muhammad with the name for the new faith. 1 In this uncom- 
promising monotheism, with its simple, enthusiastic faith in the 
supreme rule of a transcendent being, lies the chief strength of 
Islam. Its adherents enjoy a consciousness of contentment and 
resignation unknown among followers of most creeds. Suicide is 
rare in Moslem lands. 

The second dogma in tmdn treats of Muhammad as the 
messenger (rasul) of Allah (surs. 7 : 157; 48 : 29), His prophet 
(7 * 1 $6* *e admonisher (35 : 22) of his people, the last of 
a long line of prophets of whom he is the "seal" (33 : 40), and 
therefore the greatest. In the koranic system of theology Muham- 
mad is but a human being whose only miracle is the i*jaz of the 
Koran; 8 but in tradition, folklore and popular belief he is in- 
vested with a divine aura. His religion is pre-eminently a practical 
one, reflecting the practical and efficient mind of its originator. 
It offers no unattainable ideal, few theological complications and 
perplexities, no mystical sacraments and no priestly hierarchy 
involving ordination, consecration and "apostolic succession". 

The Koran is the word (kaidm, surs. 9:6; 48 : 15, cf. 6 : 
114-15) of Allah. It contains the final revelation (surs. 17 : 107-8; 
97 ; 1; 44:2; 28: 51; 46: 11) and is "uncreated". A koranic 
quotation is always introduced with "saith Allah". Initsphonetic 
and graphic reproduction and in its linguistic form the Koran is 
identical and co-eternal with a heavenly archetype (surs. 56 : 
76-9; 8$ : 21-2). Of all miracles it is the greatest: all men and 
Jinn in collaboration could not produce its like (17 : 90). 

In its angelology Islam gives the foremost place to Gabriel 
(JibrtT^the bearer of revelation (2 : 91), 3 who is also "the spirit 

1 C. C Tonrey, Tkijtfiisk Foundation of fclan (New York, 1933), pp 90, X02 

* The elegance of its composition, which constitutes its miraculous character* 
'Koran 13 : 27-30; 1? t £7-96 See ibn^Hazm, <xl-Fa;I aUMilal w-at-Akwd* wal- 
< £*M vol. sii (Cairo, i^tf), pp 10-14; al-Suyutj, eMtq&n fi 'Mum at-Qur % Sn 

(Cairo, 192$), vol. it,~pp. 116-25. 0 
j * ^rsn contains the only distinct assertion of Gabriel's being the medium 

of revelation; cf. surs 81 : 19-20; 53 1 5-7. 



i 3 o RISE Or ISLAM AND THE CAL1PHAL STATE PART II 

of holiness" (16 : 104; 2 : 81) and "the faithful spirit" (26 : 193). 
As a messenger of the supreme deity he corresponds to the Hermes 
of Greek mythology. 

Sin can be either moral or ceremonial. The worst and only 
unpardonable sin is shirk, joining or associating of other gods 
with the one true God (4:51, 116). Ascribing plurality to 
the Deity seemed most detestable to Muhammad, and in the 
Madinese surahs the polytheists are continually threatened with 
the last judgment (28 : 62 seg. 9 21 :gS seg.). In Muhammad's 
mind "the people of the book", the Scripturaries, 1 i.e. the Chris- 
tians and Jews, were probably not included among the poly- 
theists* though some commentators on sur. 98 : 5 would hold 
a different view. 

The most impressive parts of the Koran deal with eschatology. 
One whole surah (75) is entitled The Resurrection (al-qiyamah). 
The reality of future life is emphasized by the recurrent references 
to "the day of judgment" (15 : 35-6; 82 : 17-18), "the day of 
resurrection" (22 : 5; 30 ; 56), "the day" (24 : 24-5; 31 : 32), 
"the hour" (15 ; 85; 18 : 20) and "the indubitable" (69: 1-2). 
Future life as depicted in the Koran, with its bodily pains and 
physical pleasures, implies the resurrection of the bod v 

The The religious duties (^ibdddt) of the Moslem centre on the 

p"\\ aTtt so-called five pillars (arkdn) of Islam. 

t. Pro- The profession of faith (shahddah), the first pillar, is summed 
fessumof ^ ^ Koranic double formula la ilaha illa-l-Ldh; Muham- 
madunrasulu-ULdh (no god whatsoever but Allah; Muhammad 
is the messenger of Allah). These are the first words to strike the 
ear of the new-born Moslem babe; they are the last to be uttered at 
the grave. Between these two episodes no other words are more 
often repeated. They also occur in the muezzin's call to prayer 
chanted many times daily from the tops of minarets. Islam has 
generally satisfied itself with a verbal profession; once the formula 
is accepted and reproduced the person is nominally a Moslem. 
Prayer Five times a day 5 is the faithful Moslem supposed to turn his 
face towards Makkah and recite his prescribed prayer. Prayer is 
the second pillar of faith. A bird's-eye view of the Moslem world 
at the hour of prayer (ignoring the difference caused by longitude 
and latitude) would present the spectacle of a series of concentric 

1 H, Lammens, VIslamx croyances et institutions (Beirut, 1926), p. 62, 1. 17, and 
p. 219, 1. 7. * Dawn, midday, mid-afternoon, sunset and nightfall. 



CH, x ISLAM THE RELIGION OF SUBMISSION TO ALLAH 131 

circles of worshippers radiating from the Ka'bah at Mafckah and' ' 
covering an ever-widening area from Sierra Leone to Malaysia 
and from Tobolsk to Capetown. 

The word for ritual prayer* saldh, is an Aramaic loan-word, as 
its Arabic orthography (with a waw) suggests. If prayer existed 
before Islam it must have been unorganized and informal. 
Though it is encouraged in an early surah (87 : 15) and its re- 
quirements are set forth in certain Makkan revelations (11 : 1 16; 
17 : 80-81; 30 : 16-17), ritual prayer, with its prescribed number 
of five separate and distinct orisons per day and the prerequisite 
state of legal purity or ceremonial cleanliness (2 : 239, 24 : 57, 1 
4 : 46, 5 : 8-9), was not instituted until the Madmese period. The 
middle prayer (2 : 239) was the last enjoined. The number five, 
according to al-Bukhari, 2 was a compromise reached after Allah 
had asked for fifty on the occasion of Muhammad's visit to the 
seventh heaven on his nocturnal journey (sur. 17 : 1). Sur. 4 : 46 
seems to suggest that the limitation and later interdiction of the 
use of wine may have owed its origin to the necessity of keeping 
the divine service free from undue disturbance. 

The ritual prayer is a legally defined act performed by all 
with the same general bodily postures and genuflections and with 
the same proper orientation. The worshipper should be in a state 
of legal purity (taharaff), and the use of Arabic as a medium of 
expression is absolutely incumbent upon him, no matter what his 
native tongue may be. In its stereotyped form prayer is not so 
much petition or supplication 3 as it is the mention of Allah's 
name (62 : 9-10; 8 : 47). The simple and meaningful fatihah, 
often likened to the Lord's Prayer, is reiterated by the faithful 
Moslem about twenty times a day. This makes it one of the most 
often repeated formulas ever devised. Doubly meritorious is the 
voluntary ritual prayer performed at night (tahajjud* 17 : 81; 
SO : 38-9), for it is a work of supererogation (ndfilafi). 

The Friday noon prayer is the only public one (62 : 9; 5 : 63) 
and is obligatory for all adult males. Certain mosques have 
places reserved for women. One feature of the Friday service is 
the khuibah (address) delivered by the leader (imdm\ in which 

intercessory prayer is offered on behalf of the ruling head of the 

i ^ * 

I 55;J7. t , ' * $ahm, vol i, pp. S$ sc<?.; cf. Gen. 18 * 23-33. 

j nnregumtcd and private or individual prayer, not to be confused 



132 RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPH AL STATE *ARTK 

state. This congregational assembly had for its prototype the 
Jewish synagogue worship, but was influenced in its later develop- 
ment by the Christian Sunday service. In dignity, simplicity and 
orderliness it is unsurpassed as a manner of collective worship. 
Standing erect in self-arranged rows in the mosque and follow- 
ing the leadership of the imam with precision and reverence, 
the worshippers present a sight that is always impressive. As a 
disciplinary measure this congregational prayer must have had 
great value for the proud, individualistic sons of the desert. It 
developed in them the sense of social equality and the con- 
sciousness of solidarity. It promoted that brotherhood of com- 
munity of believers which the religion of Muhammad had 
theoretically substituted for blood relationship. The prayer 
ground thus became "the first drill ground of Islam". 

3 Alms Prescribed originally as a voluntary act of love and considered 
almost identical with piety, zakah (legal alms, stirs 2 40, 77, 
192, 263-9, 273-5, 2 8o) evolved into an obligatory tax on property, 
including money, cattle, corn, fruit and merchandise. In the 
Koran (9 • 5 , 2 : 40, 77, etc.) zakah is often associated with the 
saldh. The young Islamic state collected zakah through regular 
officials and administered it from a central treasury to support 
the poor among the community, build mosques and defray 
government expenses (sur. 9 : 60). The word zakah is of Aramaic 
origin and is more specific than sadaqah> which is voluntary and 
implies alms- giving in general. Zakah is a purely denominational 
institution, involving alms raised and distributed among Mos- 
lems alone. Its underlying principle tallies with the tithe, which, 
according to Pliny, 1 the South Arabian merchants had to pay to 
their god before they were allowed to sell their spices. Its exact 
amount varied and has been determined in the various cases by the 
fiqh (religious law), but generally it averaged two and a half per 
cent. Even soldiers' pensions were not exempt. Later, with the dis- 
integration of the purely Islamic state, zakah was again left to the 
Moslem's conscience. Zakah constitutes the third pillar of the faith 

4. Pasung Though penitential fasts are prescribed a number of times in 
the Madinese surahs (58 : 5; 19 : 27; 4 : 94; 2 : 192), Ramadan 
as a fasting month is mentioned only once (2 : 179-81). That 
particular month, which may have been sacred in pre-Islamic 
days, was chosen because in it the Koran was first revealed 
* Bfc. XII, ch. 32. 



1 - * A 

, CH.x ISLAM THE RELIGION OF SUBMISSION TO ALLAH 133 

(sun 2 ; and the victory of Badr won. Abstinence from all 
food and drink is enjoined from dawn till sunset (sur. 2 : 1IJ3). 
Instances in which violence has been used in modern times by 
the government or by the populace against a non-fasting believer 
in Moslem lands are not unknown, 

,We have no evidence of any practice of fasting in pre-Islamic 
pagan Arabia, but the institution was, of course, well established 
among both Christians and Jews (Matt* 4 ; 2; Deut* 9 : 9). Ibn- 
Hisham 1 states that the Quraysh in the JahiKyah days were wont 
to spend one month a year on Mt. IJira* practising penance 
(tafrannutli). In ai-Madlnah and before instituting Ramadan, 
Muhammad evidently observed the tenth of Muharram (?dsku? a) 
as a fast day; this he had adopted from the Jews. 2 In the Makkan 
surahs the word for fasting ($awm) occurs only once (19 : 27), and 
there apparently in the sense of "silence". 

Pilgrimage (jtajj t stirs. 3 : 91; 2 : 192-6; 5 : 1-2, 96) is the > j 
fifth and last pillar of Islam. Once in a lifetime every Moslem gm 
of either sex who can afford it is supposed to undertake at a 
stated time of the year a holy visit to Makkah, *Umrak is the 
lesser pilgrimage to Makkah and may be made individually and 
at any time. 

The pilgrim Qtajf) makes his entry into the holy precincts as a 
muhrim (wearing a seamless garment) and performs the seven- 
fold circumambulation of the Ka'bah {tawdf) and the seven-fold 
course (sa^y) between the adjacent al-Safa mound and the 
Marwah eminence lying opposite. 8 The hajj proper begins with 
the march to *Arafah, 4 which lasts from the seventh to the 
eighth of dhu-al-IJijjah. The halts {wuqiif) take place at the 
outlying sanctuaries of f Arafah, namely, al-Muzdahfah and 
Mina. The stone-throwing ceremony takes place on the way to 
the valley of Mina at Jamrat al-*Aqabah. With the sacrifice at 
Mina of a camel or of a sheep or other horned domestic animal 
(Koran 22 : $4-7), which always takes place on the tenth of 
dhu-al-IJijjah and is celebrated throughout the Moslem world 
as *ld al-Adha (the festival of sacrifice), the whole ceremony 

1 StrzA, pp. X$i»2^ * BuMiari, vol. ii, p. 20S; Lev. x6 : 29. 

Moslems, according to their tradition, perform the say in commemoration of 
wt fact that Hagar ran back and forth seven times between these two eminences 
looHng for a spring for her thirsty son. 

a Arafah is the valley and 'Arafat the mountain, according to Rif at, Mirdi % 
VoLx, p> 44, but the two words are often used interchangeably. 



134 RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE PART n 



formally ends. After the shaving of the head the garment 
{ihrdm) is discarded and the ihlal (secular condition) resumed. 
As long as he is muhritn^ in a sanctified state, the pilgrim must 
observe, in addition to the abstinences imposed in connection 
with the fasting of Ramadan, such as sexual intercourse, those 
special regulations forbidding the shedding of blood, hunting 
and the uprooting of plants Fasting, however, is not required 
Pilgrimage to holy places was an ancient Semitic institution. 1 
Echoes of it survived to Old Testament days (Ex. 23 : 14, 17; 
34 : 22-3; 1 Sam. 1 : 3). Originally it may have been a feature 
cf solar cult, the ceremonies of which coincided with the autumnal 
equinox and constituted a kind of farewell to the harsh rule of 
the burning sun and a welcoming to Quzah, the thunder-sod of 
fertility. In prc-Islamic days the annual fairs of North Arabia 
were followed by a pilgrimage in dhu-al-FIijjah to the Ka'bah 
and "Arafah. In the seventh year of the Hijrah Muhammad 
adopted and Islamized the ancient pilgrim rites centring on the 
Ka'bah and 'Arafah. In these rites Islam entered upon its largest 
share of heritage from pre-Islamic Arabia. Rif'at 2 relates that 
when a Bedouin nowadays makes his ritual walk round the 
Ka'bah he repeats in colloquial Arabic: "O Lord of this House! 
I testify that I have come. Say not that I have not come. Forgive 
me and forgive my father, if you will. Otherwise forgive me in 
spite of your unwillingness, for I have performed my pilgrimage, 
as you see." 3 

A constant trek of pilgrims across Central Africa, from Sene- 
gal, Liberia, Nigeria, is ever on the move eastward and increas- 
ing in numbers as it goes along. Some are on foot, others on 
camel-back. The major ity arc men, but a few are women and 
children. They trade, they beg, they work their way into the 
Highly Honoured Makkah (al-Mukarramah) and the Greatly 
Illuminated City (al-Madmah al-Munawwarah). Many fall by 
the wayside and are martyrs, those who survive finally strike 

1 W. Robertson Smith, Lectures on the Rchgton of the Semites, 3rd cd by S. A. 
C00U (London, 1927)1 PP 80, 276 
« Vol 1, p. 35. 

a The same authority (vol i, p. 35) o\erhcard a Bedouin woman addressing 
herself to al-Ka'bah thus- "O Lidy Laylahl if you bring rain to our region so that 
plenty \khayr\ may follow, I shall fetch you a bottle of ghee so that you mi> anoint 
your hair". Hearing this another Bedouin woman asked the speaker, "Do you 
really mean to fetch her one as you say?" to which the former replied, "Hush, I 
am fooling her. Once she brings the rain I shall fetch nothing!" 



■ • a|weifem%e<l " Sea port, whence they arc 'traxisporUd across "by 
,;a&wsr:But the 1 four miajor caravans aire those fromal-Yaman;"' 
al-'IraqrSyria and Egypt. Each of these countries used to send 
anxlually at the head of its caravan a mahmil symbolic of its 
dignity. The Mahmil, a splendidly decorated litter, is carried on 
a camel that is led and not ridden. Beginning with the thir- 




From Urahfrft JtyVA "MtYti at-ganmayn" 
ttHE^GYWiAN AND SYRIAN MAIjWlLS ON THEIR DEPARTURE 
vif^ Viy v ' 1 ^ R0H AL-MUZDALIFAH TO MINA, 1904 

..telsntli rpentury ^siich "Mahiriils were sent by Moslem princes 
•anxious 'to "idisplay;; their independence and assert their claim as 
;-p£^ Places/ Current tradition holds that 

^H^> °^ P °f thelastAyyubid sultans, originated 
Jthe idea of ^ahrnil in the middle of the thirteenth century. But in 
several early :works I the claim is made that the Umayyad viceroy 
Jn$r!Mj^ (f 7 14), was the one who initiated 

*he ; ^ stories be correct it was quite 

; £ut(tan> vol. iv, p. 886, I 6; ibo 

1288), p. 68. 



i 3 6 RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE parth 



evidently the Mamluk Baybars (1260-77) wno celebrated the 
occasion with such special festivities that the custom was estab- 
lished on a firm basis. 1 In recent years the Syrian and Egyptian 
caravans had been distinguished in splendour. The average 
number of pilgrims annually between the first and second World 
Wars had been about 172,000. Since then it has been on the 
increase, reaching in the mid-1960s the million mark with Egypt 
and Pakistan sending the largest numbers. Puritanical ibn- 
Su'ud abolished the Mahmil, a relic of heathenism. In the pilgrim 
age rjlijaz had its main source of income until the discovery of oil. 1 
Down through the ages this institution has continued to serve 
as the major unifying influence in Islam and the most effective 
common bond among the diverse believers. It rendered almost 
every capable Moslem perforce a traveller for once in his life-^ 
time. The socializing influence of such a gathering of the brother- 
hood of believers from the four quarters of the earth is hard to 
over-estimate. It afforded opportunity for negroes, Berbers, 
Chinese, Persians, Syrians, Turks, Arabs — rich and poor, high 
and low — to fraternize and meet together on the common ground 
of faith* Of all world religions Islam seems to have attained the 
largest measure of success in demolishing the barriers of race, 
colour and nationality — at least within the confines of its own 
community. The line is drawn only between believers and the 
rest of mankind. These hajj gatherings have undoubtedly con- 
tributed their share towards the achievement of that result. They 
have further provided excellent opportunities for the propagation 
of sectarian ideas among peoples coming from lands not bound 
together by the modern means of communication and where the 
voice of the press is not yet a living voice. Such a movement as the 
Sanusi in northern Africa owes its inception and early propaga- 
tion to the intercourse provided by the pilgrimage to Makkah. 
Holy War The duty oi jihad, holy war 2 (sur. 2 : 186-90), has been raised 
to the dignity of a sixth pillar by at least one Moslem sect, the 
Kharijites. To it Islam owes its unparalleled expansion as a 
worldly power. It is one of the principal duties of the caliph to 

1 SuyQn, f/ustt, vol. «, p 74; cf«al-Maqri2t,A/*4/<ttv£*tt wal*7*tt&dr t td Gaston 
SViet (Cairo, 1922), \ol in, p 300, al Suluk fi Man/at Duwa/ al Mute tr 
M Quatremere, Htst<nre dcs sulians manhuks de VEgypte (Psins, 1845), \ol. 1 
(pt I), pp. 149 50. The Mafemil, the markab (litter) of the RuwaUh and the Ark 
ol the Covenant may go back to the same ancient Semitic origin. 

* Theoretically there is no secular war in Islam. 



From Ibrahim Rif '<it. * % Mirci aUljar&ntQp?* 

PILGRIMS AROUND THE KA'BAH PERFORMING THE FRIDAY 
PRAYER, 190S 




i 3 8 RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPH AL STATE part u 

keep pushing back the geographical wall separating the d&r 
al-islam (the land of Islam) from the dar al-harb (the war 
territory). This bipartite division of the world into an abode of 
peace and an abode of war finds a parallel in the communistic 
theory of Soviet Russia. Of more recent ysars, however, 
jihad has found less support in the Moslem world, chiefly 
because of the fragmentation and lingering of many parts under 
the control of various alien governments considered too strong or 
too benevolent to be overthrown. The last such call to a universal 
uprising against non-Moslems, made as late as the autumn of 
1914 by the Ottoman Sultan-Caliph Muhammad Rashad, proved 
an utter failure. 

Another important article of faith is the belief in the divine 
decree of good and evil (sur. 9:51; 3 : 139; 3$ : a), a dominant 
factor in Moslem thought and conduct throughout the ages. 

The religious obligations (^tbdddf) discussed above constitute 
the fundamentals of Islam. But they are not the only ones 
instituted by koranic prescription. Right-doing {t/isdn) has the 
same authority behind it. The sanctions of private as well as 
public morality in the Moslem world are all of a religious 
character. Basically the will of Allah, as revealed through 
Muhammad, determines what is right (Jialal = permitted, legiti- 
mate) and what is wrong (Jiaram = forbidden). In the historical 
evolution of religion in Arabia, Islam was the first to demand 
personal belief and personal morality (surs. 53 : 39-42, 31 : 32). 
In the realm of ethical conduct it substituted the moral fellow- 
ship of religion for the tribal fellowship of blood kinship. Of the 
human virtues it insists on beneficence, in the form of zakah, 
most urgently. In such passages as 2 : 172; 3 : ioo, 106, 109-11; 
4 :4o; 7 : 31, which stand in favourable comparison with the 
best in the Old Testament (e.g. Amos 5 : 23-4; Hos. 6 : 6; 
Mic. 6 : 6-8), its ethical ideals are clearly set forth* 



1 



CHAPTER XI 
PERIOD OF CONQUEST, EXPANSION AND COLONIZATION 



Orthodox Caliphs 

1. Abu-Bnkr . . 632-34 

2. *Umar • » . 634-44 

3. 'Uthman * . 644-56 

4. *Ali . . , 656-6! 

As long as Muhammad lived he performed the functions of 
prophet, lawgiver, religious leader, chief judge, commander of 
the army and civil head of the states — all in one. But now 
Muhammad was dead. Who was to be his successor, his khalifah 
(caliph), in all except the spiritual function? In his role as the 
last and greatest prophet, who had delivered the final dispensa- 
tion to mankind, Muhammad evidently could have no one to 
succeed hint. 

The Prophet left nomale children. Only onedaughter, Fatimah, 
the wife of *Ali, survived him. But the Arabian chiefdom or 
sheikhdom was not exactly hereditary; it was more electoral, 
following the line of tribal seniority. So even if his sons had not 
predeceased him, the problem would not have been solved. Nor 
did Muhammad clearly designate a successor. The caliphate 
is therefore the first problem Islam had to face. It is still a 
living issue. In March 1924, sixteen months after cancelling the 
sultanate, the Kemalist Turks abolished the Ottoman caliphate in 
Constantinople held by *Abd-al-MajId II, and since then a num- 
ber of pan-Islamic congresses have met in Cairo and Makkah 
to determine the rightful successor to the Prophet, but all to no 
avail In the words of the distinguished historian of religions, al- 
Shahrastani (f IIS3) : * "Never was there an Islamic issue which 
brought about more bloodshed than the caliphate \imamaky\ 

* As always happens when a serious question is thrown open 
for popular decision, a number of conflicting parties arose 

*39 



l 4 o RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE part h 



subsequent to the death of Muhammad. These were on one side 
the Emigrants (muhajiriiti), who based their claim on having 
belonged to the tribe of the Prophet and on having been the 
first to accept his mission. On the other stood the Madlnese 
Supporters(.r4*war),who asserted that had they not given Muham- 
mad and nascent Islam asylum both would have perished. Later 
these two parties coalesced to form the Companions (fafiadah). 
Then came the Legitimists (as/tad al-nass tu-al-tayin), who 
reasoned that Allah and Muhammad could not have left the 
community of believers to the chances and whims of an electorate, 
and therefore must have made clear provision for its leadership 
by designating some particular person to succeed Muhammad. 
'Ali, the paternal cousin of the Prophet, the husband of his only 
surviving daughter and one of the first two or three believers, 
was the one thus designated and the only legitimate successor. 
As against the elective principle, this last party held to the divine 
right of rule. And last but not least came the aristocracy of 
Quraysh, the Umayyads, who held the reins of authority, power 
and wealth in the pre-Islamic days (but who were the last to 
profess Islam) and who later asserted their right to the successor- 
ship. It was abu-Sufyan, their head, who had led the opposition 
to the Prophet until the fall of Makkah. 

The first party triumphed. The aged and pious abu-Bakr, a 
father-in-law of the Prophet and one of the first three or four to 
believe in him, received the oath of allegiance (bayfaJi) from the 
assembled chiefs, probably in accordance with a previously 
arranged scheme between himself, 'Urnar ibn-al-Khattab and 
abu-'Ubaydah ibn-al-Jarrah — the triumvirate who presided over 
the destinies of infant Islam. 

Abu-Bakr headed the list of the four orthodox (rashidiLn) 
caliphs, including c Umar, 'Uthman and 'Ali. This was a period 
in which the lustre of the Prophet's hfe had not ceased to shed its 
light and influence over the thoughts and acts of the caliphs. 
AH four were close associates and relatives of the Prophet. They 
lived in al-Madtnah, the scene of his last ministry, with the 
exception of the last, c Ali, who chose al-Kufah in al-*Iraq for his 
capital. 

The short caliphate of abu-Bakr (632-4) was mostly occupied 
with the so-called riddah (secession, apostasy) wars. As repre- 
sented by Arab chroniclers ail Arabia outside of al-yijaz, which 



CH. 3a> CONQUEST, EXPANSION AND COLONIZATION 141 ' 

is alleged to have accepted Islam and acknowledged the temporal 
authority of the Prophet, upon his death broke off from the newly 
organized state and followed a number of local and false prophets. 
The fact is that with the lack of communication, the utter 
absence of organized methods of missionary activity and the 
short time involved, not more than one-third of the peninsula 
could actually have professed Islam during the life of the 
Prophet or recognized his rule. Even al-tfijaz, the immediate 
scene of his activity, was not Islamized until a year or two before 
his death. The delegates (wufud) reported to have come to pay 
him homage could not have represented all Arabia, and for a 
tribe to become Moslem in those days simply meant that its chiefs 
so became. 

Many such tribes in al-Yaman, al-Yamamah and *Uman felt 
reluctant to pay the zakah to al-Madinah. The death of the 
Prophet provided the excuse for active refusal. Jealousy against 
the rising hegemony of the Hijaz capital was one of the under- 
lying motives. The old centrifugal forces characteristic of Arabian 
life were once more in full operation. 

Abu-Bakr, however, was adamant in his insistence on un- 
conditional surrender from "the seceders" or war unto destruc- 
tion. 1 Khalid ibn-al-Walld was the hero of these wars. Within 
some six months his generalship had reduced the tribes of 
Central Arabia to submission. First he subjugated the Tayyi*; 
then theAsad andGhatafan, whoseprophet, Talhah,the Moslems 
scoffingly styled Tulayhah; and finally the banu-IJanlfah in 
al-Yamamah, who had gathered under the banner of a prophet 
whose name, Musaylimah, appears derisively in the Arabic annals 
in this diminutive form. It was this Musaylimah who offered 
the most stubborn resistance. He unified his religious and worldly 
interests with Sajah, possibly a Christian, who was the prophetess 
and soothsayer of the banu-Tamim and whom he married; with 
40,000 men at his command, so we are told, he crushed two 
Moslem armies before Khalid arrived with a third. Even from 
among this victorious third Khalid lost enough Koran reciters 
to endanger the perpetuation of the knowledge of the sacred 
book. Other campaigns were conducted by various Moslem 
generals and with varying measures of success 2 in al-Bahrayn, 

1 Baladhuri. p. 94, L 14 = Hitti, p. 143, 1. 23. 
Consult BalSdhuri, pp. 94-107 « Hitti, pp. 143-62. 



142 RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE partii 

r Uman, Hadramawt and al-Yaman, where al-Aswad had been 
acknowledged prophet. Thus most of the rtddah wars were 
directed not so much toward holding secessionists by force — 
which is the view of Arab historians — as toward bringing over 
to Islam many who had until that time been outside the fold. 

The peninsula was now united under abu-Bakr by the sword 
of Khalid. Arabia had to conquer itself before it could conquer 
the world. The momentum acquired in these internal campaigns, 
which transformed Arabia for a number of months after the 
death of the Prophet into an armed camp, had to seek new 
outlets, and the newly acquired technique of organized warfare 
had to be applied somewhere. The warlike spirit of the tribes, 
now brought together into a nominally common fraternity, had 
to find new channels for asserting itself. 

The two cardinal events of late ancient times are the Teutonic 
migrations resulting in the disruption of the venerable Roman 
empire, and the Arab conquests which demolished the Persian 
empire and shook the Byzantine power to its very foundation. Of 
these two, the Arab conquests culminating in the occupation of 
Spain marked the beginning of the Middle Ages. 1 If some- 
one in the first third of the seventh Christian century had 
had the audacity to prophesy that within a decade some un- 
heralded, unforeseen power from the hitherto barbarous and httle- 
known land of Arabia was to make its appearance, hurl itself 
against the only two world powers of the age, fall heir to the one 
— the Sasanid — and strip the other — the Byzantine — of its fairest 
provinces, he would undoubtedly have been declared a lunatic. 
Yet that was exactly what happened. After the death of the 
Prophet sterile Arabia seems to have been converted as if by 
magic into a nursery of heroes the like of whom both in number 
and quality is hard to find anywhere. The military campaigns 
of Khalid ibn-al-Walld and *Amr ibn-al-'As which ensued in al- 
*Iraq, Persia, Syria and Egypt are among the most brilliantly 
executed in the history of warfare and bear favourable comparison 
with those of Napoleon, Hannibal or Alexander." 

The enfeebled condition of the rival Byzantines and Sasanids 
who had conducted internecine wars against each other for many 
generations; the heavy taxes, consequent upon these wars, 
imposed on the citizens of both empires and undermining their 

1 Henri Pirenne, Mahomet et Charlemagne, 7th ed (Brussels, 1935). 



CH.kl CONQUEST, EXPANSION AND COLONIZATION « 143 , * 



sense of loyalty; the previous domestication of Arabian tribes 
in Syria and Mesopotamia, and particularly along the borders; 
the existence of schisms in the Christian church resulting in the 
establishment of Monophysite communities in Syria and Egypt 
and Nestorian congregations in al- e Iraq and Persia, together 
with the persecution by the orthodox church — all these paved 
the way for the surprisingly rapid progress of Arabian arms. 
The Byzantines had neglected the frontier forts. After their 
victory of Mu*tah, in the land of ancient Moab, over the column 
sent by the Prophet (Sept. 629), Heraclius stopped the subsidies 
which the Syro-Arab tribes south of the Dead Sea and on the 
Madinah-Ghazzah route had regularly received. 1 The native 
Semites of Syria and Palestine as well as the Hamites of Egypt 
looked upon the Arabian newcomers as nearer of kin than their 
hated and oppressive alien overlords. In fact the Moslem con- 
quests may be looked upon as the recovery by the ancient Near 
East of its early domain* Under the stimulus of Islam the East 
now awoke and reasserted itself after a millennium of Western 
domination. Moreover, the tribute exacted by the new conquerors 
was even less than that exacted by the old, and the conquered 
could now pursue their religious practices with more freedom 
and less interference. As for the Arabians themselves, they 
represented a fresh and vigorous stock fired with new enthusiasm, 
imbued with the will to conquer and emboldened by the utter 
contempt of death inculcated by their new faith. But no small 
share of their seemingly miraculous success was due to their 
application of a military technique adapted to the open steppes 
of Western Asia and North Africa— the use of cavalry and 
camefry— -which the Romans never mastered. 

The "clerical* 1 interpretation of the Islamic movement, em- The 
phasized in Arabic sources, makes it entirely or primarily a** 3 * 3 
religious movement and lays no stress on the underlying of 0 
economic causes. The corresponding and equally discredited expj 
hypothesis held by many Christians represents the Arabian 
Moslems as offering the Koran with the <>ne hand and the sword 
with the other. Outside of the Arabian peninsula and especially 
in the instance of the ahl aUHtab (Christians and Jews) there 
was a third and, from the standpoint of the conquerors, more 
desirable choice besides the Koran and the sword— tribute. 
1 T^eophanes, pp. 335-6. 



144 



RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE part n 



11 Make war . . . upon such of those to whom the Book has 
been given until they pay tribute offered on the back of their 
hands, in a state of humiliation." 1 This third choice was later 
by the necessity of circumstances offered to Zoroastrians and 
heathen Berbers and Turks; in the case of all of these theory 
gave way to expediency. Islam did provide a new battle-cry, a 
convenient rallying-pointand a party watchword. It undoubtedly 
acted as a cohesive and cementing agency for the hetero- 
geneous masses never before united and furnished a large part 
of the driving force. But it is hardly in itself enough to explain 
the conquests. Not fanaticism but economic necessity drove the 
Bedouin hordes, and most of the armies of conquest were 
recruited from the Bedouins, beyond the confines of their arid 
abode to the fair lands of the north. The passion to go to heaven 
in the next life may have been operative with some, but the 
desire for the comforts and luxuries of the civilized regions of 
the Fertile Crescent was just as strong in the case of many. 

This economic aspect of the interpretation of the conquests, 
worked out by Caetani, 3 Becker 5 and other modern critical 
scholars, was not entirely ignored by the Arab chroniclers of old. 
Al-Baladhuri, the most judicious of the historians of the con- 
quest, declares that in recruiting for the Syrian campaign abu- 
Bakr "wrote to the people of Makkah, ai-Ta if, al-Yaman and 
all the Arabs in Najd and al-IJijaz summoning them to a 'holy 
war* and arousing their desire for it and for the booty to be got 
from the Greeks".* Rustam, the Persian general who defended 
his country against the Arab invasion, made the following remark 
to the Moslem envoy: "I have learned that ye were forced to 
what ye are doing by nothing but the narrow means of liveli- 
hood and by poverty 11 . 5 A verse in the flamdsah of abu-Tam- 
mam e has put the case tersely: 

No, not for Paradise didst thou the nomad life forsake; 
Rather, I believe, it was thy yearning after bread and dates. 

Envisaged in its proper setting, the Islamic expansion marks the 
final stage in the age-long process of gradual infiltration from 

1 Sur. 9 : 29. * Annali, vol. U, pp. 831-61. 

3 In Cambridge Medieval History (New York, 1913), vol. ii, ch. xL 
* Futuk % v 107-Hitti, p. 165. 

1 Baladhuri, pp. 256-7 = Hitti, pp. 4x1-12. 1 P. 795* 



-CH,Xl CONQUEST, .EXPANblOJy AISJU uui-viNi^AiiWAM t 14* 

the barren desert to the adjacent Fertile Crescent, the last great 
Semitic migration. 

* The chroniclers, all of whom viewed the events of the conquest 
in the light of their subsequent developments, would also have 
us believe that these campaigns were conducted through the 
sagacity of the first caliphs, particularly abu-Bakr and *Umar, 
in accordance with carefully prearranged plans. History shows 
but very few cases in which the course of great events was fore- 
seen by those who launched them. Far from being entirely the 
result of deliberate and cool calculation, the campaigns seem to 
have started as raids to provide new oudets for the warring 
-spirit of the tribes now forbidden to engage in fratricidal com- 
bats, the objective in most cases being booty and not the gain- 
ing of a permanent foothold. But the machine so built soon got 
beyond the control of those who built it. The movement acquired 
momentum as the warriors passed from victory to victory. It was 
then that the systematic campaigns began, and the creation of 
the Arab empire followed inevitably. Its creation was therefore 
due less to early design than to the logic of immediate circum- 
stances. 

The clerical or theological view favouring a providential 
interpretation of Islamic expansion, corresponding to the Old 
Testament interpretation of the Hebrew history and to the 
medieval philosophy of Christian history, has a faulty philo- 
logical basis. The term Islam may be used in three senses: 
originally a religion, Islam later became a state, and finally a 
culture. Unlike Judaism and the old Buddhism, the religion of 
Islam proved as much of an aggressive and missionary religion 
as Christianity* Subsequently it built up a state. The Islam that 
conquered the northern regions was not the Islamic religion but 
thelslamic state. The Arabians burst forth upon an unsuspect- 
ing world as members of a national theocracy. It was Arabianism 
and not Muhammadanism that triumphed first. Not until the 
second and third centuries of the Moslem era did the bulk of 
the people in Syria, Mesopotamia and Persia profess the religion 
of Muhammad* Between the military conquest of these regions 
+ arid their religious conversion alongperiod intervened. And when 
they were converted the people turned primarily because of self- 
Jntercst-^to escape tribute and seek identification with the 
ruling class: As for Islam as a culture, it developed slowly after 



146 



RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE pa*t n 



the military conquests on a substratum composed of the core 
and heritage of the Syro-Aramaean, Persian and Hellenistic 
civilizations which had preceded it. With Islam the Near Orient 
not only recaptured the whole of its former political domain but 
regained in the realm of culture its ancient intellectual pre- 
eminence. 



CHAPTER XII 
THE CONQUEST OF SYRIA 



ABOUT the same time that Heraclius, newly hailed deliverer of 
Christendom and restorer of the unity of the Eastern Empire, 
was in Jerusalem reinstalling the true Cross, 1 which had just 
been recovered from the Persians, his troops beyond the Jordan 
reported an attack by an Arabian band which was repelled with 
little difficulty. Mu'tah, on the frontier of al-Baiqa' to the east 
of the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, was the scene of the 
encounter. Zayd ibn-ftarithah, the adopted son of Muhammad, 
was the leader; under him were 3000 men. 2 Zayd lost his life 
in the raid and the newly converted Khalid ibn-al-Walid 
succeeded in leading the remnant of the shattered army back 
to al-Madinah. The ostensible object of the raid was to avenge 
the martyrdom of the Prophet's emissary sent to the Ghassanid 
prince of Busra; the real one was to secure the coveted Mash- 
rafiyah 3 swords manufactured at Mu*tah and neighbouring 
towns with a view to using them in the impending attack on 
Makkah, The event was naturally interpreted as one of the 
ordinary raids to which the settled peoples of the borderland 
had long been accustomed; but actually it was the first gun in a 
struggle that was not to cease until the proud Byzantine capital 
had fallen (1453) to the latest champions of Islam and the 
name of Muhammad substituted for that of Christ on the walls 
of the most magnificent cathedral of Christendom, St. Sophia. 

The Mu'tah engagement was the only campaign against Syria 
in the lifetime of the Prophet. The Tabuk 4 expedition in the 
following year (A.H. 9/630) led by him in person was blood- 
less, though it netted a few Jewish and Christian oases. 

At the conclusion of the Riddah wars in the autumn of 633, 

1 Sept 14, 629, still celebrated tvith bonfire in the Lebanon. 

* Tabari, vol. i, p. 1610. Cf. Theophanes, p. 336. 

5 From Mzsharif cl'Skt?tn f i.e. the highlands overlooking Syria. M. J. de Goeje, 
Minora sur la eenqutte <?c la Sjvit {Leaden, looo), p. 5. 

* W&qiai, pp. 435 Baiadhnri, p. $& « Hitti, p. 93. 

147 



148 



RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE partii 



three detachments of about 3000 men each, led respectively 
by 'Amr ibn-al-* A§, Yazid ibn-abi-Sufyan and ShurahbU ibn- 
PJasanah, 1 marched northward and began operations in southern 
and south-eastern Syria. Yazid had as standard bearer his brother 
Mu r awiyah, the future distinguished founder of the Umayyad 
dynasty. Yazid and ShurahbU took the direct Tabuk-Ma'an 
route, whereas *Arnr, who in case of unified action was to be 
commander in chief, took the coast route via Aylah. The numbers 
of each detachment were later augmented to some 7500 men. 
Abu-'Ubaydah ibn-al-Jarrah, soon to become generalissimo, 
probably headed one of the reinforcements and took the famous 
pilgrims 1 route which followed the older transport route from 
al-Madlnah to Damascus. 

In the first encounter, at Wadi al-'Arabah, the great depression 
south of the Dead Sea, Yazid triumphed over Sergius the 
patrician of Palestine, whose headquarters were at Caesarea 
(Qaysarlyah). On their retreat towards Ghazzah the remnant of 
the several thousand Byzantine troops under Sergius were over- 
taken at Dathin and almost annihilated (February 4, 634). In 
other places, however, the natural advantages of the Byzantines 
were telling and the Moslem invaders were being harassed. 
Heraclius, whose ancestral home was Edessa (al-Ruha*) and 
whose six years' campaigning had cleared the Persians from 
Syria and Egypt, hastened from Emesa (rjims) to organize and 
dispatch to the south a fresh army under his brother Theodorus. 

In the meantime Khalid ibn-ai-Walld, "the sword of Allah",* 
who was operating in al-'Iraq at the head of some five hundred 
Riddah veterans in co-operation with the banu-Shayban, a 
subtribe of the Bakr ibn-Wa'ii domiciled on the Persian border, 
was ordered by abu-Bakr to rush to the relief of his fellow generals 
on the Syrian front. Though a minor affair in itself and under- 
taken possibly without the knowledge of the caliph, chrono- 
logically the raid on al- e Iraq stands at the commencement of 
the Moslem military enterprises. But from the standpoint of 
al-Madlnah and al-rjijaz neighbouring Syria was the place 
of chief concern. Before abu-Bakr issued his orders al-rjlrah in 
al-*Iraq had capitulated to Khalid and his ally al-Muthanna ibn- 

1 Cf. aI-Ba?n, Fuiuk a I Skatn, ed. W. N. Lees (Calcutta, 1853-4), pp S-l \ t 40-42. 
* Waqidi, p. 402; ibn 'Asakir, *l*Ta*riih a/-A'a&ir t ed. 'Abd-al-Qadir Badran, 
Tol. v (Damascus, 1332), pp- 92, 10a. 




AL-'IR^Q, KHUZISlXj 

i 




„ , l&rtztfta fayi* liS end 149 



CH. XU 



THE CONQUEST OF SYRIA 



149 



IJarithah, the chief of the Shay ban Bedouins, for a consideration 
of 60,000 dirhams. This town with its Arab Christian kinglet was 
the earliest acquisition of Islam outside the peninsula and the 
first apple to fall from the Persian tree. *Ayn al-Tamr, a forti- 
fied place in the desert north-west of al-Kufah, had also been 
captured just before the famous march on Syria. 

Khalid 's itinerary through the desert presents many historical Kha 
and geographical problems, for different authors have given us JJJjjjJ 
different routes and conflicting dates. 1 As reconstructed from 
a critical examination of all the sources 2 his march probably 
started from al-rjlrah (March 634) and led westward through 
the desert to the oasis of Dumat 3 al-Jandal (modem al-Jawf), 
situated midway between al-*Iraq and Syria on the easiest route. 
Once in Dumah he could have continued through Wadi al-Sirtjan 
(ancient Batn al-Sirr) to Busra, the first gateway of Syria; but 
forts lay on the way. Therefore Khalid took the north-western 
route from Dumah to Quraqir* on the eastern boundary of 
Wadi Sirhan and thence pushed due northward to Suwa, 6 the 
second gateway of Syria, a journey of five days in an almost 
waterless desert. A certain Rafi* ibn- c Umayr of the TayyT tribe 
acted as guide. Water for the troops was carried in bags; but 
for the horses the paunches of the old camels, later to be 
slaughtered for food, served as reservoirs/ The troops, five to 
eight hundred in all, rode camels; the few horses to be used at 
the time of the encounter were led alongside. At one spot 
RafT, with eyes so dazzled by the rays of the sun reflected from 
the sand that he could not see the expected sign for water, 
besought the men to look for a box-thorn ^awsaj*). As they dug 
near it they struck damp sand whence water trickled forth, to 
the relief of the distressed army. 

With dramatic suddenness Khalid appeared in the neighbour- 
hood of Damascus (Dimashq) and directly in the rear of the 
Byzantine army after only eighteen days* journey. Here he 

* Cf. Baladhuri, pp. 110*125 Ya'qQbi, T<?tikk % vol. ii, pp. 150-51; Tahari» 
vol. i, pp. 2tn-l3, 2121-4; ibn-'As&kir, vol. i, p. 130; ibn^al-Athir, *t-Kdmii 
fi *hT<?fikh % ed, C. J. Tornberg, vol. ii (Leyden, 1867), pp. 31:3-13. 

* Alois Musil, ^rofea Dtttrta (New York, 1927), pp. 553-73. 

* Mentioned in Gen. 25 : 14, Is. « x I l, 
4 Modem Qulban QarSLqir. 

1 Near modem Sab* Biyar (seven wells) north-east of Damascus. 

* Ashnrbsiupal refers to enemy Arabs who "ripped open their riding-camels** 
to quench their thirst; Luckenbill, vol u\ % 837; Musii, Arabic JDeserta, p 570. 



RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE part ii 



began his marauding expeditions in the course of one of which 
he encountered and defeated the Christian forces of the Ghas- 
sanids at Marj Rahit 1 on their Easter Sunday. Thence Khalid 
continued his triumphal march against Busra (Eski-Sham or Old 
Damascus). Here he evidently succeeded in effecting a junction 
with the other Arabian forces, resulting in the bloody victory at Aj- 
nadayn 2 on July 30, 634, which laid open before them practically 
all Palestine. With the junction of the forces Khalid assumed 
supreme command of the united army. Systematic campaigning 
now began. Busra, one of the Ghassanid capitals, fell without 
much resistance^ Fihl (or Fahl, Gr. Pella), east of the Jordan and 
commanding its crossing, followed suit on January 23, 635. The 
road towards the Syrian metropolis of Damascus was cleared by 
the rout of the enemy at Marj al-Suffar 3 on February 25, 635. Two 
weeks later Khalid stood before the gate of the city reputed by 
tradition to be the oldest in the world and from whose walls 
Paul was let down in a basket on that memorable night of his 
flight. Damascus, soon to become the capital of the Islamic 
empire, surrendered in September 635, after six months' siege, 
through treachery on the part of the civil and ecclesiastical 
authorities, who included the father of the celebrated St. John, 
of whom we shall later hear under the Umayyads. Abandoned 
by the Byzantine garrison, the civilian population of Damascus 
capitulated. The terms served as a model for future arrange- 
ments with the remaining Syro-Palestinian cities* 

In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful. This is what 
Khalid ibn-al-Walid would grant to the inhabitants of Damascus if he 
enters therein: he promises to give them security for their hves, property 
and churches. Their city wall shall not be demolished, neither shall any 
Moslem be quartered in their houses. Thereunto we give to them the pact 
of Allah and the protection of His Prophet, the caliphs and the believers. 
So long as they pay the poll tax, nothing but good shall befall them. 4 

The poll tax was evidently one dinar and one jarlb (measure of 
wheat) on every head, which sum 'Umar ibn-al-Khattab later 
increased. Ba'labakk, yims, rjamah (Epiphania) and other 
towns fell one after the other like ninepins. Nothing stood in 

1 A Ghassanid camp about 15 miles from Damascus, Bear *Adhru\ 

* Not Jannabatayn; see S. D. Goitcin in Journal, American Oriental Society. 
\ol.bcx(i95o),p. 106. 

* A plain 20 miles south of Damascus, * Baladhuri, p. izi %*Hittj, p* J87. 




Palmyra 



/A«g*»o j 




SYRIA 

showing 
The Jonds or Military Districts 



Maun* 



> <o fco 6p to o 



153 RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPH AL STATE parth 



the way of the advancing conqueror. "The people of Shayzar 
[Larissa] went out to meet him accompanied by players on the 
tambourines and singers and bowed down before him." 1 
The In the meantime Heraclius had mustered stn army of some 

b?u\Jcf S 0 * 000 a gain under his brother Theodorus, and was prepared for 
YarmGk a decisive stand. Khalid relinquished for the time being IJims, 
even Damascus and other strategic towns, and concentrated 
some 25,000 men 2 at the valley of Yarmuk,* the eastern tributary 
of the Jordan. Months of skirmishing came to a climax on 
August 20, 636, a hot day clouded by the wind-blown dust 4 of 
one of the most torrid spots on earth and undoubtedly fixed upon 
by Arabian generalship. Before the terrific onslaught of the sons 
of the desert the efforts of the Byzantine troops, aided by the 
chants and prayers of their priests and the presence of their 
crosses, 6 proved of no avail. Those of the Byzantines and their 
Armenian and Arab mercenaries who were not slaughtered on 
the spot were relentlessly driven into the steep bed of the river 
and the Ruqqad valley; the few who managed to escape across 
it were almost annihilated on the other side. Theodorus himself 
fell and the imperial army was converted into a fleeing, panic- 
stricken mob. The fate of Syria was decided. One of the fairest 
provinces was for ever lost to the Eastern Empire. "Farewell 
O Syria, and what an excellent country this is for the enemyl" 1 
were Heraclius 1 words of adieu. 

The turn of the administrator, the pacifier, now came. Abu- 
'Ubaydah, one of the most esteemed Companions and members 
of the Madlnese theocracy and hitherto a contingent leader on 
the Syrian front, was appointed by *Umar governor-general 
and caliphal vice-regent to replace Khalid, against whom 'Umar 
seems to have harboured some personal feeling. Abu-*Ubaydah 
accompanied Khalid northward. No further serious resistance 
stood in the way of the Arabian arms until thej natural limits of 
Syria, the Taurus Mountains, were reached, and no difficulty was 
experienced in reclaiming the cities previously conquered. A 

1 Baladhuri, p. 131 « Hitta, pp. 201-2. 

* Arab estimates of the Byzantine army at 100,000 to 240,000 and of the Moslem 
army at 40,000 are as unreliable as the Greek. Cf. Michel le Syricn, Ckronigue, ed. 
J.-B. Chabot, vol. iv (Pans, 1910), p. 416, tr. Chabot, vol, n (Paris, 1901), p. 421. 

* Near the junction of the Yarmuk and at .Ruqqad. Not to be confused with 
Jarmuth of Josh. io : 3, modern Khtrbat Yarmuk, near Ajn&dayn. 

* See H. R. P Dickson, The Arab of the Desert (London, 1949), pp. 258*62. 

* Basri, p. 197; ibn*\A«5kir, vol. i, p. 163. * Baladhun, p. 137 Hitti, p. ara 



CH.Xtf\ 4 THE CONQUEST OF SYRIA 153 

statement attributed to the people of #ims is representative 
of the sentiment cherished by the native Syrians towards th& 
new conquerors: "We like your rule and justice far better than 
the state of oppression and tyranny under which we have been 
living'*. 1 Antioch, Aleppo and other northern towns were soon 
added to the list, Qinnasrln (Chalcis) was the only city that was 
not easily dealt with. In the south only Jerusalem and Caesarea, 
which was strictly Hellenized, held their gates stubbornly closed 
in" the face of the invaders, the former till 638 and the latter 
till October 640. Csesarea received help by sea which the 
Arabians had no means of intercepting, but after seven years of 
intermittent raids and siege it succumbed before the attack of 
Mu'awiyah, aided by the treachery of a Jew within the walls. 
Between 633 and 640 all Syria from south to north was subdued. 
This "easy conquest" * of the land had its own special causes. 
The Hellenistic culture imposed on the land since its conquest by 
Alexander (332 B.C.) was only skin-deep and limited to the urban 
population. The rural people remained ever conscious of cultural 
and racial differences between themselves and their masters. This 
racial antipathy between the Semitic population of Syria and the 
Greek rulers was augmented by sectarian differences. The Mono- 
physite church of Syria insisted that Christ had but one nature 
instead of the two (divine and human) formulated by the Synod 
of Chalcedon (4$i) and accepted by the Greek church of Byzan- 
tium. The christological compromise of Heraclius, promulgated 
in 638 on the basis of a formula devised by Sergius 3 the patriarch 
of Constantinople, aimed at ignoring the question of the nature 
or natures in the person of Christ and emphasizing his one will 
(thilma). Hence the name Monothelite for a Christian who 
f accepted the new formula. Like other religious compromises this 
one neither pleased the orthodox nor satisfied the dissenters. 
Instead it resulted in the creation of a third problem and a new 
party. But the bulk of the population of Syria remained Mono- 
, physite. Behind their development and maintenance of a separate 
» Syrian church there undoubtedly lay a submerged, semi-articu- 
late feeling of nationality. 

' Just before the fall of Jerusalem the Caliph r Umar came to the 

1 * BalSdhun, p. 137, h 13 - Kitti , p t jn. 
«* BnlldhuH, p. no. 1. 18. p. 126, U. 13, i 9 =Hitti, p. m. 1. 17> p. 103, L 33 # 

• A Syrian of Jacobite lineagd. 



RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPH AL STATE part n 



military camp of al-Jabiyah, which lay north of the Yarmuk 
battlefield and whose name is still borne by the western gate of 
Damascus; his purpose was to solemni7e the conquest, fix the 
status of the conquered, consult with his generalissimo, abu- 
'Ubaydah, whom he had substituted for Khahd after the Yarmuk 
battle, and lay down necessary regulations for the administration 
of the newly acquired territory. When Jerusalem fell it too was 
visited by "Umar. As the patriarch of Jerusalem, Sophronius, 
styled the "honey-tongued defender of the church", was showing 
the aged caliph round the holy places he was so impressed by 
the uncouth mien and shabby raiment of his Arabian visitor 
that he is said to have turned to an attendant ^nd remarked in 
Greek, "Truly this is the abomination of desolation spoken of by 
Daniel the Prophet as standing in the holy place* 1 . 1 

Soon abu-'Ubaydah fell victim at 'Amwas (or 'Amawas) to 
an epidemic which is said to have carried off 20,000 of his 
troops, and after the death of his successor, Yazld, the power 
passed to the hands of the shrewd Mu'awiyah. 

Syria was now divided into four murtary districts (smg.jwni) 
corresponding to the Roman and Byzantine provinces found at 
the time of the conquest. These were: Dimashq, Hims, al- 
Urdunn (Jordan) comprising Galilee to the Syrian desert, and 
Filastln (Palestine), the land south of the great plain of Esdraelon 
(Marj ibn- c Amir). The northern district, Qinnasrin, was added 
later by the Umayyad Caliph Yazid I. 

So swift and easy an acquisition of so strategic a territory 
from the first potentate of the age gave the newly rising power 
of Islam prestige in the eyes of the world and, what is more 
important, confidence in its own destiny. From Syria the hordes 
swept into Egypt and thence made their triumphant way through 
the rest of northern Africa. With Syria as a base the onward 
push to Armenia, northern Mesopotamia, Georgia and Adhar- 
bayjan became possible, as did the raids and attacks which for 
many years to come were to be carried on against Asia Minor. 
With the help of Syrian troops Spain in far-off Europe was in 
less than a hundred years from the death of the Prophet brought 
within the ever widening circle of Islam. 

s Theophanes,p.339,Constantme Porphyrogenitus, "Deadjflimstrandoimpeno", 
in J. -P. Migne, Patrologia Graca % vol. cxin (Pans, l $64), col. 109, Dan 11 : 31. 
Sophronius was probacy of Maroaite origin. 



CHAPTER XIII 
f.L-'IRAQ AND PERSIA CONQUERED 



WHEN Khalid in 634 made his memorable dash westward from 
al-Hirah he left the 'Iraq front in the hands of his Bedouin ally 
al-Muthanna ibn-rjarithah, sheikh of the banu-Shayban. In the 
meantime the Persians were preparing a counter-attack and suc- 
ceeded an almost annihilating the Arabian bands at the Battle 
of the Bridge 1 near al-rjfrrah, November 26, 634. Undaunted, 
al-Muthanna undertook a new raid and in October or November 
of the following year scored over the Persian general Mihran a 
victory at al-Buwayb on the Euphrates. But al-Muthanna was 
no more than a Bedouin chief, with no Madlnese or Makkan 
connections, and had not heard of or accepted Islam until after 
the death of the Prophet. The Caliph f Umar therefore chose 
Sa'd ibn-abi- Waqqa> , one of those Companions promised Paradise 
by Muhammad at the conclusion of the Battle of Badr, as com- 
mander in chief and sent him at the head of new reinforcements 
to al- Iraq. By thai time the victory ot Yarmuk had been won 
and the fate of Syria sealed Sa r d with his r 0,000 men measured 
his strength for the first time with the Persian Rustam, the 
administrator of the empire, at al-QadisIyah, not far from al- 
rjirah. The day (the last of May or first of June 637) was 
extremely hot and was rendered dark by the wind-blown dust, 
a day not unlike that on which the battle of Yarmuk was fought. 
The same tactics were used with the same results. Rustam was 
killed, the large Sasanid army dissolved in panic and all the 
fertile lowlands of al-* Iraq 2 west of the Tigris (Dijlah) lay open 
to the invaders. The welcome on the part of the Aramaean 
peasants was no less cordial than that tendered by the Syrian 
peasants, and for much the same reasons, The Semitic 'Iraqis 

* Across the Euphrates. BaMhuri, pp. 251*2; Tabari, vol. i, pp. 2194-2201, 

* frty* probably a loan-word from Pahkwi meaning "lowland'*, corresponds to 
"&r Sczc£d t black land, used to bang out the contrast with the Arabian desert 

\ Y*tytt 4 vd. ia # j>. t74-cf A.T*O\msU:ik& t &iiUry0fJsvTtaQXmYork> 1927), p 6a 

*55 



i S 6 RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE partii 

looked upon the Iranian masters as aliens and felt closer kin- 
ship with the newcomers. As Christians they had not been 
especially favoured by the followers of Zoroaster. For centuries 
before Islam petty Arab chieftains and kinglets had flourished 
on the 'Iraq-Arabian border. The Arab control of the valley of 
the two rivers was anticipated by intimate relations with its 
peoples dating to the early Babylonian era, by growing acquaint- 
ance with its culture and by the admixture of border Bedouins 
with its inhabitants. As in the case of Syria after Yannuk an 
influx of fresh Arabian tribes, attracted by the new economic 
advantages, took place into the newly conquered territory. 

The Persian capital, Ctesiphon, 1 was Sa'd's next objective. 
With characteristic dash and energy he pushed ahead and at a 
convenient ford effected the crossing of the Tigris, much swollen 
by the spring floods. The feat was accomplished without loss 
of life to the army and was hailed as a miracle by Moslem 
chroniclers. In June 637 Sa'd made his triumphal entry into the 
capital whose garrison together with the emperor had deserted it. 
Arab chroniclers outdo themselves in their extravagant descrip- 
tion of the booty and treasures captured therein. Their estimate 
is nine billion dirharns.* 

The occupation of the greatest royal city in hither Asia brought 
the sons of barren Arabia into direct contact with the luxuries 
and comforts of the then modern high life. The Twan Kisra, the 
royal palace with its spacious audience chamber, graceful arches 
and sumptuous furnishings and decorations — all celebrated in 
later Arabic poetry — was now at the disposal of Sa'd. Amusing 
as well as instructive are some of the anecdotes embedded in the 
Arabic chronicles which throw light upon the comparative cul- 
ture of the two peoples. Camphor, never seen before, was 
naturally taken for salt and used as such in cooking. 3 'The 
yellow" (al-safra, i.e. gold), something unfamiliar in Arabia, 
was offered by many in exchange for "the white" (al-bayda\ 
silver). 4 When an Arabian warrior at al-ftlrah was blamed for 

1 Arabic al-Mada* m, literally the cities, which included Seleuda and Ctesiphon 
on either side of the Tigris some 20 miles south-east of Baghdad. 

* Taban, vol. i, p. 2436; cf. ibn-al-Athlr, vol. ii, p. 400, Caetani, Annah, vol. Hi, 
pp. 742*6. 

3 Ibn-aj-Tiqtaqa, al-Fakkriy ed. H, Derenbourg (Paris, 1895), P- "4« 

* Fakhri, p. 115; tr. C. E. J. Whit ting (tondon, 1947)1 P- 79 Cf. al*Dmawari,<:/« 
Akhbdr al-Tiwalt ed. V. Guirgass (Lcyden, 18S8), p. 134. 



CH XUl AL-IKA^ AINU r&KZlfL VUF*VU£.K£,i; 

selling a nobleman's daughter who fell as his share of booty for 
only iooo dirhams, his reply was that he "never thought there 
was a number above ten hundred", 1 

After al-Qadisiyah and al-Mada*in the systematic conquest 
of the empire began from the newly founded military base at 
al-Basraiu By express command of the caliph the military camp 
of al-Kufah, near older al-SIrah, was to be the capital in prefer- 
ence to Ctesiphon, where Sa r d had built one of the first Moslem 
places of worship in al-'Iraq, 

In the meantime the Sasanid Yazdagird III and his imperial 
court were fleeing northward. Another futile stand (end of 637) 
at Jalula* on the fringe of the Persian highlands and all of 
al-*Iraq lay prostrate at the feet of the conquerors. In 641 al- 
Maw§il (Mosul), near the site of ancient Nineveh, was reached 
and captured. This brought to a successful culmination the 
expedition which was started from northern Syria by *Iyad ibn- 
Ghanm. In the same year the last great battle, that of Nihawand 
(near ancient Ecbatana), was fought, with a nephew of Sa*d 
leading the Arabian forces, and resulted in a disastrous defeat 
of the last remnant of Yazdagird's army. Khuzistan (ancient 
Elam, later Susiana, modern *Arabistan) was occupied tn 640 
from al*Ba§rah and al*Kufah. In the meantime an attempt was 
made on the adjoining province of Pars (Faris, Persia proper). 3 
on the eastern shore of the Persian Gulf, from al-Bahrayn, which 
with al-Basrah and al-Kufah formed now a third military base of 
operation against Iran. The stiffening resistance of the non- 
Semitic population was finally broken by 'Abdullah ibn- f Amir, 
the governor of al-Basrah, who occupied Istakhr (Persepolis), 
the chief city of Faris, in 649-50.* After Faris the turn of the 
great and distant province of Khurasan, in the north-east, came; 
the path then lay open to the Oxus. The subjection of Mukran, 
the coastal region of Baluchistan, shortly after 643 brought the 
Arabs to the very borders of India* 

As early as 640 an attempt was made on Byzantine Armenia 
"* by e Iyad. About four years later an expedition set out from Syria 

1 Bal&dhuri> p. 244 = Hitti, p, 3Q2; cf. Fakhn, pp. 114-15. 

* The Persian* called their country Iran, of which Pars (the home of its two 
greatest dynasties, the Achaemenid and tht Sasamd) was but the southern province. 
The Greeks corrupted old Pers, P&rsa to /Vmrand used it for the whole kingdom. 

J See Tabati vol. i, pp -2545-51; Caetaai, vol. iv ( pp 151-3, vol v, pp. 19-27. 
votvii ( rjp,aio-2o,2i48*56\ ' " ~ 

t 

t 



1 5 8 RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE PAKTlt 

under the leadership of yabib ibn-Maslamah, but the district 
was not completely reduced till about 652. 1 

The military camp al-Kufah became the capital of the newly 
conquered territories. Heedless of f Umar's insistence on the old- 
fashioned simplicity characteristic of al-ftijaz, Sa*d erected here 
a residence modelled on the royal palace of Ctesiphon. The gates 
of the old capital were transported to the new, a symbolic 
custom practised repeatedly in the Arab East Built first of reeds 
as barracks to house the soldiers and their families, the camp 
exchanged its huts for unbaked brick houses and soon grew into 
an important metropolis. Along with its sister camp al-Basrah, 
al-Kufah became the political and intellectual centre of Arab 
Mesopotamia until the 'Abbasid al-Mansur built his world- 
famous city, Baghdad. 

In 651 the young and ill-starred Yazdagird, fleeing with his 
crown, treasures and a few followers, fell victim to the greed of 
one of his own people in a miller's hut near Marw (Pers. Marv), 8 
With his death there came to an ignoble end the last ruler of an 
empire that had flourished with one interruption for some twelve 
centuries, an empire that was not fully to rise again for eight 
hundred years or more. 

This initial and inconclusive conquest of Persia took about a 
decade to achieve; the Moslem arms met with much more 
stubborn resistance than in Syria. In the campaign some 
35,000-40,000 Arabians, inclusive of women, children and slaves, 
must have taken part. The Persians were Aryans, not Semites; 
they had enjoyed a national existence of their own for centuries 
and represented a well-organized military power that had been 
measuring swords with the Romans for over four hundred years. 
Jn the course of the following three centuries of Arab rule Arabic 
became the official language as well as the speech of cultured 
society and, to a limited extent, of ordinary parlance. But the 
old spirit of the subject nation was to rise again and restore its 
neglected tongue. Persia contributed a large share of the Qar- 
matian (Carmathian) movement which for many years shook 
the caliphate to its foundation; it also had much to do with the 
development of the Shl'ite sect and with the founding of the 
Fatimid dynasty which ruled Egypt for over two centuries. Its 

1 Consult Baladhuri, pp. 193-212; Cactam, vol. iv, pp. 50-53, vol. vu, pp. 453-4. 
J Cf. Michd ie Syrfcn, vol. iV, p. 418-voL it, p. 424. 



, - azrxat? * AL- tRAQ AND PERSIA CONQUERED * * J "159 

art,its literature, its philosophy, its medicine, became the common 
property of the Arab world and conquered the conquerors. Some 
of the most brilliant stars in the intellectual firmament of Islam 
during its first three centuries were Islamized Iranians. 

While this column of Arabian troops was operating eastward 
under 3a*d another under the more illustrious e Amr ibn-al- 
*As was operating to the west. The latter was bringing within 
the horns of the rising crescent the people of the valley of the 
Nile and the Berbers of North Africa. Ostensibly religious, but 
mainly political and economic, this unparalleled Arabian expan- 
sion had no# grown into an empire as far flung as that of 
Alexander, with the caliph at al-Madinah trying to regulate the 
flow of a torrent whose tributaries, ever increasing in number and 
size, were swelling the stream beyond all control. 



CHAPTER XIV 
EGYPT, TRIPOLTS AND BARQAH ACQUIRED 



THE strategic position of Egypt, lying so dangerously near to 
both Syria and al-IJijaz, the richness of its grain-producing soil, 
which made the land the granary of Constantinople, the fact that 
its capital Alexandria was the base of the Byzantine navy and 
that the country was the door to the rest of the North African 
corridor — all these considerations caused Arabian eyes to turn 
covetously towards the valley of the Nile quite early in the era 
of expansion. 

The conquest of Egypt falls within the period of systematic 
campaigning rather than casual raiding- Seeking new fields in 
which to outshine his illustrious rival Khahd, *Amr ibn-al-'As, 
who in the Jahillyah days had made many a caravan trip to 
Egypt and was familiar with its cities and roads, 1 took advantage 
of the presence of *Umar in Jerusalem to secure his half-hearted 
authorization for a campaign against the ancient land of the 
Pharaohs. But when 'Urnar had returned to al-Madinah and 
consulted with r Uthman and others who pointed out the risks 
and perils involved, he dispatched a messenger to halt the 
advance of the column. The cahphal message, we are told, over- 
took c Amr just before crossing the Egypt-Palestine border, but, 
scenting the unfavourable contents thereof and having in mind 
'Umar's previous instructions: "If my letter ordering thee to 
turn back from Egypt overtakes thee before entering any part 
of it then turn back; but if thou enter the land before the receipt 
of my letter, then proceed and solicit Allah's aid", 2 *Amr did 
not open the letter until he got to al-'Arlsh (December 639). 
This e Amr was a Qurayshite, forty-five years old, warlike, fiery, 
eloquent and shrewd. He had already to his credit the conquest 
of Palestine west of the Jordan. The part he was later to play 

1 lbn-*Abd*al-tf akam, Futvk Aft?r, ed C. C. Torrey (New Haven, 1922), p 53 
1 Ya'qubi, voL h, pp. 16S 9, cf ibn-'Abd al-Hakam, pp 56 7, J. Wellhausen, 

SJhtm und Vorarbaten, voL \l, Prolegomena rur BUesien Gtschicht* des Islam 

(Berlin, 1899), p 93* 

160 



* ch.xiv"egypt, tripolis and barqah ACQUIRED - i6f 

in the capture of the caliphate for his bosom friend Mu*awiyah 
won him the epithet "one of the four Arabian 'political geniuses* 
[dtth&t] of Islam", 1 The route he took with his 4000 riders 
was the same beaten track along the coast trod by Abraham, 
Cambyses, Alexander, Antiochus, the Holy Family, Napoleon 
and Djemal Pasha. It was the international highway of the 
ancient world connecting its most important centres of civiliza- 
tion. 2 

The first fortified place which the Arabian column struck — 
and that in the middle of January 640 s — was al-Farama* 
(Pelusium), the key to eastern Egypt. After about a month of 
resistance the city fell and its defences, probably not repaired 
since the recent Persian invasion (616) and occupation, were 
razed. Bilbays (variants Bilbls, Balbls) north-east of Cairo came 
next, and others followed suit. At last the strong- castle of 
Babylon 4 (Babalyun), across trom the isle of al-Raw<Jah in the 
Nile, stood in the way of further progress. Cyrus (Ar. al- 
Muqawqis), who since the reoccupation of the country in 631 
by Heraclius had been acting as patriarch of Alexandria and 
imperial representative in civil administration, hurried to Baby- 
lon with his commander in chief the Augustalis Theodorus 
and the troops. * Amr pitched camp outside Babylon, biding his 
time and awaiting reinforcements* Soon they came, headed by 
al-Zubayr ibn-al-*Awwam, the celebrated Companion of the 
Prophet, thus augmenting the Arabian column to about 
10,000 men who were to oppose the 20,000 or so of the Byzan- 
tine army exclusive of the fortress garrison numbering about 
5000. While besieging Babylon, *Amr attacked *Ayn Shams 8 
in July 640* The Byzantine army was utterly routed. Theo- 
dorus fled to Alexandria and Cyrus was shut up in Babylon. 
The siege was pressed by the Arabians, who had no engineering 
or mechanical devices for reducing the fort. The treacherous 
Cyrus secretly sought to buy off the besiegers, but to no avail. 
The usual three choices were offered: Islam, tribute or the sword. 

1 Ibn-Hajar, al-Is&bah fi Tamyit al-gakabah, vol. v (Cairo, 1 907), p. 3. 

* Set Olmstead, History of Palestine, pp. 44-8, 

This as well as the other dates of the conquest of Egypt are not certain, labari, 
vol. i, A p. 2593, 1 16, chooses Rabr I, 16 (Ap. 637) as the date of the conquest of 
cf. ibn-*Abd-al-FInkarn, pp. 53, 58. 

* See A. J. Butler, The Arab Conqtust of Egypt (Oxford, 1002), pp. 245-7. 

' *!f t C lhe sprinE of Ac imn "> ancicnt Hdiopotfc, On (On) of the Old Testament 
and the hieroglyphic inscriptions. 



" ttt.xl/ EGYPTr TRIPOLIS AND BARQAH ACQUIRED 163 



The foHowing words put in the mouth of Cyrus* envoys purport 
to sum up the impression created by the Arabians: 

We have witnessed a people to each and every one of whom death is 
preferable tohfe, and humility to prominence, and to none of whom this 
world has the least attraction. They sit not except on the ground, and 
eat naught but on their knees. Their leader [amtr] is like unto one of 
them: the low cannot be distinguished from the high, nor the master 
from the slave. And when the time of prayer comes none of them 
absents himself, all wash their extremities and humbly observe their 
prayer. 1 

Asking for a delegation to meet him at al-Rawdah to negotiate 
peace, Cyrus was shocked to receive one headed by a negro, 
*Ubadah ibn-al-Samit. The three alternatives were reiterated. 
Cyrus agreed to pay tribute and hastened to Alexandria to 
forward the terms to the emperor. They were not pleasing to 
Heraclius, who charged his episcopal viceroy with treason and 
sent him into exile. 

In the meantime the siege of Babylon was being carried on 
without intermission. At the end of seven months al-Zubayr 
with his comrades succeeded in filling a part of the moat, scaling 
the wall on a ladder and overpowering the guard as well as the 
garrison. The battle-cry of Islam, Allahu akbar (God is most 
great), echoed victoriously in the halls of the fortress on April 6, 
641.* 

After reducing the eastern border of the Delta the iron grip 
of * Amr began to fasten itself on the apex, Nikiu (An Naqyu3, 
modem Shabshlr) fell on May 13 and a bloody slaughter ensued. 
But Alexandria (al-Iskandarlyah), after Constantinople the finest 
and strongest city in the world, was still ahead. 

With fresh recruits from Arabia swelling his army to about 
20,000 *Amr found himself one morning gazing at the seemingly 
impregnable line of walls and towers guarding Egypt's capital 
and leading port. On one side rose the lofty Serapeum, 3 which 
once housed the temple of Serapis and the great library of 
Alexandria; on the other loomed the beautiful cathedral of 
St* Mark, once the Caesarion* temple begun by Cleopatra in 

*> Jbn- f Abd-al>Hakam, p. 65, 

* Bal3dhuri,p. 213= Hmi 4 p. 336; ibn-*Abd-aHfakam, pp. 61 uq> 
5 Called later by the Arabs *Am&d a!«Sa*£ri, from Diocletian's pillar which etOl 
mark* the spot. Maqrfcri, Mauri* *d. Wiet, vol. in, pp. 128 ssg. 
. * The Qaysarisah of the Arabs. Ibn-'Abd-al-tfakam, pp. 41, 45. 



164 RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE parth 

honour of Julius Csesar and finished by Augustus; farther west 
stood the two red Uswan(Aswan)~granite needles ascribed to 
Cleopatra, but in reality the work of Thutmose III (ca. 1450 B.C.), 
the same two which now adorn the Thames Embankment in 
London and Central Park in New York; and in the background 
towered the Pharos, flashing the sun's rays by day and its own 
fire by night and rightly considered one of the seven wonders 
of the world. 1 No doubt to the desert Arabs the impression of 
such a sight must have been not unlike that which the skyline of 
modern New York, with its towering skyscrapers, makes upon 
the immigrant. 

Alexandria boasted a garrison some 50,000 strong. Behind 
it lay the whole strength of the Byzantine navy, of which the city 
was the base. The invaders, far inferior in number and in 
equipment, had not a single ship, no siege machines and no 
immediate source of supply for their man-power. 

John of Nikiu, a contemporary authority, describes the first 
repulse the helpless Arabians suffered under the pounding of 
catapults from the high walls. 8 Leaving a contingent behind, 
# Amr fought his way back to Babylon and later engaged in a ' 
few marauding expeditions to Upper Egypt. After the death of 
Heraclius (February 641) his grandson Constans II (Qustantln, 
641-68) succeeded Cyrus, restored to favour, returned to Alex- 
andria in order to conclude peace. Hoping to administer the 
country for the Arabians independently of Constantinople, the 
bishop signed with 'Amr in Babylon on November 8, 641, a 
treaty which may be termed the Treaty of Alexandria, accept- 
ing the payment of a fixed tribute of two dinars per adult head 
and a land tax payable in kind and agreeing not to allow a 
Byzantine army to return or attempt to recover the land. The 
city was evacuated in September 642. The Emperor Constans, 
weak and young, ratified the treaty which meant the transference 
of one of the fairest provinces of the empire to Arabian hands. 

The glad tidings were sent to f Umar in al-Madlnah in the 
following words: "I have captured a city from the description of 
which I shall refrain. Suffice it to say that I have seized therein 
4000 villas with 4000 baths, 40,000 poll-tax-paying Jews and 

1 Stc Maqrizi, vol. m, pp. 113-43, Suvuti, ffusn, vol i, pp 43-5. 
* H Zotenberg, Chrontque de Jean, iviqut ds Nxktou. Tcxte itkiopun f with 
translation (Pans, 1883), p 450, 



cjl xiv EGYPT, TRIPOLIS AND BARQAH ACQUIRED 165 



four hundred places of entertainment for the royalty," 3 The 
caliph entertained his general's messenger with bread and dates 
and held in the Prophet's Mosque a simple but dignified service 
of thanksgiving. 

The native Copts of Egypt, we are informed by ibn-*Abd- 
al-^akam 2 (f 257-871), who gives us the earliest surviving 
account of the conquest of Egypt, were instructed from the very 
beginning by their bishop in Alexandria to offer no resistance to 
the invaders. This is not surprising in view of the religious per- 
secution to which they as Monophysites had been subjected by 
the official Meikite (royal) church. For years Heraclius had tried, 
through his agent Cyrus, to forbid the Egyptian (Coptic) form 
of worship and to force his new Monothelite doctrine on a 
reluctant church. On account of his relentless persecution of the 
priesthood of the Coptic church Cyrus was regarded as the 
Antichrist by the later native tradition. 

In accordance with 'Umar's policy the site on which 'Amr 
pitched his camp outside Babylon became the new capital, receiv- 
ing the name al-Fusta{ ? and corresponding to the military camps 
of al-Jabiyah in Syria, al-Basrah and al-Kufah in al-*Iraq. There 
"Amr erected a simple mosque, the first to rise in Egypt (641-2), 
which has survived in name until today and whose present form 
is the result of repeated rebuildmgs and additions. Al-Fustat 
(Old Cairo, Misr al-'AtJqah) continued to be the capital until 
the Fatimids in 969 built their Cairo (al-Qahirah). In order to 
open a direct waterway to the holy cities of Arabia f Amr now 
cleared the ancient Pharaonic canal which under the name 
Khalij (canal of) Amir al-Mu'minln passed through Heiiopohs 
and connected the Nile north of Babylon w th al-Qulzum 4 on the 
Red Sea, 5 Trajan had cleared the canal, but through neglect it 
had silted up since his reign. After a few months of forced labour, 
and before the death of *Umar m 644, twenty ships laden with 
Egyptian products were unloading their cargoes in Arabian 
ports. 0 This canal was later known as al-Khallj aM^akimi, after 
the Fatimid Caliph al -Hakim (f 102 1), and under many other 
names continued to exist in some parts till the end of the nine* 
teenth century. 

1 IWAbd-al-HaUm, p 82, cf. Zotenoerg, p 463. * Pp 58 o. 

* latm/^«c/tf?»«ca«)p, through By*. X*t. phossatun. 
J The Kly^ma of antiquity, modern Suez, 
Cf. Mas'udi, vol* it, p. 99, • Ya'qubi, vol ii, p. 177. 



The old machinery of Byzantine administration, including the 
financial system, was — as one might expect — adopted by the 
new rulers with certain amendments in the line of centralization. 
The time-honoured policy of exploiting the fertile valley of the 
Nile and using it as a "milch cow" was maintained to the utmost, 
judging by the evidence furnished by newly discovered Egyptian 
papyri. Shortly before his death 'Umar, feeling that , Amr was 
not securing enough revenue, put 'Abdullah ibn-Sa r d ibn-abi- 
Sarh in charge of Upper Egypt. The new caliph, 'Uthman, 
recalled e Amr from the country and appointed (ca. 645) 'Ab- 
dullah, who was his own foster brother, over all Egypt, 

Toward the end of 645 the Alexandrians, restive under the 
new yoke, appealed to the Emperor Constans, who dispatched 
some 300 ships under Manuel, an Armenian, to reclaim the 
city. 1 The Arabian garrison of 1000 men was slaughtered and 
Alexandria was once more in Byzantine hands and a base for 
new attacks on Arab Egypt* 'Amr was immediately reinstated. 
He met the enemy near Nikiu, where the Byzantines suffered a 
heavy slaughter. Early in 646 the second capture of Alexandria 
took place* The impregnable walls of the city were demolished 
and the ancient Egyptian capital has ever since remained in 
Moslem hands. 

The story that by the caliph's order 'Amr for six long months 
fed the numerous bath furnaces of the city with the volumes of 
the Alexandrian library is one of those tales that make good 
fiction but bad history. The great Ptolemaic Library was burnt 
as early as 48 B.C. by Julius Caesar. A later one, referred to as 
the Daughter Library, was destroyed about A.D. 389 as a 
result of an edict by the Emperor Theodosius. At the time of 
the Arab conquest, therefore, no library of importance existed 
in Alexandria and no contemporary writer ever brought the 
charge against 'Amr or 'Umar. r Abd-al-LatIf al-Baghdadi, 2 who 
died as late as A.H. 629 (1231), seems to have been the first to 
relate the tale. Why he did it we do not know, however, his 
version was copied and amplified by later authors. 3 

1 Baladhuri, p. 221-= Hitti, pp. 347-S. 

* Al-Ijadah wahVttbar > ed. and tr. (Latin) J. White (Oxford, 1800), p. 114. 

* Al-Qifti, Tc % rtkh al-ffukatnd % 9 cd. J. Lippcrt (Leip2ig, 1903), pp. 355*6; abu- 
aUFaraj ibn-al«*lbn, Tctrikh Mukhta$ar ah Du-mai \ ed. A. Sahfcini (Beirut, 1890), 
pp. 175*6, Maqrizi, \ol ni, pp. 129*30. Consult Butler, pp. 401-26; Gibbon, Dtchne t 
cd. Bury, vol. v ,pp. 452-5. 



CH. XIV * EGYPT, TRIPOUS AND BARQAH ACQUIRED V t6 ? * 

After the conquest 'Uthman wanted 'Amr to remain at the, 
head of the army with 'Abdullah as the financial administrator. 
The suggestion elicited from r Amr the famous reply: "My 
position will then be that of one who holds the cow by its two 
horns while another milks it 1 '. 1 'Abdullah was thereupon rein- 
stalled as caliphal vicegerent* 

Less a soldier than a financier, 'Abdullah now proceeded to 
carry on campaigns to the west and south mainly for booty. 
He succeeded in extending the boundaries in both directions. 
But his greatest performance was his part in the establish- 
ment of the first Moslem fleet, an honour which he shares 
with Mu'awiyah, the governor of Syria. Alexandria was natur- 
ally the main dockyard for the Egyptian fleet. The maritime 
operations, whether from Egypt under 'Abdullah or from Syria 
under Mu'awiyah, were directed against the Byzantines. In 649 
Mu'awiyah seized Cyprus (Qubrus), another .important Byzan- 
tine naval base too dangerously close to the Syrian coast for 
comfort. The first maritime victory was thus won for Islam and 
the first island was added to the Moslem state. Arwad (Aradus), 
close by the Syrian coast, was captured the following year. In 
652 'Abdullah repulsed the superior Greek fleet off Alexandria. 
Two years later Rhodes was pillaged by one of Mu'awiyah's 
captains,* In 655 s the Syro-Egyptian fleet of Mu'awiyah and 
'Abdullah destroyed the Byzantine navy of about 500 ships off 
the Lycian coast near Phoenix. The Emperor Cons tans II, who 
led the fight in person, barely escaped with his life. This battle, 
known in Arabic as dhu-al-Sawari * (that of the masts), threatened 
but did not destroy Byzantine naval supremacy. 5 Because of in- 
ternal disorders the Moslems failed to press their victory and 
advance against Constantinople, the chief objective. In 668 or 
669 a navy of 200 ships from Alexandria ventured as far as Sicily 
(Siqilliyah, Siqilllyah) and pillaged it. The island had been 
sacked at least once before (652) under Mu'awiyah. 6 In 
Mu'awiyah and 'Abdullah Islam developed its first two admirals. 7 

That these naval expeditions were carried on almost in spite 

* An* Abd^»Qakiun, p, 178; cf. Baladhuri, p. 223=Hitti, p. 351. 

1 A later expedition in A.H. 52 (672) is cited in Baladhuri, pp. 235-6 = Hitri, 
PP;375-6> * Cf. C. H. Becker, art. * f *Abd Allah B. SaM", Encyclopaedia *J Isldru 

* Ibn- Abd-aHlalctun, pp . 18^91. * Cf. below, p. 602. 
Baladhuri, p. *35=Hitti, p, 375. 

* The details about the naval operations of the period, however, arc lamentably 
meagre m Arabic sources. 



168 



RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE PART n 



of, rather than in co-operation with, the Madinese caliphs is 
indicated by significant passages in the early sources. *Umar 
wrote instructing 'Amr in Egypt: "Let no water intervene be- 
tween me and thee, and do not camp in any place which I can- 
not reach riding on my mount". 1 *Uthman authorized Mu*awi- 
yah's expedition to Cyprus, after the latter had repeatedly 
emphasized the proximity of the island, only on condition that 
he take his wife along. 1 

The fall of Egypt left the Byzantine provinces bordering on 
its west defenceless; at the same time the continued occupation 
of Alexandria necessitated the conquest of those provinces. After 
the first fall of Alexandria and in order to protect his rear, 
•Amr, with characteristic swiftness, pushed (642-3) at the head of 
his cavalry westward to the neighbouring Pentapolis and occupied 
Barqah without any resistance* He also received the submission 
of the Berber tribes of Tripolis, including the Lawatah. 3 His 
successor, 'Abdullah, advanced through Tripolis and subjugated 
a part of Ifriqiyah whose capital Carthage (Qartajannah) paid 
tribute. 4 *Uthman extended even to the pagan Berbers, not 
within the category of Scripturaries, the same privileges as those 
of the Dhimmah. Attempts were also made on Nubia (al- 
Nubah) in the south, which with its pasturage was more like 
Arabia and better adapted than Egypt to a nomadic mode of 
life. For centuries before Islam a more or less continual Arabian 
infiltration into Egypt and even into the Sudan had been going 
on. In 652 'Abdullah entered into treaty relations with the 
Nubians, 6 who were then far from being subdued. For centuries 
to come the Christian kingdom of Nubia, with Dongola as its 
capital and with a mixed population of Libyans and negroes, 
stood as a barrier against the farther southward onrush of Islam. 

1 Ya'qQbi, vol. «, p. 180. Fakhri, p. 114, reports that 'Uroar wrote to Sa'd ibn- 
abi-Waqqas in al-*Iruq asking him to let 110 sea intervene between the caliph and the 
Moslems. 

* Baladhuri, pp. 1 52-3 « Hitti, pp. 235-6. * Ya'qubi, vol. ii, p. 179. 

* Ibn-'Abd-al-Hakam, p. 183. 

* Baladhuri, pp. 237-8 » Hitti, pp. 370-81 



CHAPTER XV 
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NEW POSSESSIONS 



How to administer such vast territories newly acquired and how 
to adapt the uncodified ordinances of a primitive Arabian 
society to the needs of a huge cosmopolitan conglomerate living 
under a multitude of conditions uncontemplated by the original 
lawgiver was the great task now confronting Islam. 'Urnar was 
the first to address himself to this problem. He is represented by 
tradition as the one who solved it and therefore as the founder 
of the second theocracy of Islam — a sort of Islamic Utopia — 
which, however, was not destined to last long. 

*Umar made his starting-point the theory that in the peninsula *Ui 
itself none but the Moslem religion should ever be tolerated. To 
this end and in utter disregard of earlier treaties 1 he expelled, 
A.M. 14-15 (63 $-6), among others, the Jews of Khaybar,* who 
found abode in Jericho and other places, as well as the Christians 
of Najran, who fled to Syria and al-*Iraq«* The second cardinal 
point in 'Umar's policy was to organize the Arabians, now all 
Moslems, into a complete religio-miiitary commonwealth with 
its members keeping themselves pure and unmixed — a sort of 
martial aristocracy — and denying the privilege of citizenship 
to all non-Arabians. With this in view the Arabian Moslems Tvere 
not to hold or cultivate landed property outside the peninsula. 
In the peninsula itself the native who owned land paid a kind 
of a tithe (fushr) thereon. Accordingly the Arabian conquerors in 
Syria first lived in camps: al-Jabiyah, IJims/Amwas.Tabarlyah 3 
(for the Jordan district), and al-Ludd (Lydda) and later al-Raml ah 
for the Filastln (Palestine) district. In Egypt they settled in 
ai-Fustat and the Alexandria camp. In al- f Iraq the newly built 

\ See Wfiqidi, MagkS**, pp. 391-2, and abn*YOsuf, Kitab al-Khardj (Cairo, 
*34$)# PP* 8$-6, ibr the terras the Prophet gave. 
* An oasis about 100 miles north of al-Madlnah on the road to Syria, 
*,Baladhuri f p. 66 -Hitti, pp. lot-2, 

4 Modern TaWAyyah « Tiberias. 'Amwas or 'Arnawas, and en t Eramaus, 

169 



i 7 o RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE j>art n 

al-Kufah and ai-Basrah served as headquarters. 1 In the con- 
quered territories the subject peoples were left in their professions 
and the cultivation of the soil, occupying an inferior status and 
regarded as a kind of reserve for the benefit of the Moslems 
(maddat al-Muslimtn)? Even when converted to Islam a non- 
Arab was to occupy a position subsidiary to that of the Moslem 
Arabian. 

As Dhimmis,* the subject peoples would enjoy the protection 
of the Moslems and have no military duty to perform, since they 
were barred by religion from service in the Moslem army; but 
they would have a heavy tribute to pay. Being outside the pale 
of Moslem law they were allowed the jurisdiction of their own 
canon laws as administered by the respective heads of their 
religious communities. This state of partial autonomy, recog- 
nized later by the sultans of Turkey, has been retained by the 
Arab successor states. 

When a subject was converted to Islam he was freed, accord- 
ing to this primitive system ascribed by tradition to * Umar, from 
all tributary obligations, including what was later termed poll 
tax. The land tax inhered in the land whenever the land was 
considered fatf % waqf % i.e. for the whole Moslem community, 
and the Moslem continued to pay it. The only exception to the 
Jay lands was constituted by those districts whose inhabitants 
according to tradition, voluntarily surrendered to the Arab 
conquerors on condition that they be allowed to retain their 
lands. Such districts were called ddr al-$ulh (the territory of 
capitulation). Instead of the poll tax the convert incurred 
a new obligation, that of the zakah (poor rate); but on the other 
hand he shared in the pensions and other benefits accruing to 
him as a Moslem. 

Later developments, the result of many years of practice, were 
attributed by this tradition to the initiative of 'Umar. The fact 
is that the original part which the first caliphs and the early 
Moslem governors played in the imposition of taxes and the 
administration of finances could not have been great. The frame- 

11 In the first Moslem century a number of such military cantonment arose, in- 
cluding 'Asltar Mukram in Khuzistan, Shiraz in Faxis, and Barqah asd al-Qay- 
rawan in North Africa. 

* Yajiya ion-Adam, Kttdb ahKhardj, ed. Juynboll (Lcyden, 1S96), p. 2jr. 

* Or Ahl al-Dhimmah (people of the covenant or obligation), a term first applied 
only to Ahl al-Kitab t i.e. the Jews, Christians and $abians (not to be confused with 
Sabaeans) and later interpreted to include Zoroastrians and others. 



+ w 

CH. XV ADMINISTRATION OF THE NEW POSSESSIONS i*t 

work of the Byzantine provincial government in Syria and Egypt 
was continued in Allah's name, and no radical changes were 
introduced into the machinery of local administration in the 
former Persian domains. From the very beginning taxation 
varied according to the nature of the soil and the system that 
had prevailed in that locality under the old rule, whether Byzan- 
tine or Persian; it did not necessarily depend upon the acquisi- 
tion of land by capitulation (sulhan) or by force (^anwatan) nor 
upon any legislative act on the part of 'Umar* 1 Conquest by 
capitulation and conquest by force as used to explain the varia- 
tion in taxation was often a late legal fiction rather than the real 
cause. Likewise the distinction between jizyah as poll tax and 
kharaj (from Gr. choregia or Aram, kcragga) as land tax had not 
arisen at the time of the second caliph (634-44). The two words 
in this early period were used interchangeably; both meant 
tribute in general. In the Koran the only occurrence of the word 
jizyah is in sur. 9 : 29, where it has in no sense a legal meaning, 
Kharaj occurs also only once in the Koran (23 : 74), and then 
in the sense of remuneration rather than land tax. Evidently the 
original terms made with the conquered people were well-nigh 
forgotten by the time the historians began to record those events, 
which they interpreted in the light of later conditions and de- 
velopments. 

The differentiation between the two forms of taxation implied 
in jizyah and kharaj was not made until the time of the late 
Umayyads. The land tax was paid in instalments and in kind 
from the produce of the land and from cattle, but never in the 
form c-f wine, pigs and dead animals. The poll tax was paid in 
a lump sum and as an index of lower status. The latter was 
generally four dinars 2 for the well-to-do, two for the middle class 
and one for the poor. In addition the subject people were liable 
to other exactions for the maintenance of Moslem troops. These 
* .taxes applied only to the able-bodied; women, children, beggars, 
monks, the aged, insane and incurably sick being exempt except 
When any of them had an independent iricome: 

The third principle said to have been enunciated by *Umar 
in consonance with the view of his advisers among the Com- 

1 Of. Daniel C Dennett, Jr , Ccmersttm and (he Poll Tax in Early Islam (Cam- 
, bridge, Mass , 1950), 1 2. 

* From Greek-lAtm dettanus; tht unit of gold currency in the caliphate, weighing 
about 4 grams In ^Omar's iiine the dinar was the equivalent of 10 dirhatas, later 1 2. 



172 



RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE parth 



panions 1 was that only movable property and prisoners won as 
booty constituted ghammak* and belonged to the warriors as 
hitherto, but not the land. The land as well as all moneys received 
from subjects constituted fay** and belonged to the Moslem 
community as a whole* Cultivators of fay estates continued to 
be bound to pay land tax even if they adopted Islam. Ail such 
revenues were deposited in the public treasury, and whatever 
remained after the payment of the common expenses of ad- 
ministration and warfare had to be divided among the Moslems. 
In order to accomplish the distribution a census became necessary^ 
the first census recorded in history for the distribution of state 
revenue. 'A'ishah headed the list with a pension of 12,000 
dirhams 4 a year. After the Ahl al-Bayt (the Prophet's family) 
came the Emigrants and Supporters, each with a subsidy accord- 
ing to his precedence in the profession of the new faith. About 
5000 or 4000 dirhams per annum was the average allotment to 
each person in this category. 6 At the bottom came the mass of 
Arabian tribes arranged in the register according to military 
service and knowledge of the Koran. The minimum for an 
ordinary warrior was 500-600 dirhams; even women, children 
and clients 6 were included in the register and received annuities 
ranging from 200 to 600 dirhams. This institution of the diwan 
(whence Fr. dotiane y for customhouse), or public registers of 
receipts and expenditures, with which 1 Umar was credited was 
evidently borrowed from the Persian system, as ibn-al-Tiqtaqa 7 
asserts and as the word itself (from Pers. dtwdn) indicates. 

'Umar's military communistic constitution set up an ascend- 
ancy of Arabism and secured for the non-Arabian believer a 
status superior to that of the unbeliever. But it was too artificial 
to stand the test of time. Under 'Umar's immediate successor, 

1 Ibn-Sa'd, vol. iii, pt- I, p. 2 12. 

* For a discussion of ghanirnch and/<y* sec al-Mawardi, al-Afrkdm ol-SttlfSntyah, 
ed. M . Engcr (Bonn, 1 85 3), pp. 2 1 7 -45; abu-Yusuf , pp. 2 1 -32. 

3 According to sur. 8 : 42, only one-fifth of the booty was the share of Allah and 
the Prophet, i.e. the state's, the remaining four-fifths belonged to the warriors who 
secured it. 

* Ar. dirkam (Pcrs. dtram, from Gr. drackm£) t the unit of silver coinage in the 
Arab monetary system, had the nominal value of a pre-war French franc, about 
jod. (19 cents in U.S. money), but naturally its real value varied a great deal. 

* Ibn-Sa*d, vol. iii, pt. t, pp. 213-14; Mawardi, pp. 347-8; abu-Yusuf, pp. 50-54; 
Baladhuri, pp. 450-5!. 

* MawSii, sing, mcwla, a non-Arab embracing Islam and affiliating himself with 
on Arabian tribe. His ill-defined rank placed him below the Moslem Arabians. 

* FMri, p. 116; cf. Mawardi, pp. 343*4- 



CH.3CV ADMINISTRATION OF THE NEW POSSESSIONS 173 



r Uthman,_permission was given to the sons of Arabia to hold 
landed property in the newly conquered territories. With the 
lapse of years the aristocracy of the Arabians was submerged 
by the rising tide of the Mawali. 

The army was the ummak, the whole nation, in action. Its Th 
amir or commander in chief was the caliph in al-Madinah, who *" 
delegated the authority to his lieutenants or generals. In the 
early stages the general who conquered a certain territory would 
also act as leader in prayer and as judge. Al-Baladhuri 1 tells us 
that *Umar appointed a gdfi (judge) for Damascus and the 
Jordan and another for rlims and Qinnasrin. If so he was the 
caliph who established the institution of judgeship.* 

The division of the army into centre, two wings, vanguard and 
rear guard was already known at Muhammad's time and betrays 
Byzantine and Sasanid influence. The khamts (five) was the term 
used for this military unit. The cavalry covered the wings. In the 
division the tribal unit was preserved. Each tribe had its own 
standard, a cloth attached to a lance, borne by one of the bravest. 
The Prophet's banner is said to have been the *uqab (eagle). The 
infantry used bow and arrow, sling, and sometimes shield and 
sword; the sword was carried in a scabbard flung over the right 
shoulder. The frarbak (javelin) was introduced later from Abys- 
sinia. The chief weapon of the cavalry was the rumh (lance), 
the shafts of which, famous in Arabic literature as klvatti, were 
so named after aUKhatt, the coast of al-Bahrayn, where the bam- 
boo was first grown and whither it was later imported from 
India. This, together with the bow and arrow, formed the two 
national Weapons. The best swords were also made in India, 
whence the name Hindi. The defensive armour was the coat of 
mail and the shield. The Arab armour was lighter than the 
Byzantine.* 

The order of battle was primitive, in lines or rows and in 
compact array. Hostilities began with individual combats of 
distinguished champions who stepped forward out of the ranks 
and delivered a challenge. The Arabian warrior received higher 
' remuneration than his Persian or Byzantine rival and was sure of 
a portion of the booty. Soldiering was not only the noblest and 
most pleasing profession in the sight of Allah but also the most 

< - + *'P. I4*« Hitri, 217. * Ibn-Sa'd, vol iii, pt 1, p. 202, II. 27-8. 

, * * Oa Arab weapons sc* ibn-Qutaybab, *UyUn, vol i, pp. 128-32, 



174 



RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE PARTH 



profitable. The strength of the Moslem Arabian army lay neither 
in the superiority of its arms nor in the excellence of its organiza- 
tion but in its higher morale, to which religion undoubtedly con- 
tributed its share; in its powers of endurance, which the desert 
breeding fostered; and in its remarkable mobility, due mainly to 
camel transport. 1 

The so By the conquest of the Fertile Crescent and the lands of Persia 
and Egypt the Arabians came into possession not only of geo- 
civite graphical areas but of the earliest seats of civilization in the whole 
tX}G world. Thus the sons of the desert fell heir to these hoary cultures 
with their long traditions going back to Greco-Roman, Iranian, 
Pharaonic and Assyro-Babylonian times. In art and architecture, 
in philosophy, in medicine, in science and literature, in govern- 
ment, the original Arabians had nothing to teach and every- 
thing to learn. And what voracious appetites they proved to 
have! With an ever sharp sense of curiosity and with latent 
potentialities never aroused before, these Moslem Arabians in 
collaboration with and by the help of their subject peoples began 
now to assimilate, adapt and reproduce their intellectual and 
esthetic heritage. In Ctesiphon, Edessa, Nisibis, Damascus, 
Jerusalem and Alexandria they viewed, admired and copied the 
work of the architect, the artisan, the jeweller and the manu- 
facturer. To all these centres of ancient culture they came, they 
saw and were conquered. Theirs was another instance in which 
the victor was made captive by the vanquished. 

What we therefore call "Arab civilization" was Arabian 
neither in. its origins and fundamental structure nor in its 
principal ethnic aspects. The purely Arabian contribution in it 
was in the linguistic and to a certain extent in the religious 
fields. Throughout the whole period of the caliphate the Syrians, 
the Persians, the Egyptians and others, as Moslem converts or 
as Christians and Jews, were the foremost bearers of the torch 
of enlightenment and learning just as the subjugated Greeks were 
in their relation to the victorious Romans. The Arab Islamic 
civilization was at bottom the Hellenized Aramaic and the 
Iranian civilizations as developed under the segis of the caliphate 
and expressed through the medium of the Arabic tongue. In 
another sense it was the logical continuation of the early Semitic 



1 For a comparison with the Byzantine army consult Charles Oman, A History 
9} the Art ef War tn the Mtddh Ages* 2nd ed. (London, 1924), vol. i, pp. 208 ug* 



c«L xv "ADMINISTRATION OF THE NEW POSSESSIONS \ 17$ 

civilization of the Fertile Crescent originated and developed by 
the Assyro-Babylonians, Phoenicians, Aramaeans and Hebrews. 
In it the unity of the Mediterranean civilization of Western Asia 
found its culmination. 

The conquest of the world receiving its impulse under abu- 
Bakr reached its high-water mark under 'Umar and came to a 
temporary standstill under *Ali, whose caliphate was too clouded 
with internal disturbances to admit of further expansion. At the 
end of a single generation after the Prophet the Moslem empire 
had extended from the Oxus to Syrtis Minor in northern Africa. 
Starting with nothing the Moslem Arabian caliphate had now 
grown to be the strongest power of the world. 

Abu-Bakr (632-4), the conqueror and pacifier of Arabia, 
lived in patriarchal simplicity. In the first six months of his short 
reign he travelled back and forth daily from al-Sunh (where 
he lived in a modest household with his wife, ^ablbah) to his 
capital al-MadTnah, and received no stipend since the state had 
at that time hardly any income. 1 AH state business he trans- 
acted in the courtyard of the Prophet's Mosque. His personal 
qualities and unshaken faith in his son-in-law Muhammad, who 
was three years his senior, make him one of the most attractive 
characters in nascent Islam and have won him the title of 
al-Siddiq (the believer). 2 In character he was endowed with 
much more strength and forcefulness than current tradition 
credits to him. Physically he is represented as of fair complexion, 
slender build and thin countenance; he dyed his beard and walked 
with a stoop. 3 

Simple and frugal in manner, his energetic and talented 
successor, *Umar (634-44), w ^o was of towering height, strong 
physique and bald-headed/ continued at least for some time 
after becoming caliph to support himself by trade and lived 
throughout his life in a style as unostentatious as that of a 
Bedouin sheikh. In fact f Umar, whose name according to 
Moslem.tradition is the greatest in early Islam after that of 
Muhammad, has been idolized by Moslem writers for his piety, 
justice and patriarchal simplicity and treated as the personifica- 
tion of all the virtues a caliph ought to possess. His irreproach- 

* Ibn-SaM, vol. m, pt. 1, pp. 131-2; ibn-ai-Athlr, Usd aUGhahak fi Mo'rifet 
er-fsafabah (Cairo, 12&6), vol. m, p. srp. 

, * vUsuaiiy translated "the veracious". But see ibn*SaM, vol. iii, pt, 1, pp, 120-21. 

• Ya'qubi, voL u\ p, 157. * Ibid, p. 185, 



i 7 6 



RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPH A L STATE PARTH 



able character became an exemplar for all conscientious suc- 
cessors to follow. He owned, we are told, one shirt and one 
mantle only, both conspicuous for their patchwork, 1 slept on a 
bed of palm Jeaves and had no concern other than the main- 
tenance of the purity of the faith, the upholding of justice and 
the ascendancy and security of Islam and the Arabians. Arabic 
literature is replete with anecdotes extolling 'Umar's stern 
character. He is said to have scourged his own son to death 8 for 
drunkenness and immorality. Having in a fit of anger inflicted 
a number of stripes on a Bedouin who came seeking his succour 
against an oppressor, the caliph soon repented and asked the 
Bedouin to inflict the same number on him. But the latter 
refused. So r Umar retired to his home with the following 
soliloquy: 

0 son of al-Khattabl humble thou wert and Allah hath elevated thee; 
astray, and Allah hath guided thee; weak, and Allah hath strengthened 
thee Then He caused thee to rule over the necks of thy people, and 
when one of them came seeking thy aid, thou didst strike him! What wilt 
thou have to say to thy Lord when thou presentest thyself before Him? 3 

The one who fixed the Hijrah as the commencement of the 
Moslem era, presided over the conquest of large portions of 
the then known world, instituted the state register and organized 
the government of the new empire met a tragic and sudden death 
at the very zenith of his life when he was struck down (November 
3, 644) by the poisoned dagger of a Christian Persian slave* 
in the midst of his own congregation. 

'Uthman, who committed the words of Allah to an unalter- 
able form and whose reign saw the complete conquest of Iran, 
Adharbayjan and parts of Armenia, was also a pious and well- 
meaning old man, but too weak to resist the importunities of 
his greedy kinsfolk. His foster brother, Abdullah, formerly the 
Prophet's amanuensis, who had tampered with the words of 
revelation 5 and who was one of the ten proscribed by Muham- 
mad at the capture of Makkah, he appointed over Egypt; his 
half-brother, al-Walid ibn-'Uqbah, who had spat in Muham- 

1 Ibn-SaM, \ol. Hi, pt. I, pp 237*9. 

* Djvarbakn, Ta*tikh al-Khamts (Cairo, 1302), vol. ii, p. 281 II. 3-4; ol-Nuwayri, 
Nthayat al-Arab t vol. iv (Cairo, 1925), pp. 89 90. 

5 Ibn al-Athir, op. af. vol, iv, p 61. 

4 Tabari, vol. i, pp 2722-3: Ya'qubi, vol. ii, p. 183. 

* Koran 6 : 93; Ba>^a^i, vol. i, p. 300. 



' ciuxj ADMINISTRATION OF THE NEW POSSESSIONS 1 ,177' 

mad's face and had been condemned by the latter, he made 
governor of al-Kufah; his cousin Marwan ibn-^j-rjakanva 
future Umayyad caliph, he put in charge of the diwan. Many 
important offices were filled by Umayyads, the caliph's family- 1 
The caliph himself accepted presents from his governors or their 
partisans, including a beautiful maid offered by th^ governor of 
al-Basrah. Charges of nepotism became widespread. The feel- 
ing of discontent aroused by his unpopular administration was 
fanned by the three Qurayshite aspirants to the caliphate: *Ali, 
Talhah and al-Zubayr. The uprising started in aUtufah among 
*Ali's followers and proved particularly strong in Egypt, which 
in April 656 sent some five hundred rebels to al-Madinah* The 
insurgents shut the venerable octogenarian in his residence, and 
whilst he read the copy of the Koran* which he had canonized 
the house was stormed; Muhammad, son of abu-Bsikr his friend 
and predecessor, broke in and laid the first violent hand upon 
him.* Thus fell the first caliph whose blood was shed by Moslem 
hands (June 17, 656). The patriarchal epoch of Islam, during 
which the awe inspired by the Prophet and the hallowed associa- 
tion connected with al-Madlnah were still an active living force in 
the lives of the successors of Muhammad, ended ih a stream of 
blood let loose by the struggle for the now vacant throne, first 
between c Ali and his close rivals, Talhah and al-Zubayr, and then 
between *AH and a new aspirant, Mu*awiyah, the champion of 
'the Umayyad cause of which the murdered 'Uthman was a 
representative, 

1 Ibn-I.fojar, vol. iv, pp. 223-4; ihn-Sa*d, vol. Hi, pt. 1, p. 44; Jvfaa'Odi, vol, ir, 
pp. 257*?. 

* ibtvBattatah (f *377)# vol ii, pp. 10-n, claims that when he visited al*Ba$rah 
its mosque still preserved 'Uthman's copy of the Koran with his olood staining the 
page on which occurs sfcr. 2 ; 131, where according to ibn-Sa'd, vol. ifi f pt. I, p. 52, 
thefiowing hloodof the wounded caliph stopped. See Quntrtmhte in Jt CU rna/cssa ts^uf, 
ttu 3, vol. vi {1S38), pp. 4^5. 

* r Ibtt-Sa*d, vot iii, pt 1, p. 51. 



CHAPTER XVI 



THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN 'ALI AND MU &WIYAH FOR THE 
CALIPHATE 



The Abu-Bakr, one of the earliest supporters and staunchest friends 
ci^phate °^ Muhammad, whose alter ego he was and who had conducted 
the public prayers during the last illness of the Prophet, was 
designated (June 8, 632) Muhammad's successor by some form 
of election in which those leaders present at the capital, al- 
Madlnah, took part. He was to assume all those duties and 
privileges of the Prophet with the exception of such as related 
to his prophetic office — which had ceased with Muhammad's 
death. 

The designation khalifat Rasul Allah (the successor of the 
Messenger of Allah), applied in this case to abu-Bakr, may not 
have been used by him as a title. The term khalifah occurs only 
twice in the Koran (2 : 28, 38 : 25); in neither case does it seem 
to have any technical significance or to carry any indication that 
it was intended to be applied to the successor of Muhammad. 

*Umar, the logical candidate after abu-Bakr, was designated 
by the latter as his successor and is said at first to have used 
the title with the designation khalifat khalifat (the caliph of 
the caliph of) Rasul Allah, which proved too long and was con- 
sequently abbreviated. 1 The second caliph (634-44) * s credited 
with being the first to bear in his capacity as commander in 
chief of the Moslem armies the distinctive title amir al-mumtnin 
(commander of the believers), the "Miramolin" of Christian 
medieval writers. Before his death 'Umar is represented as 
having nominated a board of six electors: *Ali ibn-abi-Talib, 
'Uthman ibn- f Affan, al-Zubayr ibn-al-'Awwam, T a ^b an * Dn * 
'Abdullah, Sa*d ibn-abi-Waqqas and 'Abd-al-Rahman ibn~ 
f Awf, 2 with the stipulation that his own son be not elected to 
succeed him. The constitution of this board called al-Shura 
(consultation), including the oldest and most distinguished 

s Ibn SaM, vol hi, pt J, p. 202. * Ibid. vol. 111, pt I, pp. 24s seq. 

X78 



CH xvi THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN *ALI AND MlTAWIYAH 179 



Companions surviving, showed that the ancient Arabian idea 
of a tribal chief had triumphed over that of the hereditary 
monarch* 

In the case of the third caliph, 'Uthman (644), seniority again 
determined his election over C A1L e Uthman represented the 
Umayyad aristocracy as against his two predecessors who 
represented the Emigrants. None of these caliphs founded a 
dynasty. 

Subsequent to the murder of 'Uthman, *Ali was proclaimed 
the fourth caliph at the Prophet*s Mosque in al-Madmah on 
June 24, 656. Practically the whole Moslem world acknowledged 
his succession. The new caliph was the first cousin of Muham- 
mad, the husband of his favourite daughter, Fatimah, the father 
of his only two surviving male descendants, al-tlasan and al- 
yusayn, and either the second or third to believe in his prophet- 
hood. He was affable, pious and valiant. The party he repre- 
sented, ahl al-na$s w-al-t<iytn x (people of divine ordinance and 
designation «the legitimists), had stoutly averred that from the 
beginning Allah and His Prophet had clearly designated 'Ah as 
the only legitimate successor but that the first three caliphs had 
cheated him out of his rightful office. 

'All's first problem was to dispose of his two rivals to the high Th« 
office he had just assumed, Talhah and al-Zubayr, who repre- ^J ! J 
sented the Makkan party. Both *Jalhah and al-Zubayr fi had 
followers in al-ljijaz and ai-'Iraq who refused to acknowledge 
'All's successorship. 'A'ishah, the most beloved wife of the 
Prophet and now "the mother of the believers", who had con- 
nived at the insurrection against *Uthman, now joined the ranks 
of the insurgents against 'Ali at al-Basrah, The youthful 
'A'ishah, who had married so young 3 that she brought toys with 
her from her fathers (abu-Bakr's) home, hated *AH with all the 
bitterness of a wounded pride; for once, when she loitered behind 
the caravan of her husband, he had suspected her fidelity until 
Allah intervened in her favour through a revelation (sun 
24 : 11-20). Outside of ai-Ba$rah on December 9, 656, *Ali met 
and defeated the coalition in a battle styled "the battle of the 
camel", after the camel on which *A > ishah rode, which was the 

1 Shahrastani, p* 15. 

* Al-Zubayr's mother was a sister of the Prophet's father. 

* At the age of nine or texs, according to ibn-Hisham, p. 1001. 



180 RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CAUPHAL STATE paktu 



rally ing-point for the rebel warriors. Both rivals of f Ali fell; he 
magnanimously mourned the fallen and had them honourably 
buried. 1 'A*ishah was captured and treated most considerately 
and in a manner befitting her dignity as the "first lady" of the 
land. She was sent back to al-Madinah. Thus came to an end 
the first, but by no means the last, encounter in which Moslem 
stood against Moslem in battle array. The dynastic wars that 
were to convulse Islam from time to time and occasionally shake 
it to its very foundation had just begun. 

Ostensibly secure on his throne, *Ali from his new capital 
al-Kufah inaugurated his regime by dismissing most of the pro- 
vincial governors appointed by his predecessor and exacting the 
oath of fealty from the others. With one of them, Mu'awiyah 
ibn-abi-Sufyan, governor of Syria and kinsman of 'Uthman, 
he did not reckon. Mu'awiyah now came out as the avenger of 
the martyred caliph. He exhibited in the Damascus mosque the 
blood-stained shirt of the murdered ruler and the fingers cut 
from the hand of his wife Na'ilah as she tried to defend him.* 
With the tactics and eloquence of an Antony he endeavoured to 
play on Moslem emotions. Withholding his homage from *Ali» 
Mu'awiyah tried to corner him with this dilemma: Produce the 
assassins of the duly appointed successor of the Prophet or 
accept the position of an accomplice who is thereby disqualified 
from the caliphate. The issue, however, was more than a personal 
one, h transcended individual and even family affairs. The real 
question was whether al-Kufah or Damascus, al-*Iraq or Syria, 
should be supreme in Islamic affairs. Al-Madinah, which 'Ali 
had left soon after his installation in 656 never to revisit, was 
already out of the way. The weight of the far-flung conquests 
had shifted the centre of gravity to the north. 

On the plain of Siffin south of al-Raqqah, on the west bank 
of the Euphrates, the two armies finally stood face to face: 'Ali 
with an army reported to have comprised 50,000 'Iraqis and 
Mu'awiyah with his Syrians. In a half-hearted manner, for 
neither side was anxious to precipitate a final decision, the 
skirmishes dragged on for weeks. The final encounter took place 
on July 28.657. Under the leadership of Malik al-Ashtar, 'AH's 
forces were on the point of victory when the shrewd, wily *Ainr 

1 A town Lcaring his name has grown around the tomb of al-Zubayr. 
* JFcihri, pp. 125, 137. 



C&XYI THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN "ALI AND MtTAWIYAH iSl 



ibn-aPAs, Mu*awiyah*s leader, resorted to a ruse. Copies of the 
Koran fastened to lances were suddenly seen thrust in the air — 
a gesture interpreted to mean an appeal from the decision of 
arms to the decision of the Koran. Hostilities ceased. Urged by 
his followers, the simple-hearted 'AH accepted Mu e awiyah*s 
proposal to arbitrate the case and thus spare Moslem blood* 
The arbitration was, of course, to be "according to the word of 
Allah" J — whatever that may have meant. 

Against his better judgment the caliph appointed as his per- 
sonal representative abu-Musa al-Ash r ari, a man of undoubted 
piety but of lukewarm loyalty to the e Alid cause. Mu'awiyah 
matched him with * Amr ibn-al-*As, who has been dubbed a 
political genius of the Arabs. 31 Armed each with a written docu- 
ment giving him full authorization to act and accompanied' by 
four hundred witnesses each, the two arbiters (sing, hakairi) held 
their public session in January 659 at Adhruh on the main cara- 
van route between al-Madmah and Damascus and half-way 
between Ma'an and Pctra. 

Exactly what transpired at this historical conference is diffi- 
cult to ascertain. Various versions appear in different sources. 3 
The current tradition is that the two umpires agreed to depose 
both principals, thus clearing the way for a "dark horse"; but 
after the elder of the two, abu-Musa, had stood up and declared 
the caliphate of his master null and void, *Amr betrayed his 
colleague and confirmed Mu'awiyah. But the critical studies of 
Pere Lammens,* preceded by those of Wellhausen, 5 tend to show 
that this tradition reflects the view of the 'Iraqi school, to which 
most of our extant sources belong, which flourished under the 
'Abbasids— the Umayyads* mortal enemies. What probably 
happened was that both referees deposed both principals, which 
left *AIi the loser. Mu'awiyah had no caliphate to be deposed 
from. He was but a governor of a province. The very fact of the 
arbitration itself had raised him to a level equivalent to that of 
*AH, whose position was thereby lowered to that of a mere 
pretender. The sentence of the judges deprived *Ali of a real 

v 1 For the arbitration document sec Dirmwari, pp. 206-8. 
^ * Mosud^-roL rv, p. 391. See beW, p. 196. Cf. above, p. 161. 

* (X T^barii \ot i, pp. 3340-60; Mas'tidi, vol. iv, pp. 392-402; Ya*qubi> \ol. u, 
pp. 220-22; JFMriy pp. 127-30. 

n £tttcss stir h regnc dtt ttxh/e osntriyndc Afo'awic I* r (B&iiit, tgoj) t ch vii, 
> 7 * Das artj&iseke Jtrich and scin Stxrs (Berlin, 1902), ch. u ~ The Arab Kingdom 
W j/j tr. Margaret G. Weir (Calcutta 1927), ch. 13. 



182 RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE past ii 



office, and Mu*awiyah of a fictitious claim which he had not yet 
dared publicly to assert. Not until 'All's death in 661, two years 
after the curtain had been lowered on the arbitration farce, did 
Mu'awiyah's caliphate receive general recognition 

The acceptance of the principle of arbitration proved disastrous 
to *AIi in more than one way: it alienated the sympathy of a 
large body of his own followers. These Kharijites 1 (seceders), 
as they were called, the earliest sect of Islam, proved his deadly 
foes. Adopting as a slogan la hiikma ilia li-ULah* (arbitration 
belongs to Allah alone), they rose in arms to the number of 
4000 s under the leadership of 'Abdullah ibn-Wahb al-Rasibh 
On the bank of the Nahrawan canal *Ali attacked their camp 
(659) and almost annihilated them, but they rose again under 
various names and remained a thorn in the side of the caliphate 
till the 'Abbasid period. 

Early on January 24, 661 , as *Ali was on his way to the mosque 
at al-Kufah he was struck on the forehead with a poisoned 
sabre. The weapon, which penetrated to the brain, was wielded 
by a ICharijitc, c Abd-at-Rahman ibn-Muljam, who was actuated 
by the desire to avenge certain relatives of a lady, a friend of 
his, who were slaughtered at Nahrawan. Tradition makes ibn- 
Muljam one of three accomplices who under oath at al-Ka*bah 
had concocted a plan to rid the Moslem community on the same 
day of its three disturbing elements: *Ali, Mu'awiyah and 'Amr 
ibn-al-'As 4 — all of which sounds too dramatic to be true. The 
lonely spot near al-Kufah where 'Ali was interred, 5 the present 
Mashhad 'Ali in al-Najaf, has developed into one of the great 
centres of pilgrimage in Islam. 

To his Shi*ite partisans the fourth caliph soon became pre- 
eminently the saint of the sect, the Wali (friend and vicegerent) 
of Allah, just as Muhammad had been the Prophet of Islam and 
the Messenger of Allah. *AH dead proved more effective than 
*AH living. As a canonized martyr he retrieved at once more 

1 Also called Iiaruriyah, from Harura* (I^arawra* in Yaqut, vol.ii, p. 246). 
1 Fakhrt t p. 130. Cf. Koran, 12 ; 70. 1 12,000 in Shahrasfim, p 86, 

* Cf. Dmawari, p. 227, Tabari, \ol i, pp 3456 seqz H. Zotenberg^ Chronique dt 
Tdhars^ vol. m (Paris, 1871), pp 706 seq. 

* The site, as the Shfite tradition asserts, was chosen in accordance with the 
dying wish of 'Ali, uho ordered that his corpse be put on a loose camel and buried 
wherever the camel knelt. The place was kept secret until Harfm ai-Rashld in 791 
fell upon it by chance. For the first detailed account of the tomb see lbn-f^awqal, 
el'Mcsaltk w cl*Mana!ik t cd. de Goeje (Leyden, 1872), p. 163. 



Ctf.XVI THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN 'ALl AND MU*A\VIYAK m 

than he had lost in a lifetime. Though lacking in those traits 
that constitute a leader and a politician, viz. alertness, foresight, 
resolution, expediency, he still possessed the qualities of an 
ideal Arabian. Valiant in battle, wise in counsel, eloquent in 
speech, true to his friends, magnanimous to his foes, he became 
both the paragon of Moslem nobility and chivalry (fuiuwah) and 
the Solomon of Arabic tradition, around whose name poems, 
proverbs, sermonettes and anecdotes innumerable have clustered. 
He had a swarthy complexion, large black eyes, bald head, thick 
and long white beard, and was corpulent and of medium stature. 1 
His sabre dhu-al~Faqar (the cleaver of vertebrae), wielded by 
the Prophet on the memorable battlefield of Badr, has been 
immortalized in the words of the verse found engraved on 
many medieval Arab swords: La say/a ilia dhu-al-Faqari wa- 
la fata ilia *Ali » "No sword can match dhu-al-Faqar, and no 
young warrior can compare with 'Alii" The later Fiiyan move- 
ment, which developed ceremonies and insignia savouring of 
medieval European chivalry and the modern Scout movements, 
took r Ali for its first Fata and model. Regarded as wise and brave 
by all the Islamic world, as idealistic and exemplary by many 
Fityan and dervish fraternities, as sinless and infallible by his 
partisans and even held to be the incarnation of the deity by the 
Ghulah (extremists) among them, he whose worldly career was 
practically a failure has continued to exert a posthumous in- 
fluence second only to that of the Prophet himself. The throngs 
of pilgrims that still stream to his mash/tad at al-Najaf and to 
that of his son al~$usayn, the Shfah arch-saint and martyr at 
near-by Karbala', and the passion play enacted annually on 
the tenth of Muharram throughout the Shf ah world testify 
to the possibility that death may avail a Messiah more than 
life. 

With the death of c Ali (661) what may be termed the republican Per 
period of the caliphate, which began with abu-Bakr (632), came 
to an end. The four caliphs of this era are known to Arab his- 
torians as ahRashidiin (orthodox). The founder of the second 
caliphate, Mu'awiyah the Umayyad, a man of the world, nomi- 
nated his own son Yazld as his successor and thus became the 
founder of a dynasty. The hereditary principle was thereby intro- 
duced into the caliphal succession never thereafter to be entirely 

* Mas'udi, Touted p. 297* 



j 84 



RISE OF ISLAM AND THE CALIPHAL STATE partii 



abandoned. The Umayyad caliphate was the first dynasty 
(piulM) in the history of Islam. The fiction of election was 
preserved in the bay' ah 1 (literally "sale"), the ceremony by which 
the leaders of the people literally or figuratively took the hand 
of the new caliph as a sign of homage. The Umayyad caliphate 
(661-750) with its capital at Damascus was followed by the 
'Abbasid (750-1258) at Baghdad, The Fatimid caliphate (909- 
11 71), whose main seat was Cairo, was the only Shfite one of 
primary importance. Another Umayyad caliphate at Cordova 
(Qurtubah) in Spain lasted from 929 to 1031, The last great 
caliphate of Islam was non-Arab, that of the Ottoman Turks 
in Constantinople (ca. 1517-1924). In November 1922 the 
Grand National Assembly at Ankara declared Turkey a republic, 
deposed the Sultan-Caliph Muhammad VI and made his cousin 
c Abd-al-Majid caliph, denying him the sultanate. In March 
I924 the caliphate itself was abolished. 5 

1 Ibn-Khaldun, Mugaddamah, i.e. vol. i of Kitdb al*Iharwa-Dixuan al-Mubtcda 
wal*Khabar (Cairo, 1284), pp. 174-5 = pp. 37^*7 of Quatremere's ed., in Notices 
tt extraiU etc., vol. xvi (Paris, 1858), and pp. 424*6 of de Slane's tr., vol. xix 
(Paris, 1862). 

* The subjoined tree shows the connection of the lines of caliphs: 

Quraysh 

'Abd-Manaf 
I 



Hashim 
•Abd-al-Muttalib 



f Abd«Shams 
Umayyah 



Umar abu-Bakr 'Abdullah abu-falib al-*Abbis Umayyad CauphS 

661-750 



af?ah 'A'ishah + Muhammad 

+ I 
Muhammad ' 

Uthman + Ruqayyah Fatimah + 'AH 



929-1031 



•Abbasid Caliphs 
750-1258 



I 

jd-ftasan 



al-Husayn 
The Imams 



Fatimid Cauphs 
009-1171 



CfT.XW THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN *ALI AND MtTAWIYAH 185 



Wc should here guard against the common fallacy that the 
caliphate was a religious office- In this regard analogies drawn 
from the headship of the Holy Roman Empire and from the 
modern Christian distinction between the spheres of temporal 
and religious powers are misleading. As amir al-muminht, 
commander of the believers, the military office of the caliph was 
emphasized. As imam (leader in public prayer) the caiiph could 
and did lead the religious service and pronounce the Friday 
khutbah (sermon); but this was a function which the humblest of 
Moslems could perform. Succession to Muhammad {kkilafah) 
meant succession to the sovereignty of the state. Muhammad as 
a prophet, as an instrument of revelation, as a messenger 
(rasuf) of Allah,* could have no successor. The caliph's relation 
to religion was merely that of a guardian. He defended the faith 
just as any European emperor was supposed to do, suppressed 
heresies, warred against unbelievers and extended the bound- 
aries of the Dar al-Islam (the abode of Islam), in the performance 
of all of which he employed the power of his secular arm. 1 

Later theoretical legists, flourishing mostly in Makkah, al- 
Madlnah and other centres, and out of touch with the course 
of events in the Islamic capitals of Damascus, Baghdad and 
Cairo, worked out nicely-drawn qualifications, privileges and 
functions said to pertain to the caliph. Al-Mawardi 3 (f 1058) in 
his Utopian treatise on politics, al-Nasafi (f 1310), ibn-Khaldun 
(f I406) in his famous critical prolegomena 8 and later writers 
representing the Sunnite (orthodox) theory list the following 
caiiphal qualifications: membership in the Quraysh family; 
being male and adult; soundness of body and mind; courage, 
energy and other traits of character necessary for the defence of 
the realm; and the winning of the allegiance of the community 
by an act of bay'ak. The Shfah, on the other hand, who make 
less of the caliphate and more of the imamate, confine the office 
to the family of 'AH, who they hold was nominated by Muham- 
mad as his successor on the basis of a divine ordinance (nass) 
and whose qualifications passed on to his descendants pre- 
ordained for the high office by Allah/ Among the caiiphal func- 
tions according to the Sunnite school are: protection and main- 

1 Consult Thomas \Y # Arnold, Th$ Caliphate (Oxford, 1924), pp 0-41, 
* Pp, 5*to, * ,\fuq6dda**ttth t p. 16 U 

* Shsthmst&it, pp. toS-9: ibn-Khnldun, pp. 164-5. 



186 



1USE OF ISLAM AND THE CAL1PHAL STATE part n 



tenance of the faith and the territory of Islam (particularly the 
two sacred places — al-haramayn — of Makkah and al-Madinah) 
and in case of necessity the declaration of a holy war (Jihad); 
appointment of state officials; collection of taxes and administra- 
tion of public funds; punishment of wrongdoing and the execu- 
tion of justice. 1 The privileges include the mention of the caliph's 
name in the Friday khuibah and on the coinage; the wearing of 
the burdah (the Prophet's mantle) on important state occasions; 
the custody of such holy relics as the staff, seal, shoe, tooth and 
hair that are said to have been Muhammad's.* 

Not until the latter part of the eighteenth century did the 
notion prevail in Europe that the Moslem caliph was a kind of 
pope with spiritual jurisdiction over the followers of Muham- 
mad throughout the world. In his Tableau giniral de V empire 
othotnan (Paris, 1788), 3 d'Ohsson, a Constantinople Armenian, 
was one of the first to give currency to this fallacy. The shrewd 
*Abd-al-yarmd II made capital of the idea to strengthen his 
prestige in the eyes of the European powers who had by this 
time come to dominate most of the Moslems in Asia and Africa. 
An ill-defined movement had its inception in the latter part of 
the last century and under the name pan-Islamism (al-Jdmfak 
al-Isl&tniyah) exerted special effort to bring about some unity 
of action to oppose the Christian powers. With Turkey as its 
rallymg-pomt it unduly stressed the ecumenical character of the 
caliphate. 

1 Mawardi, pp 23-4, al-Nasafi, *Umdat *Aqtdat AH1 al-SunnaA, ed W. Cureton 
(London, 1843), pp 2S 9 

* As the last Moslem caliphs the Ottoman sultans had charge of these Prophetic 
treasures {dhakha*tr Nabauiyah), which Sultan Salim in 1 5 17 brought to Constantin- 
ople upon his return from the conquest of Egypt. The relics have ever since been 
enshrined in a special pavilion within the stronghold of the Grand Seraglio and 
cherished as the priceless insignia of the exalted office of the caliphate. 

• Vol t. pp 213 stf. 



PART III 

THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES 



CHAPTER XVII 



THE UMAYYAD CALIPHATE: MTTAWIYAH ESTABLISHES 
A DYNASTY 

Qurayah 

•AM-MnnSf 
1 

♦Abdihams Hashim 

Umiyyah 'Abd-al-Muttalib 

rz — — n 

Abu-atvA? tfaxb 

Al-Hakam 'Affan Abu-Sufyan 
MarwXw *Uthman Mu'awiyah 



AlHanth Abu-Tolib Abu-Labab 'Abdullah + Aminah Al-'AbbSs tfamiab 

Muhammad 

Mu'iiwiYAH was proclaimed cahph at Ihya* Qerusaiem) iriTht 
A.H. 40 (66b). 1 With his accession the seat of the provincial^ 
government, Damascus, became the capital of the Moslem call 
empire, though that empire was somewhat circumscribed. During^ 
the arbitration *Amr ibn-al-* As, Mu f awiyah's right-hand man, 
had wrested Egypt from *Alids, but al- e Iraq now declared 
al-Hasan, eldest son of *Ali and Fatirnah, the legitimate suc- 
cessor of \Ali, and Makkah and al-Madinah were lukewarm in 
their loyalty to the representations of the Sufyanids, who had 
failed to acknowledge Muhammad until the fall of Makkah and 
Avhose Islam was therefore considered of convenience rather than 

1 Tabart, vol. 11 » p 4., cf. Mas'udi, \o\ v, p 14. 
189 



190 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PART in 



conviction* The interests of al-IJasan, who was more at home 
in the harem than on the throne, lay in fields other than those 
of imperial administration. It was not long before he abdicated 
in favour of his more able rival and retired to al-Madlnah to a 
life of ease and pleasure, a step which he was induced to take 
by Mu'awiyah's guarantee of a magnificent subsidy and pension 1 
which he himself had fixed and which included five million dir- 
hams from the Kufah treasury 2 plus the revenue of a district 
in Persia for the duration of his lifetime. Though he died at the 
age of forty-five (ca. 669), possibly poisoned 3 because of some 
harem intrigue, al-I;Iasan is said to have made and unmade 
no less than a hundred marriages, which earned him the title 
of mitlaq k (great divorcer). The Shi* ah laid the fatal act at 
Mu'awiyah's door and thus made al-ftasan a shahtd (martyr), 
in fact the "sayyid [lord] of all martyrs". 

His younger brother al-IJusayn, who had also lived in retire- 
ment at al-Madlnah throughout the rule of Mu'awiyah, in 680 
refused to acknowledge Mu'awiyah's son and successor YazTd, 
and in response to the urgent and reiterated appeals of the 
'Iraqis, who had declared him the legitimate caliph after al- 
ii asan and 'AH, started at the head of a weak escort of relatives 
(including his harem and devoted followers) for al-Kufah. 
'Ubaydullah, whose father Ziyad had been conveniently acknow- 
ledged by Mu'awiyah as his brother, was now the Umayyad 
governor of al-'Iraq and had established outposts on all the 
roads leading from al-rjijaz to ai~*Iraq. On the tenth of Muhar- 
ram, A.H. 61 (October 10, 680), *Umar, son of the distinguished 
general Sa'd ibn-abi-Waqqas, in command of 4000 troops sur- 
rounded al-ftusayn with his insignificant band of some two 
hundred souls at Karbala', about twenty-five miles north-west of 
ai- Kufah, and upon their refusal to surrender cut them down. 
The grandson of the Prophet fell dead with many wounds and 
his head was sent to Yazid in Damascus. The head was given 
back to al-yusayn's sister and son, who had gone with it to 
Damascus, 5 and was buried with the body in Karbala*. In 
commemoration of al-ftusayn's "martyrdom" the Shfah Mos- 
lems have established the practice of annually observing the 

1 See ibn-tfajar, vol. li, p. 13; Dlnawari, p. 231. * Tabari, vol. ii, p. 3. 

* Ya'qu'bi, vol. 11, p. 266. * Tbn-'AsaMr, vol. jv, p. 2x6, 1. ai. 

• Ibn-#ajar, vol. 11, p. 17. 



ch. xvn " ' x THE UMAYYAD CALIPHATE , . , 191 

first ten days of Muharfam as days of lamentation, and have 
developed a passion play stressing his "heroic" struggle and 
suffering* This annual passion play is enacted in two parts, one 
called 'Ashura (the tenth day) in al-Kazimayn (close by Bagh- 
dad) in memory of the' battle, and the other forty days after the 
tenth of Muharram in Karbala* entitled "the Return of the 
Head". 

The blood of al-IJusayn, even more than that of his father, 
proved to be the seed of the Shfite "church", Shfism was bom 
on the tenth of Muharram. From now on the imamship in 'AH*s 
progeny became as much of a dogma in the Shfite creed as that 
of the prophethood of Muhammad in Islam. Yatutn (the day 
of) Karbala gave the Shfah a battle-cry summed up in the 
formula "vengeance for al-IJusayn", which ultimately proved 
one of the factors that undermined the Umayyad dynasty. In 
the other camp the Sunnites argued that Yazid was de facto ruler 
and that to question his authority constituted a treason punish- 
able with death. They insisted that the Shf ites should not view 
the facts otherwise. But how a people actually do view an event 
is usually more important as a moving force in history than how 
they should view it. The great schism was made in Islam and 
the breach has never since been filled. 

Although the Umayyads were for some time secure in the 
caliphate in so far as the 'Alids were concerned, the struggle 
was in reality three-cornered, for the third party was not yet 
eliminated. As long as the powerful Mu'awiyah lived 'Abdullah, 
a nephew of 'A'ishah and son of al-Zubayr who had fruitlessly 
disputed the caliphate with *Ali, kept his peace in al-Madmah. 
When Yazld, well known for his frivolity and dissipation, 
succeeded to the throne 'Abdullah declared openly against the 
new caliph and encouraged al-IJusayn to undertake the perilous 
step which cost him his life and left 'Abdullah the sole claimant. 
,A1I al-#ijaz proclaimed 'Abdullah. YazFd was quick to dispatch 
against the malcontents of al-Madinah a disciplinary force which 
included many Christian Syrians, and was headed by the one- 
- eyed Muslim ibn-'Uqbah, whose old age and infirmity necessi- 
„ tatcd his carriage all the way in a Utter. The punitive expedition 
encamped on the volcanic plain of al-IJarrah east of aKMadinah, 
. gave battle on August 26, 683, and was victorious. The story 
of the three days in which the unchecked Damascene soldiery 



192 THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES XAxrm 



sacked the city of the Prophet is apocryphal. The army then pro- 
ceeded to Makkah. On the way Muslim died and was succeeded 
in the chief command by al-Husayn ibn-Numayr al-Sakuni, 1 who 
had his catapults tain stones upon the IJaram (holy mosque) of 
Makkah on whose inviolable soil ibn-al-Zubayr had taken refuge. 
In the course of the siege the Ka f bah itself caught fire and was 
burned to the ground. The Black Stone was split in three pieces 
and the house of Allah looked "like the torn bosoms of mourning 
women". 8 While these operations were proceeding Yazld had 
died and ibn-Numayr, fearing consequent disorders in Syria, 
suspended on November 27, 683, the operations which had begun 
on September 24- The second civil war of Islam, which like the 
first between *Ali and Mu'awiyah was also a dynastic war, came 
to a temporary halt. 

Subsequent to the death of his rival and the consequent with- 
drawal of enemy troops from Arabian soil ibn-al-Zubayr was 
proclaimed caliph not only in al-rjijaz, where he had his seat, 
and in al- f Iraq, where his brother Mus'ab was made his repre- 
sentative, but in South Arabia, Egypt and parts of Syria, Over 
Damascus, however, al-Dahhak ibn-Qays al-Fihri, leader of the 
Qaysite (North Arabian) party which had favoured ibn-al- 
Zubayr, had been appointed by this caliph provisional regent. 
Al-Dahhak was finally crushed in July 684, at Marj Rahif 8 
— a second Siffih for the Umayyads — by his Kalbite (including 
the Yamanite or South Arabian) opponents, who supported the 
aged 4 Umayyad Marwan ibn-al-Hakam. The Kalbites were 
Syro-Arabs domiciled in Syria before the Hijrah and mostly 
Christianized. Marwan (684-5)* tne cousin of 'Uthman and 
formerly his secretary of state, then became the founder of the 
Marwanid branch of the Umayyad dynasty. He followed Mu- 
'awiyah II (683-4), Yazld's weak and sickly son, who had ruled 

1 Tabari, vol. », p, 2220; Ya'qubi, vol. ii, p. 299. 

* Tabari, vol. ii, p. 427; al-Fakihi, al-Muntaqa ft Akhb&r vmrt-al-Qura, 
cd. F. Wfistenfeld (Lapng, 1859), pp. 18 seg.\ Azraqi, Ahhlar Afakkah, p. 32. 
The Ka'bah was rebuilt by ibn-al-Zubayr on the withdrawal of the Umayyad 
army. 

* A plain east of the village Marj "Adhra* not far from Damascus. See "Igd, 
vol. ii, pp. 320-21; Mas'Gdi, vol. v, p. 2ot. These internal feuds between the Qays, 
representing the new emigrants from North Arabia, and the Kalb, who were ever 
the staunch supporters of the Umayyad cause, were among the events which pre* 
cipitated the fall of the Umayyad dynasty. The Qaysi and Yamani parties figured 
even in (he modem politics of Lebanon and Syria, Sec below, p. 281. 

* Ya'qubi, vol. ii, p. 304, L 19. 



CH.xro THE UMASYAD CALIPHATE m 

only three months and left no successor. 1 But the defection of 
al-ftijaz under the rival caliph continued until Marwan's son 
and successor, *Abd-al-Malik, sent Bis iron-handed general al- 
rlajjaj, formerly a schoolmaster in al-Ta'if, at the head of a 
Syrian army which gave the coup de grace to the anti-caliphate. 
Beginning March 25, 692, al~$ajjaj pressed the siege against 
Makkah for six and a half months and used his catapults effect- 
ively. 2 Inspired by the heroic exhortation of his mother, Asm a',* 
daughter of abu-Bakr and sister of 'A'ishah, ibn-al-Zubayr 
fought valiantly but hopelessly until he was slain. His head was 
sent to Damascus * and his body, after hanging for some time 
on the gibbet, was delivered to his aged mother. With the death 
of ibn-al-Zubayr the last champion of the old faith passed away. 
*Uthman was fully avenged* if not by Muslim certainly by al- 
rlajjaj. The Ansar's (Supporters') power was for ever broken. 
After this debacle a number of them began to leave Makkah 
and al-Madtnah to join the armies operating in North Africa, 
Spain and other theatres of war* Henceforth the history of 
Arabia begins to deal more with the effect of the outer world on 
the peninsula and less with the effect of the peninsula on the 
outer world. The vigour of the mother "island" had spent itself. 

After gaining supremacy over the opposing parties Mu'awiyah uvC 
(661-80) was free to direct his efforts against the great enemy of ^ 
Islam to the north-west, the Byzantines. In e Akka (Acre) he so?< 
found soon after the conquest of Syria well-equipped Byzantine 
shipyards (sing, dor al-sinaah, whence Eng. arsenal) which he 
utilized for building the Moslem navy. These dockyards were 

1 The subjoined tret shows the Sufyamd branch of the Umayyad dynasty in it* 
relation to the founder of the Marwanld branch: 

Al- iakatn Aba-Sufyan 

2. YazSd 1^680-83) 
4. MawXk I (6vV3) 3- mJ'awiyah II (6S3-4) 

* DInawati, p 320> ibn-*AsaMr, toL ir, p. 50. * labati, vol. H t pp. 845-8. 

* Tsbsn, voLn, p, S52. 



194 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES partki 



probably the second after those of Egypt in Islamic maritime 
history. The Syrian yards, according to al-Baladhuri, 1 were 
transferred by later Umayyads to Sur (Tyre),* where they 
remained until the 'Abbasid period. This fleet must undoubtedly 
have been manned by Greco-Syrians accustomed to seafaring. 
The Arabians of al-rjijaz, the mainstay of Islam, had only little 
acquaintance with the sea, for it was a principle of *Umar's 
policy to let no body of water intervene between htm and his 
lieutenants. Such a policy explains, for instance, why 'Umar 
would not authorize the proposed invasion of Cyprus (Qubrus) 
by Mu'awiyah. It was , Umar , s successor, *Uthman, who was 
finally persuaded to yield a half-hearted assent to the invasion 
of the island; and it was in compliance with the caliph's order 
that Mu'awiyah had his wife accompany him (649). 3 Her presence 
was proof positive of the proximity of Cyprus and of the contem- 
plated ease with which it could be subdued. 

Mu*awiyah*s reign witnessed not only the consolidation but 
the extension of the territories of the caliphate* To this period 
belongs the expansion in North Africa for which f Uqbah ibn- 
Nafi* was in the main responsible. In the east the complete 
conquest of Khurasan was undertaken (663-71) from ai-Basrah, 4 
the Oxus was crossed and Bukhara in far-away Turkestan 
raided (674). Thus Mu'awiyah became not only the father of a 
dynasty but the second founder of the caliphate after *Umar. 

In securing his throne and extending the limits of Islamic 
dominion, Mu*awiyah relied mainly upon Syrians, who were 
still chiefly Christian, and upon the Syro-Arabs, who were mainlv 
Yamanites, to the exclusion of the new Moslem immigranto 
from al-fjijaz. Arabic chronicles dwell upon the sense of loyalty 
which the people of Syria cherished towards their new chief.* 
Though as a soldier he was certainly inferior to T Ali, as a military 
organizer Mu'awiyah was second to none of his contemporaries. 
He whipped the raw material which constituted his Syrian army 
into the first ordered and disciplined force known in Islamic war- 
fare. He rid the military machine of its archaic tribal organiza- 
tion, a relic of the ancient patriarchal days. He abolished many 

1 P. n$ = Hitti,p. iSt. 

* Consult Guy I-* Strange, Palatini under the Motltms (Boston, 1890), p. 342; 
cf. ibn-Jubayr, Ritfak (Leydcn, 1907), p. 305. s Above, p. 168. 

* Ya'qubi, vol. ii, p. a$S; Baladhuri, p. 410; Jabari, vol. ii, pp. 166 stq« 

1 Tabari.vol.j, pp. 34 09- 1 0; Mas udi, voL v, pp. So, 104; dSIqd t vol. i,p. 207,1.31. 



CH.3CVU " *■ * THE OMAYYAD CALIPHATE > ,*9$ J 

traditional features of the government and on the earlier 
Byzantine framework built a stable, well-organized state. Out 
of seeming chaos he developed an orderly Moslem society. 
Historians credit him with being the first tn Islam to institute 
the bureau of registry and the first to interest himself in postal 
service, al-bartd? which developed under *Abd-al-Malik into a 
well-organized system knitting together the various parts of the 
far-flung empire. From among many other wives he chose as his 
favourite a Syro-Arab Kalbite of the banu-Bahdal, Maysun by 
name, who scorned court life at Damascus and yearned for the 
freedom of the desert. The verses attributed to her, though she 
may never have composed them, express the feeling of home- 
sickness which many Bedouins who were now passing into an 
urban state must have experienced. 5 

Maysun was a Jacobite Christian like her predecessor 
Na*ilah, 'Uthman's wife, who also belonged to the Kaib tribe. 
She often took her son Yazid, subsequently the successor of 
Mu'awiyah, to the bddiyah (Syrian desert), particularly to 
Palmyrena, in which her Bedouin tribe roamed and where the 
youthful crown prince became habituated to the chase, hard- 
riding, wine-bibbing and verse-making, Al-Badiyah from this 
time on became the school of the Umayyad princes, where they 
acquired the pure Arabic 3 unadulterated with Aramaicisms and 
where they also escaped the recurrent city plagues. Later 
Umayyad caliphs, including *Abd-al-Malik and al-Walld II, 
continuing the tradition, built country residences on the border 
of the Syrian desert and called them "ai-Badiyahs". 

Man§ur ibn-Sarjun (Gr. Sergius),* who figured in the treacher- 
ous surrender of Damascus at the time of the Arab invasion, 
was the scion of a prominent Christian family some of whose 
members had occupied the position of financial controller of 
the state in the last Byzantine period. Next to the supreme 
command of the army this office became the most Important 
in the Arab government The grandson of this M&nsur was the 
illustrious St, John (Yuhanna) the Damascene, who in his 

1 J?ax%rt\ p. 148. Sec beJow, p. 322, 

* AbiMtl-Fidl*, \o\* i, p< 303; Nicholson, Literary History % p< 195. 

* '/gdi vol. i, p f 293, i* 3Q- ~ 

* ^ or &e confusion in the Arabic chronicles Utween the name of this man ami 
ms son Sarjun ibn*Man$ur> consult Tabari, vol u\ pp. 205, 218, 339, Mas'udi. 
j «ff£U, pp. 302, 306, 307, 3 «; cf. Theophah *». p. 365. 



THE UMAYYAD AND VABBASID EMPIRES part ill 



youth was a boon companion of Yazld. The caliph's physician, 
ibn-Uthal, was likewise a Christian, whom Mu'awiyah made 
financial administrator of the province of flims 1 — an unpre- 
cedented appointment for a Christian in Moslem annals. 1 The 
Umayyad poet laureate, al-Akhtal, another boon companion 
of Yazid, belonged to the Taghlib Christian Arabs of al-rjirah 
and was a friend of St. John. This poet of the court would enter 
the caliphal palace with a cross dangling from his neck and recite 
his poems to the delight of the Moslem caliph and his entourage. 
Jacobites and Maronites brought their religious disputes before 
the caliph, 3 who is reported by Theophanis* to have even rebuilt 
a Christian church in Edessa which had been demolished by an 
earthquake. 

When in 679 Mu'awiyah nominated his son YazTd as his 
successor 5 and caused deputations to come from the provinces 
and take the oath of allegiance, he introduced into the caliphate 
the hereditary principle followed thereafter by the leading 
Moslem dynasties, including the 'Abbasids. Following this 
precedent the reigning caliph would proclaim as his successor 
the one among his sons or kinsmen whom he considered most 
competent and would exact for him an anticipatory oath of 
fealty, first from the capital and then from the other principal 
towns of the empire. 

No small measure of the success of the Caliph Mu'awiyah 
should be attributed to the circle of collaborators with whom he 
surrounded himself, particularly *Amr ibn-al-'As, the vicegerent 
over fertile Egypt, al-Mughirah ibn-Shu'bah, the governor of 
turbulent al-Kufah, and Ziyad ibn-Ablh, the ruler of malcontent 
al-Basrah. These three with their chief, Mu'awiyah, constituted 
the four political geniuses {duhdt) of the Arab Moslems. Ziyad 
was at first styled ibn-Ablh because of the doubt which clouded 
the identity of his father. His mother was a slave and prostitute 
in al-Ta if whom abu-Sufyan, Mu'awiyah 's father, had known. 
Ziyad was pro-'Alid. In a critical moment Mu'awiyah acknow- 
ledged Ziyad as his legitimate brother. 8 Ziyad proved a great 

1 !bn*'Asak»r, vol. v, p. 80 

* Wqubi, vol it, p 265 Wcllhausen, Rn(h s p. 85, considers the report of thi* 
appointment fictitious. 

1 WeHhausen, Reich, p. S4. 1 P. 356. 

1 Mas'udi, vol. v, pp. 69 73; df T a kan, vol ii, pp. 174*7. 

• Dlnawari, op. 232-3; Tabari, vol. ii t pp. 69*70, ibn-'Asakir, vol. v, p. 397. 



CH. XVII 



* THE UMAYYAD CALIPHATE ' i$7 



asset to his caliph brother. His unrelenting hand weighed 
heavily over al-Basrah, a centre of Shfism. After the death of 
al-Mughlrah he was elevated to the governorship of ai-Kufah, 
a position which made him the absolute ruler of the eastern part 
of the empire, including Arabia and Persia. With a trained body- 
guard 4000 strong who acted also as spies and police, he ruled 
tyrannically and tracked down mercilessly anyone who dared 
show favour to *AIFs descendants or revile Mu'awij'ah. 

In Mu'awiyah the sense of finesse politique was developed to 
a degree probably higher than in any other caliph. To his Arab 
biographers his supreme virtue was his /tilm, 1 that unusual 
ability to resort to force only when force was absolutely neces- 
sary and to use peaceful measures in all other instances. His 
prudent mildness by which he tried to disarm the enemy and 
shame the opposition, his slowness to anger and his absolute 
self-control left him under all circumstances master of the situa- 
tion. "I apply not my sword**, he is reported to have declared, 
"where my lash suffices, nor my lash where my tongue is enough. 
And even if there be one hair binding me to my fellowmen, I 
do not let it break: when they pull I loosen, and if they loosen 
I pull. 1 ' 2 The following is a copyof a letter he is supposed to have 
forwarded to al-rlasan on the occasion of the latter's abdication: 
"I admit that because of thy blood relationship thou art more 
entitled to this high office than I. And if I were sure of thy 
greater ability to fulfil the duties involved I would unhesitatingly 
swear allegiance to thee. Now then, ask what thou wilt." En- 
closed was a blank for al-rjasan to fill in, already signed by 
Mu'awiyah. 3 

Despite many excellences Mu'awiyah was no favourite with 
several of the historians whose works have come down to us. 
They regarded him as the first mahk (king) in Islam; and to the 
true Arab the title was so abhorrent that it was applied almost 
exclusively to non-Arab potentates. The historians* attitude was 
a reflection of that of the puritans, who accused him of having 
secularized Islam and changed the kkilajat al-nubuah (the 
prophetic, i.e. theocratic, caliphate) to a midk* — a temporal 
sovereignty* Among his profane creations, they point out, was 

* FaUri, p. 145J *I$d f vol, 11, p. 304; Mas'Gdi, vol. v, p. 410. 

* YaVjQlri, vol ii, p. 283; *Xqd % vol.i, p. 10* * T&bari, vol. it, p. 5, 

* lbu-Khald&n, Muqcddnvtch, pp. 169 Jff. Ya'qubi, vol. U, p. 757. 



' 198 THE UMAYYAD AND ABBASID EMPIRES PART III 

the magfilrah, 1 a sort of bower inside the mosque reserved 
for the exclusive use of the caliph. The Friday noon sermon 
(khufbah) he read while seated." He was the first to institute a 
royal throne {sarzr al-mulk). z The Arabic annals, mostly com- 
posed in the 'Abbasid period or under Shi'ite influence, impugn 
his piety. The Syrian tradition, however, preserved in ibn- 
*Asakir, reveals him as a good Moslem. To his Umayyad 
successors he bequeathed a precedent of clemency, energy, 
astuteness and statesmanship which many tried to emulate,* 
though few succeeded. He was not only the first but also one 
of the best of Arab kings. 

1 Ya'qubi, vol. ii, p. 265; Dlnawari, p. 229; T»bari, vol, ii, p. 70, 1. 20. 

* Ibn-al-*Ibri, p. 1S8. 

s Ibn-Khaldfln, Muqaddamak, p. 217; al*Qalqashandi, $ubfa al*A?sha t vol. iv 
(Cairo, 1914), p. 6. 

* Mas'udt, vol. v, p. 78. Mu'awiyah's tomb in the cemetery of [al-]Bab al«$agblr 
at Damascus is Rtill visited. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
HOSTILE RELATIONS WITH THE BYZANTINES 



WHILE Mu'awiyah was still insecure in his new position and 
had his hands full with domestic affairs he found it expedient 
to purchase (6$8 or 659) a truce from the Emperor Constans II 
(641—68) at the price of a yearly tribute mentioned by Theo- 
phams 1 and referred to in passing by al-BaIadhuri. s But soon 
afterward the tribute was repudiated and hostilities against the 
Byzantine possessions both by land and sea were pressed more 
zealously and persistently than by any of Mu'awiyah's immediate 
successors. Twice did Mu'awiyah stretch out his mighty arm 
against the enemy capital itself. The main object of these raids 
into Bilad al-Rum (the territory of the Romans, Asia Minor) 
was of course the acquisition of booty, though the dim spectacle 
of Constantinople may have beckoned beyond in the distant 
background* Gradually the razzias became annual summer affairs 
and served the purpose of keeping the army physically fit and 
well trained. Yet the Arabs never succeeded in establishing a 
permanent foothold in Asia Minor. Their main energy was 
directed eastward and westward along the lines of least resist- 
ance. Otherwise the story of Arab-Byzantine relations in Asia 
Minor and even across the Hellespont might have been different. 
On the north the lofty ranges of the Taurus and Anti-Taurus 
seem to have been eternally fixed by nature as the boundary line, 
and the Arabic language appears to have frozen upon their 
southern slopes. Though brought later by Saljuq and by Otto- 
man Turks within the political orbit of Islam, no part of Asia 
Minor ever became Arabic speaking. Its basic population from 
earliest antiquity, beginning with Hittite days, has always been 
non-Semitic, and its climate has proved too rigorous for Arab 
civilization to strike deep root in its soil* 

- The long cordon of Moslem fortifications stretching from 
Malatyah (or Mala$iyah, Melitene) by the upper Euphrates to 

* p U7 * P, 159, L i~ Hnti, p. 245- 

199 



aoo THE UMAYY AD AND 'ABB&SID EMPIRES part til 



Tarsus near the Mediterranean coast and including Adhanah, 
al-MassTsah (Mopsucstia) and Mar'ash (Germanicia) had its 
units all strategically situated at the intersections of military 
roads or at the entrances of narrow mountain passes* These 
strongholds with their environs were called t awdsim. But 
t awdsim in the narrower sense meant the inner, the southern, 
line of fortresses within the military marches in contradistinction 
to the outer, northern, strip of land called thugkur? which shrank 
under the 'Abbasids, reaching only from Awl as on the Medi- 
terranean past Tarsus to Sumaysat(5amosata)on the Euphrates* 
The line guarding Mesopotamia to the north-east was styled 
al-thughur al~Jasartyak\ that guarding Syria, al-thughur al- 
Shdmtyah? Tarsus, which commanded the southern entrance 
of the celebrated pass across the Taurus known as the Cilician 
Gates and served as a military base for Arab attacks on the land 
of the Greeks, was no less than four hundred and fifty miles in 
a direct line from the Bosporus. The other pass by which the 
mountain range of the Taurus could be traversed lay to the north- 
east and was called Darb al-rjadath. It led from Mar*ash north 
to Abulustayn* and was less frequented. These Arab marches 
formed a "no man's land" and their strongholds changed hands 
again and again as the tide of war ebbed or flowed. Under the 
Umayyads and r Abbasids almost every foot was fought over 
repeatedly and bitterly; scarcely any land in Asia is more soaked 
in blood. 

As early as A.H. 34 (655), while Mu*awiyah was still governor 
of Syria under c Uthman, his fleet under Busr ibn-abi-Artah 1 
in co-operation with the Egyptian fleet under 'Abdullah ibn- 
abi-Sarh met the Greek navy led by the Emperor Constans II, 
son of Heraclius, at Phoenix (modern Finike) on the Lycian 
coast and scored the first great naval victory of Islam. This 
maritime engagement is referred to in Arabic chronicles as dhu 
(or dhat) -al-Sawari (that of the masts).* The Arabs transformed 

1 Cf. Guy Le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Cahphaie (Cambridge, 1905), 
p. 12S. 

1 IstaVhri, pp 67-S« 1 Baladhuri, pp. 183 seq. t 163 $eq< 

* YaqGt, vol. i, pp. 93 '4; cf. ke Strange, Eastern Cahphaie, p. 133, The Byzan- 
tine name was Ablastha, the Greek Arabissus, late Arabic al-Bustan. 

k Ibn-'Abd-al-Hakam, pp. lS9»oo;ibn*rjfajar, vol. i, 153. 

* Either after the name of the place itself, which is said to have been rich in cypress 
trees from which masts {saw art) could be fashioned, or because of the number of 
masts of the many ships engaged. 



the sea-fight into a hand-to-hand encounter by tying:each Aiab: 
ship to a Byzantine vessel. 1 The battle proved a second Yarrriilk; 
the Byzantine forces were completely destroyed. 2 Al- Tabari? de- 
scribes the water of the sea as saturated with blood. The Arabs, 
however, did not take advantage of the victory and push, on 'to 
Constantinople, probably because of the murder of r Uthman, 
which occurred about this time, and other concomitant civil 
disturbances. 

Three times was Constantinople attacked by Umayyad forces, 
the only occasions on which Syro- Arabs ever succeeded in reaching 
the high triple wall of the mighty capital* The first was in A.H. 49 
(669) under the leadership of the crown prince Yazld, whose 
warriors were the first ever to set eyes on Byzantium/ Yazld was 
sent by his father to support the land campaign of Fadalah ibn- 
*Ubayd aUAnsari, who had wintered (668-9) in Chalcedon (the 
Asiatic suburb of Byzantium), and as a response to those puritans 
who might look askance at Yazld's intended nomination as 
successor to the reigning caliph. The siege laid by Yazld and 
Fadalah in the spring of 669 was raised in the summer of the 
same year; Byzantium had a new and energetic emperor, Con- 
stantino IV (668-8$). 

In Jegend Yazld distinguished himself for bravery and forti- 
tude below the walls of Constantinople and earned the title 
fata al-Arab (the young champion or hero of the Arabs). 
The Aghatii* relates that alternate shouts of jubilation were 
heard from two separate tents as the Arabs or the Byzantines 
made headway in the battle. On learning that one tent was 
oteupied by the daughter of the king of the Rum and the other 
by the daughter of Jabalah ibn-al-Ayham, Yazld was spurred to 
extraordinary activity in order to seize the Ghassanid king*s 
daughter. But the real legendary hero of the campaign was the 
aged /abu-Ayyub al-Ansari, the standard-bearer of the Prophet, 

; who had harboured Muhammad in al-Madmah on the occasion 
of/i&^^ Yazid's contingent, was 

^esired More for the blbssing it might bring. Tradition asserts that 

h in ^ died of dysentery and was 

^^^^ 



*02 THE UMAYVAD AND WBBAS1D EMPIRES > part in 

became a shrine even for the Christian Greeks, who made pil- 
grimages to it in time of drought to pray for rain, 1 During the 
siege of Constantinople in 1453 by the Turks, the tomb was 
miraculously discovered by rays of light — an episode comparable 
to the discovery of the holy lance at Antioch by the early 
Crusaders — and a mosque was built on the site. Thus did the 
Madinese gentleman become a saint for three nations. 

The second attack on Constantinople was made in the so- 
called seven years' war 2 (54-60/674-80), which was waged 
mainly between the two fleets before Constantinople. The Arabs 
had secured a naval base in the Sea of Marmara on the penin- 
sula of Cyzicus, 3 mistaken for "the isle of Arwad"* in the Arab 
chronicles. This served as winter headquarters for the invading 
army, whence hostilities were resumed every spring. The Arab 
accounts of these campaigns are badly confused. The use of 
Greek fire is supposed to have saved the city. This highly com- 
bustible compound, which would burn even on water, was in- 
vented by a Syrian refugee from Damascus named Callinicus, 
The Greek accounts dilate on the disastrous effect of this fire on 
the enemy ships. Agapius of Manbij, 6 who follows Theophanes, 
emphasizes the habitual use of Greek fire by the Byzantines, 
who were the first to employ it in warfare. 

To this period also belongs the temporary occupation of 
Rhodes (Rudis, a 672) and Crete (Iqrltish, 674). Rhodes was again 
temporarily occupied in 717-18. On a previous occasion (654) 
it had been pillaged by the Arabs, and two years later the re- 
mains of its once famous colossus were sold for old metal to a 
dealer who is said to have employed nine hundred camels to 
carry them away. Later it was again conquered by Arab 
adventurers from Spain. 

On the death of Mu'awiyah (680) the Arab fleet withdrew 
from the Bosporus and Aegean waters, but attacks against 
"the territory of the Romans" were by no means relinquished. 

1 Ibn-Sa'd, vol. iii, pt. 2, p. 50; followed by Tabari, vol. iii, p. 2324. Both 
authorities fix A.H. 52 as the year of his death. 

1 See J. B. Bury, A History of the later Roman Empire (London, 1899), vol. ii, 
p. 310, n. 4* 

* Thcophanis, pp. 3S3*4- 

4 Tabari, vol. ii, p, 163; Baladhuri, p. 236 « Hitti, p. 376, 
% "Kttab aKUnwan," pt. 2, ed. A. Vasihev, in Patrohgia Orientalis (Paris, 
1012), vol. viii, p. 492. 
« Baladhuri, p. 236 - Hitti, p. 375. 



CH. XVin HOSTILE RELATIONS 'WITH THE BYZANTINES 303 

We read of almost yearly summer incursions (saifah) t though 
none assumed importance until the caliphate of Sulayman 
(715-17). Sulayman considered himself the person referred- to 
by the current Jtadxth that a caliph bearing a prophet's name was 
to conquer Constantinople. The second and last great siege of 
Constantinople was conducted (August 716-September 7x7 l ) 
under his reign by the stubborn Maslamah, the caliph's brother. 
This remarkable siege, the most threatening of the Arab attacks, 
is the one best known because of the many descriptions extant. 
The besiegers were reinforced both by sea and by land and 
received aid from Egyptian ships. They were provided with 
naphtha and special siege artillery. 2 The chief of Maslamah's 
guard, 'Abdullah al-Battal, particularly distinguished himself 
and won the title of champion of Islam. In the course of a later 
campaign (740 4 ) he was killed. In later tradition, as Sayyid 
Ghazi, ai»Battal became one of the Turkish national heroes. His 
grave, at which a Baktashi takiyah (monastery) with a mosque 
has risen, is still shown near Eskt-Shahr (medieval Dorylanim). 
His was another instance of "an illustrious Moslem for whom 
Christians have raised a statue in one of their churches *\ 4 

At last Emperor Leo the Isaurian (7 1 7-41)1 a soldier of humble 
Syrian origin from Mar' ash who knew Arabic as perfectly as 
Greek, 6 outwitted Maslamah and saved the capital. In connec- 
tion with this siege we have the first historical reference to the 
chain which barred the way of the attacking fleet into the Golden 
Horn. The famous Greek fire and the attacks of the Bulgars 
wrought havoc in the ranks of the invaders. Famine, pestilence 
and the rigours of an unusually severe winter also did their 
share. But Maslamah persisted. The death of the caliph in Syria 
did not deter him from pushing the siege. But the order of the 
new caliph, 'Umar ibn-*Abd-al-*Aziz (717-20), he had to heed. 
On the way back a tempest finished the work begun~by the 
Byzantines; out of the 1800 vessels, if we are to believe Theo- 
phanis* 6 only five were spared to reach port in Syria. The Arab 
armada was gone. The Syrian founder of the Isaurian dynasty 
was hailed the saviour of Europe from the Arab Moslems as 
Hcraclius, the Armenian founder of the Heraclean dynasty, had 
* Taban, vol. ii t p 1346: cf. Bury, vol. ti t p 401, n. z, 
*\ - * Kstabat-Uyun j*.cA//a2fijty,<d. deGoeje (Lcyden, 1871), pt. 3, p. 24. 
^ , T? 1 ^' Y ?J* v ' l?l6 * k * Mas'ildi, voL vin f p. 74. 

/ AV*«r. i ty4» tP L3,* *S * Pp. 3SS.399. 



204 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES partih 



before him been declared the deliverer of Christendom from 
heathen Persia. Only on one other occasion after this did an 
Arab host venture to make' its appearance within sight of 
Constantinople, and that when Harun, son of the Caliph al- 
Mahdi, encamped at Scutari (Chrysopolis) in 782 and the Empress 
Irene hastened to make peace by agreeing to pay tribute. The 
"city of Constantine" was not again to see a Moslem army 
beneath its walls until some seven centuries had passed and 
a new racial element, the Mongoloid Turks, had become the 
standard-bearers of the religion of Muhammad. 

Though ending in failure, this determined and energetic 
expedition by Maslamah, like the one preceding it, has left many 
a legendary souvenir, including tales of the building of a mosque 
by the caliph's brother in Constantinople, 1 of the erection by him 
of a fountain 8 and a mosque* at Abydos (Abdus) and of his 
entrance on horseback into St. Sophia. Writing in 985, al- 
Maqdisi 4 has this to say: "When Maslamah ibn- e Abd~al-Malik 
invaded the country of the Romans and penetrated into their 
territory he stipulated that the Byzantine dog should erect by 
his own palace in the Hippodrome (mayddn) a special building 
to be occupied by the [Moslem] notables and noblemen when 
taken captive". 11 

One factor in the check of the Arab policy of northward pene- 
tration was the activity of the Christian Mardaites (rebels) in the 
service of the Byzantine cause. A people of undetermined origin 
leading a semi-independent national life in the fastnesses of 
al-Lukkam (Amanus), these Jarajimah (less correctly Jurajimah), 
as they were also styled by the Arabs, furnished irregular troops 
and proved a thorn in the side of the Arab caliphate in Syria. 
On the Arab-Byzantine border they formed "a brass wall" 6 in 

1 Ibn-Taghn-Birdi, ohNuj&m al-Z&ktrah fi Muluk Mifr w-al-Q&ktrah, ed. 
W. Popper (Berkeley, 1909-12), vol. n, pt 2, p. 40, 11. 12-13, refers to a Fatfmid 
khutbak pronounced in this mosque. See lbn-al-Qalanisi, Dhayl TJrikh Dtmashq, 
ed. H. F. Amedroz (Beirut, 1908), p. 68, U. 27*8. The mosque survived in tradition 
in the Mamluk period. 

1 Itm-Khurdadhbih, cbMasalxk w*al-Mam&hk t ed. dc Goeje (Lcydcn, 1889), 
p. 104, 1. 1; Mas'udi, vol. ii, p. 3x7, calls the place Andalus* 

* Ibn al-Faqlh (al-Hamadhani), Kttab aUBuldan^ ed de Goeje (Leyden, 1885), 
p. 145, L 15; Yaqut, vol. i, p. 374i refers to the town under the name Andus, a mis- 
take for Abdus. 

* P. I47» 

* This building, al-Bala$, is referred to in Yaqut, vol* i, p. 709, as being in use 
at the time of Sa>f-al-Dawlah al-Hamdani (944-67). For etymology of balSf see 
below, p. 501, o. i 8 Theophanes, p. 364. 



ctuxmt HOSTILE RELATIONS WITH THE BYZANTINES 205 ' 

defence of Asia Minor. About 666 their bands penetrated into 
the heart of Lebanon and became the nucleus around^which 
many fugitives and malcontents, among whom were the 
Maronites, grouped themselves. Mu'awiyah agreed to the pay-, 
ment of a heavy annual tribute to the Byzantine emperor in - 
consideration of his withdrawal of support from this internal 
enemy, to whom he also agreed to pay a tribute. About 689 
Justinian II once more loosed the Mardaite highlanders ; 
on Syria, and *Abd-al-MaliIc, following "the precedent, of 
Mu'awiyah", 1 accepted the new conditions laid down by the 
emperor and agreed to pay a thousand dinars weekly to the 
Jarajimah. Finally the majority of the invaders evacuated Syria 
and settled in the inner provinces or on the coast of Asia Minor, 
where they became seafarers; others remained and constituted 
one of the elements that entered into the composition of the Maro- 
nite community that still flourishes in the northern Lebanon. 

* Baladhuri, p. 160, 1. 8 « Hitti, p. 247 , 1. 28. 



CHAPTER XIX 
THE ZENITH OF UMAYYAD POWER 



Marwan (6S3-5), the founder of the Marwanid branch of the 
Umayyad dynasty, was succeeded by his son r Abd-al-Malik 
(685-705), the "father of kings". Under 'Abd-al-Malik's rule 
and that of the four sons who succeeded him 1 the dynasty at 
Damascus reached the meridian of its power and glory. During 
the reigns of al-Walld and Hisham the Islamic empire reached 
its greatest expansion, stretching from the shores of the Atlantic 
Ocean and the Pyrenees to the Indus and the confines of China 
— an extent hardly rivalled in ancient times and surpassed in 
modern times only by the British and Russian empires. To this 
glorious period belong the subjugation of Transoxiana, the 
reconquest and pacification of North Africa and the acquisition 
of the largest European country ever held by Arabs — Spain. 

This era witnessed the nationalizing, or Arabicizing, of the 
administration, the introduction of the first purely Arab coinage, 
the development of the postal service and the erection of such 
monuments as the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem — the third 
holiest sanctuary in Islam. 

At his accession and during his first decade as cahph ' Abd-ai- 
Malik was hemmed in by many foes, and like his great pre- 
decessor, Mu*awiyah, whose counterpart he was, had to face 
enemies on various fronts. Yet when he died at the close of a 
second decade he passed on to his son al-Walld a consolidated 
and pacified empire that included not only the whole world of 
Islam but also new conquests of his own. Al-Walid proved a 
worthy successor of a capable father. 

The acquisition of Syria, al-'Iraq, Persia and Egypt under 
*Umar and 'Uthman having brought to an snd the first stage 
in the history of Moslem conquest, the second now begins under 
f Abd-al-Malik and al-Walld. 

* Al-Waifd (705-15), Sulayrnan (7l5- r 7>. Vazld II (720-24) and Hisham (724- 
743) *Umar (717-20), -who interrupted the filial succession, was a sod of *Abd«al« 
Malik's brother •Abd-al-'AzIz. 

206 



ch. xut THE ZENITH OF UMAYYAD POWER 207 

The brilliant military achievements of these two reigns centre 
on the names of amajjaj jbn-Yusuf al«Thaqafi in the east and 
Musa ibn~Nusayr in the west 

Al-IJajjaj, the young schoolmaster of al-Ta*if 1 in akftijaz 
who had laid down the pen and taken up the sword in support 
of the tottering Umayyad throne, was appointed governor of 
Arabia after having crushed (692) at the age of thirty-one the 
formidable pretender 'Abdullah ibn-al-Zubayr, who for nine 
years had held the title and power of caliph. In two years al- 
yajjaj pacified al-I-Iijaz and with it al-Yaman and even al- 
Yarnamah to the east, and was in December 694 summoned 
by 'Abd-al-Malik to perform a similar task in turbulent and 
dissatisfied al-'Iraq, whose people were "men of schism and 
hypocrisy".* Here the 'Alids and the Kharijites had continually 
made trouble for the Umayyads. The unexpected arrival of al- 
yajjaj at the famous mosque of al-Kufah, in disguise and accom- 
panied only by twelve cameleers, his brusque mounting of the 
pulpit and removal of the heavy turban which veiled his face, 
and his fiery oration, are among the most dramatic and popular 
episodes recounted in Arabic literature* The proclamation of 
his policy in unequivocal terms showed the 'Iraqis from the 
very start that his would be no kid-glove methods of dealing 
with a disloyal populace. Introducing his oration with a verse 
quoted from an ancient poet: 

*'I am he who scattercth darkness and climbeth lofty summits. 
As I lift the turban from my face ye will knovy me 1 ', 

the speaker continued, "O people of al-Kufah! Certain am I that 
I see heads ripe for cutting, and verily I am the man to do it, 

Methinks I see blood between the turbans and the beards " 5 

In fact no head proved too mighty for the relentless Umayyad 
viceroy to crush, no neck too high for him to reach. Even Anas 
ibn-Malik, the prolific traditionist and highly respected Com- 
panion of the Prophet, accused of sympathy \vitb the opposition, 
had to wear around his neck a collar bearing the viceroy's seal.* 
Human lives to the number of 120,000 5 are said to have been 

x Ibn-Rustah, p. aifi, ibn-Durayd, Ishtiqaq, p. 1S7. 

* Ya'qflb?* vol, ii, p. 326; Mas'udi, vol. v, p. 295, 

* Mubmad, JCamif, pp. 215- 16; cf. Ya'qubi, vol. ii, p. 326; Mas'fidi, vol. v, p, 294, 
4 Taban, vol* h, pp. S54-5. 

* Ibtv&y Ibri, p. 595; cf. Mas'udi, vol. r, p. 382; Tcnhth, p. 31S,* Tabari, vo L ii, 



208 



THE UMAYYAD AND ABBASI0 EMPIRES part in 



sacrificed by this governor of al-*Iraq, who is represented by the 
Arab historians, most of whom, it should be noted, were Shl'ites 
or Sunnites writing during the 'Abbasid regime, as a blood- 
thirsty tyrant, a veritable Nero. In addition to his blood- 
thirstiness, his gluttony and impiety are favourite themes with 
the historians. 1 

Justifiable or not, the drastic measures of al-rjiajjaj did not fail 
to restore order both among the rebellious Basrans and Kufans 
and throughout his vast viceroyalty, which included al-*Iraq 
and Persia. His lieutenants, led by al-Muhallab ibn-abi-Sufrah, 
practically exterminated (698 or 699) the Azraqis, 2 the most 
dangerous to Moslem unity of all the Kharijites, who under the 
leadership of Qatari ibn-al-Fuja'ah had acquired control of 
Karman, 3 Faris and other eastern provinces. On the opposite 
coast of the Persian Gulf, *Uman, which in the days of the 
Prophet and * Amr ibn-al-*As had been nominally brought under 
Islam, was now fully incorporated with the Umayyad realm. 
From his newly built capital on the west bank of the Tigris, 
Wasit (medial), so called from its half-way position between the 
two key cities of al-'Iraq — al-Basrah and al-Kufah 4 — the Syrian 
garrison of al-rlajjaj held all these territories in submission. His 
blind faith in his Syrian troops, like his untainted loyalty to the 
Umayyad cause, knew no bounds. 

With his domain pacified and well rounded out, the energetic 
viceroy now felt free to authorize his lieutenants to penetrate 
further east. One of them, c Abd-aI-Rahman ibn-Muhammad 
ibn-al-Ash*ath, a scion of the ancient royal line of Kindah and 
governor of Sijistan, who later led a frightful revolt against the 
authority of al-rlajjaj, was sent (699-700) against the Zunbli 
(less correctly Rutbll), 5 Turkish king of Kabul (in modern 
Afghanistan), who had refused to pay the customary tribute. 6 

1 Dinawari, Akhbar t pp. 320-22; Mas'udi, vol. vii, p. 218; Tabari, vol. ii # pp. 
1 122*3; ibn-'Asakir, vol. iv, p. 81. 

s So called from their first leader, N5rV ibn-al-Azrnq, who taught that all followers 
of other than Khanjite doctrine were without exception infidels and doomed to 
death with their wives and children; Shahrastani, pp. S9 90, 

* Or Kirman; Yaqut, \ol. iv, p. 263. 

* Yaqut, vol. iv, pp. 881-2; ci\ Tabari, vol. ii, pp. 1125-6. The town is but a 
mound of ruins. 

5 Wellhauscn, Reick t p. I44» n, 3. "ZunbTl" was a title. These kings may ha\ e been 
Persian. 

* Almost all the subjects of this and other kings in Central Asia were Iranian; the 
d> nasties and armies were mostly Turkish. 




PROVINCES OF Tl\ 




"°Mtrkl 



KARWAN 
[jIDGHILi 



rGdhAk 



Khwiqand ~* " Osh 

FARGHANAH 



>yiKATH 




\n0 



POJS AKP JAXARTES 



£ttv*ettf*tss so? £09 



CH.xix * THE ZENITH OF UMAYYAD POWER ' 209 

'Abd-al-Rahman^ campaign at the head of such a magnificently 
equipped army that it was styled "the army of peacocks*' 1 was 
entirely successful, but his exploits paled before those of Qutay- 
bah ibn-Muslim and Muhammad ibn-al-Qasirn al~Thaqafi, a 
son-in-law of al-ftajjaj. On the recommendation of al-#ajjaj t 
Qutaybah was in 704 appointed governor over Khurasan with his 
capital at Marw; according to al-Baladhuri 2 and al-Tabari s he 
had under his command in Khurasan, which he held as a sub- 
ordinate of al-I? ajjaj, 40,000 Arab troops from ai-Basrah, 7000 
from al-Kufah and 7000 clients. 

The Oxus,* which until now had formed^ the traditional, 
though not historical, boundary-line between "Iran and Turan", 
i.e. between the Persian-speaking and the Turkish-speaking 
peoples, was now under al-Waiid crossed and a permanent 
Moslem foothold established beyond it. In a series of brilliant 
campaigns Qutaybah recovered (70s) lower Tukharistan with 
its capital, Balkh (the Baktra of the Greeks), conquered (706-9) 
Bukhara in al-Sughd (Sogdiana) and the territory around it 
and reduced (710-12) Samarqand (also in al-Sughd) and Khwa* 
mm (modern Klitwa; to the west, in 713-1 5 he led an expedition 
into the Jaxartes provinces, particularly Farghanah, thus estab- 
lishing nominal Moslem rule in what were until recent times 
known as the Central Asian khanates. The Jaxartes rather than 
the Oxus formed the natural political and racial frontier between 
Iranians and Turks, and its crossing constituted the first direct 
challenge by Islam to the Mongoloid peoples and the Buddhist 
religion, Bukhara, Balkh and Samarqand had Buddhist mon- 
asteries. In Samarqand Qutaybah fell upon a number of idols 
whose devotees expected instant destruction to overtake him 
who dared outrage them. Undeterred, the Moslem general set 
fire to the images with his own hand, an act which resulted in a 
number of conversions to Islam.* But no large numbers accepted 
the new faith until the pious caliphate of *Umar II (717-20), 
when they were accorded the concession as Moslems of paying 
no tribute. Likewise the fire-temple of Bukhara with its sanc- 
tuary was demolished. Thus Bukhara with Samarqand and the 
province of Khwarizm were soon to become centres of Arabic 

* \ Mn'^T*"**** p- 314. * p. 423* * Vol, a, p P 1290-91. 

Modem Aran Darya, Ar. and Pers JayhGu. Jayhun for the Oxus and SayfcOn 
for its sister river, the Jaxartes (Sir Darya), arc adaptations of Oihon and Pison. of 
Gen, 2 ; 13, a, * BalSdhun, p. 42 r . 



2IO 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 



culture, nurseries of Islam in Central Asia, corresponding to 
Marw and Naysabur (Pers. Nishapur) in Khurasan, Qutaybah is 
said by al-Tabari 1 and others to have conquered (715) Kashghar 
in Chinese Turkestan and even to have reached China proper, 
but this tradition is evidently an anticipation of the later con- 
quest by Nasr ibn-Sayyar and his successors. 2 This Nasr was 
appointed by the Caliph Hisham (724-43) as the first governor 
of Transoxiana and had to reconquer, between 738 and 740, most 
of the territory overrun earlier by Qutaybah. The Arab agents 
'established by Qutaybah were merely military overseers and 
tax-collectors functioning side by side with the native rulers, who 
retained the civil administration. An attempt in 737 on al- 
Khazar, Huns beyond the Caucasus who were later Judaized, 
failed. In 751 the Arabs occupied al-Shash (Tashkand), thus 
definitely establishing the supremacy of Islam in Central Asia 
so firmly that it was not further disputed by Chinese. 3 

Thus was Transoxiana (?na wa? a al-7iahr, what lies beyond the 
river) at last incorporated with the rising empire of the caliphs* 
The world of Islam was thereby brought into vital contact with 
a new racial element and a new culture in itself old — the Mon- 
golian. We shall later deal at length with the significant part 
played by these fresh recruits to Islam. 
Conquests The other column in the eastern theatre of war was in the 
fa lndm meantime moving southward under Muhammad ibn-al-Qasim. 
Advancing in 710 at the head of a considerable army, of which 
6000 were Syrians, this son-in-law of al-$ ajjaj subdued Mukran, 
pushed on through what is now termed Baluchistan and in 
711-12 reduced Sind, the lower valley and delta of the Indus 
(Sindhu). Among the cities captured here were the seaport 
al-Daybul, which had a statue of the Buddha (Ar. Budd) "rising 
to a height of forty cubits* 1 , 4 and al-Nlrun (modern PJaydarabad). 
The conquest was extended (713) as far north as Multan in 

1 Vol. U, p 1275. 

* H, A. R. Gibb in Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies^ London Insttlu* 
Uon, vol. u (1921), pp 467-74. 

* The native rulers of Samarqand, Khwarism and Shash were perhaps related by 
marriage to the khan, or khaqan, of the Western Turks, though they appear in Arab 
histories with such Persian titles as khuddh, shah and dtkqan. The ruler of Sogdiana 
residing at Samarqand, also boTe the Persian title tkhskld, as did the king of Far 
ghSnah. See ibn-Khurdadhbih,pp 39 40; Ya'qubi, vol n,p 479. The Arabs applied 
the term "Turk" to any non-Persian people north-east of the Oxuk 

* Ya'qubi, vol. u, p 346. 



aia THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES, part in 



southern Panjab, the seat of a renowned shrine of the Buddha» 
where the invaders found a large crowd of pilgrims, whom they 
took captive . This led to a permanent occupation of Sind and 
southern Panjab, but the rest of India was unaffected until the 
close of the tenth century, when a fresh invasion began under 
Malimud of Ghaznah. Thus were the Indian border provinces 
for ever Islamized. As late as 1947 the new Moslem state of 
Pakistan was born. Contact between Semitic Islam and Indian 
Buddhism was permanently established, just as farther north 
contact was made with Turkish culture, Al-IJ ajjaj had promised ' 
the governorship of China to whichever of his two great generals, 
al-Thaqafi or Qutaybah, should first set foot on its soil, But 
neither of them ever crossed the frontier. China proper, exclusive 
of Turkestan, with its present-day fifteen or more million 
Moslems, was never brought within the orbit of Islam. Sind in" 
the south, like Kashghar and Tashkand in the north, became 
and remained the easternmost limit of the caliphate. 
Against While these major operations were going on in the east the 
tincf ytan * Byzantine front was not entirely neglected. In the early part of 
his reign, and while ibn-al-Zubayr was contesting the caliphate, 
'Abd-al-Malik followed "the precedent of Mu'awiyah" 1 in pay- 
ing tribute (A.H, 70/689-90) to the "tyrant of the Romans", 
whose agents, the Christian Jarajimah of al-Lukkam, had then 
penetrated the Lebanon. But when the internal political hori- 
zon cleared hostilities were resumed with the eternal enemy. In 
692 Justinian II was defeated near the Cilician Sebastopolis, and 
about 707 Tyana (al-Tuwanah), the most important fortress of 
Cappadocia, was taken. After capturing Sardis and Pergamum, 
Maslamah, as we learned before, undertook his memorable siege 
of Constantinople (August 716-September 717). The Moslem 
army which crossed the Dardanelles at Abydos was equipped 
with siege artillery, but the armada had to anchor near the walls 
of the city in the Sea of Marmora and in the Bosporus, as 
passage into the Golden Horn was barred by a chain. This was 
the second time the Byzantine capital had been besieged by an 
Arab army (above, p. 203). Scarcity of provisions and attacks 
by the Bulgars forced the Arabs to retire after a whole year of 
beleaguering. 2 Armenia, which had been conquered for Mu'awi- 

1 See above, p. 205. Baladhuri, p, 160. 

» Consult Theophanes, pp. 386-99; Tabari, vol ii, pp 1314-17; ibn-al-Athlr, 
vol. v, pp. 17-19. 



THE ZENITH OF UMAYYAD POWER 213 



yah by rjabib ibn-Maslamah al~Fihri as early as 644-5, had 
later taken advantage of the ibn-al-Zubayr debacle to revolt, 
but was now again reduced,* 

The conquests on the western front under Musa ibn-Nusayr 
and his lieutenants were no less brilliant and spectacular than 
those on the east by al-FIajjaj and his generals. Soon after the. 
subjugation of Egypt (640-43) raids were carried westward into 
Ifrlqiyah, 2 but a thorough conquest of that territory was not 
undertaken until the foundation of al-Qayrawan 3 in 670 by 
'Uqbah ibn-Nafi*, an agent of Mu*awiyah, who used it as a base 
for operations against the Berber tribes. f Uqbah, who is said 
by tradition to have advanced until the waves of the Atlantic 
stopped his horse* suffered a martyr's death (683) near Biskra 
in modern Algeria, where his tomb has become a national 
shrine. Even then the Arab hold on Ifriqiyah was so precarious 
that soon after 'Uqbah's death his successor had to evacuate the 
territory. Not until the governorship of rlassan ibn-al-Nu*man 
al-Ghassanl (ca. 693-700) was an end put to Byzantine authority 
and Berber resistance. With the co-operation of a Moslem fleet, 
rlassan drove the Byzantines from Carthage (698) and other 
coast towns. He was then free to take the field against the 
Berbers, now led by a prophetess (An kdkinafi) 1 who exercised 
a mysterious influence over her followers. The heroine was at 
last defeated by treachery and killed near a well that still bears 
her name, Blr aKKahinah. 

rjassan, the r,econqueror and pacifier of Ifrlqiyah, was followed 
by the famous Musa ibn-Nusayr, under whom the government 
of the region, administered from al-Qayrawan, was made inde- 
pendent of Egypt and held directly from the caliph in Damascus, 
Musa, whose father (together with the grandfather of ibn- 
Ishaq, the Prophet's biographer) was one of the Christian captives 
who fell into the hands of Khalid ibn-al-Walld while they were 
studying the Gospels in the church at *Ayn al-Tamr, 5 extended 

1 Baladhuri, pp, 205 «s Hrtti, pp. 322 stg. 

* More exact than "Ifriqiyah"; name borrowed by Arabs from Romans and given 
to the eastern >art of Barbary, the word Maghrib being reserved for the western part 
Today the term IfrKjiyah includes the whole continent of Africa, 

' £zqxr Pers. k&rttar % whence Eng. caravan, 

4 BatXdhuri, p, 229; tbn-Khaldun, vol. vtt, pp. 8-0; ibn^Idhari, at-Bayan al- 
MvgMfi Jkhbdr a?-M<xghn6 x ed. R. Dozy (Leyden, i$48),voL i, pp. 20-24. That 
ahe belonged to a Jewish tribe is doubtful. 

* Others claim hewas a Lnkhmid or Yamanite. Cf. Baladhuri, p. 230; ion-* IdhSri, 
vol i, p. 74. 



214 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PART in 



the boundaries of his province as far as Tangier. This brought 
Islam definitely and permanently into contact with another 
racial group, the Berbers. The latter belonged to the Hamitic 
branch of the white family, and in prehistoric times prob- 
ably formed one stock with the Semites. 1 At the time of the 
Moslem conquest most of the Berbers on the strip of fertile 
land bordering on the sea had become Christians. In this 
region Tertullian, St. Cyprian and above all St. Augustine 
became princes among early Christian fathers. Otherwise the 
population was not deeply touched by Roman civilization, for 
the Romans and Byzantines lived mainly in towns on the coast 
and represented a culture that was quite alien to the mentality 
of these nomadic and semi-nomadic North Africans. On the other 
hand Islam had a special attraction for people in such a cultural 
stage as that of the Berbers; moreover, the Semitic Arabs, akin 
to the early Phoenicians who had colonized parts of northern 
Africa and developed in Carthage a formidable rival to Rome, 
readily established intimate relations with their Hamitic cousins. 
Punic survived in country places until shortly before the Moslem 
conquest. This explains the seemingly inexplicable miracle of 
Islam in Arabicizing the language and Islamizing the religion of 
these semi-barbarous hordes and using them as fresh relays in the 
race toward further conquests. Thus did the blood of the con- 
querors iind fresh ethnic strains for its enrichment, the Arabic 
tongue a vast field for conquest and rising Islam a new foothold 
in its climb toward world supremacy. 

After the subjugation of the North African coast as far as the 
Atlantic by Musa, 2 the way was open for the conquest of the 
neighbouring south-western part of Europe. In 711 Tariq, a 
Berber freedman and lieutenant of Musa, took the momentous 
step of crossing into Spain on a marauding expedition. The raid 
developed into a conquest of the Iberian Peninsula (al-Andalus) 
(below, pp. 493 seq.). This constituted the last and most sensational 
of the major campaigns of the Arabs and resulted in the addition 
to the Moslem world of the largest European territory ever held 
by them. After the capture of several towns in southern Gaul the 
advance of the Arab-Berber army was checked in 732 between 

1 Eng. "Berber", generally considered as coming ultimately from Ar. Barbar, 
may have come, together with the Arabic form, from L, barban (originally Gr.), bar- 
barians, applied in current usage by the Latinized cities of Roman Africa to all natives 
who did not adopt the Latin tongue. 1 Ibn-'Abd-aM^akam, pp. 203*5 



fcH.xiX " THE ZENITH OF UMAYYAD POWER ' / * 215 

Tours and Poitiers by Charles MarteL This point marks the 
north-western limit of Arab penetration. 

The year 732 marked the first centennial of the Prophet's 
death. From this vantage point in history and geography let us 
pause to view the general situation. One hundred years after the 
death of the founder of Islam his foHowers were the masters of 
an empire greater than that of Rome at its zenith, an empire 
extending from the Bay of Biscay to the Indus and the confines 
of China and from the Aral Sea to the lower cataracts of the 
Nile, and the name of the prophet-son of Arabia, joined with the 
name of almighty Allah, was being called five times a day from 
thousands of minarets scattered over south-western Europe, 
northern Africa and western and central Asia. Damascus, which 
young Muhammad according to tradition hesitated to enter 
because he wished to enter paradise only once, had become the 
capital of this huge empire. 1 In the heart of the city, set like a 
pearl in the emerald girdle of its gardens, stood the glittering 
palace of the Umayyads, commanding a view of flourishing plain 
which extended south-westward to Mount Hermon 2 with its 
turban of perpetual snow. Al-Khadra* 3 (the green one) was its 
name. Its builder was none other than Mu'awiyah, founder of 
the dynasty, and it stood beside the Umayyad Mosque which 
al-Walid had newly adorned and made into that jewel of architect- 
ure which still attracts lovers of beauty. In the audience chamber 
a square seat covered with richly embroidered cushions formed 
thfc caliphal throne, on which during formal audiences the caliph, 
in gorgeous flowing robes, sat cross-legged. On the right stood 
his paternal relatives in a row according to seniority, on the 
left his maternal relatives/ Courtiers, poets and petitioners stood 
behind. The more formal audiences were held in the glorious 
Umayyad Mosque, even today one of the most magnificent 
places of worship in the world. In some such setting must al- 
Walfd (others say Sulayman, who had just ascended the throne) 
have received Musa ibn-Nusayr and T ariq, the conquerors of 
Spain, with their vast train of prisoners 6 including members of 

1 For other traditions extolling Damascus see ibn-'Asikir, vol. i t pp. 46 seq* 

* Ai-Jebat xtUShaykk t the greyheaded mountain. 

„ * Ibn-Jubayr, p. 269, 1. 3: "aJ-Qubbah aMCha<Jra ,f , the green dome, in AgJkSni 
vol. vi, p. 150, * Aghcni, vol. iv, p. 80. 

* 30*000 according to al-Maqqari, Afa/£ <jA7& min Ghupt cLAndatus at*/taf& 9 
ed, Dosy, Wright tt 4. (Leydcn, 1855), vol. i, p, 144; cf . ibn-al-Athii, vol. iv, p. 448. 



CH.XIX 



THE ZENITH OF UMAYYAD POWER 



217 



the fair-haired Gothic royalty and undreamt-of treasures. If any 
single episode can exemplify the zenith of Umayyad glory it 
is this. 

The Arabicization of the state under *Abd-al~Malik and al- Nai 
Walid consisted in changing the language of the public registers j£* 
(diwan) from Greek to Arabic in Damascus and from Pahlawi 
to Arabic in al-'Iraq and the eastern provinces and in the creation 
of an Arabic coinage. With the change of language a change in 
personnel naturally took place. The early conquerors, fresh from 
the desert and ignorant of book-keeping and finance, had to 
retain in the exchequer the Greek-writing officials in Syria 
and the Persian-writing officials in al-*Iraq and Persia who were 
familiar with the work* But now the situation had changed. 
Undoubtedly certain non-Arab officials who by this time had 
mastered the Arabic language were retained, as was the old 
system itself. The transition must have been slow, beginning 
under 'Abd-at-Malik and continuing during the reign of his 
successor. This is probably the reason why some authorities 
ascribe the change to the father and others to the son. x The step 
was part of a well-planned policy and not due to any such trivial 
cause as that put forth by al-Baladhuri — the urination of a 
Greek clerk in an inkwell. 8 In al-*Iraq and its eastern depend- 
encies it was evidently the famous al-^ajjaj who initiated the 
change. 

In pre-Islamic days Roman and Persian money was current in 
al-Bijaz, together with a few IJimyarite silver coins bearing the 
Attic owl. 'Urnar, Mu'awiyah and the other early caliphs con- 
tented themselves with this foreign coinage already in circulation 3 
and perhaps in some cases stamped on it certain koranic super* 
scripuons. A number of gold and silver pieces were struck before 
the time of *Abd-aI-Malik, but those were imitations of Byzan- 
tine and Persian types* *Abd-al-Malik struck at Damascus, in 
695, the first gold dinars and silver dirhams which were purely 
Arabic. 4 His viceroy in al-*Iraq, ai-IJajjaj, minted silver in al- 
Kufah in the following year, 5 

Besides instituting a purely Islamic coinage and Arabicizing 
the administration of the empire, r Abd-al-Malik developed a 

1 Balttdhaii, pp. 193, 300-301; Mawardi, pp. 349'S<>, *Iqd t vol ii, p 322. 

5 193 ^Hitta, p. 30s « Baladhtiri, pp. 465 6. 

* Ta»an, *ol* n, i>* 939* Btladhun,? 240 

* C£ VaqOt, BsldSn, vol, iv* p. 8S& 



2i8 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PART in 



Fiscal 
and 
other 
reforms 




From *Kat»ilcf dcr cntniahitkm Afunren, 
JCZntfhckt Mustm su BtrhrC {IValttr 
tit Gruyttr 6* Cc , Berlin) 

AN IMITATION IN GOLD OF A 
BYZANTINE COIN WITH ARABIC 
INSCRIPTION 

Retaining on the obverse the figures of 
Herachus. Herachus Constannne, and 
Heraclconas, and on the reverse a 
modified B>zantine cross No ramt 
name is given. 



regular postal service, 1 using relays of horses for the conveyance 
of travellers and dispatches between Damascus and the pro- 
vincial capitals. The service was designed primarily to meet the 
needs of government officials and their correspondence, and the 
postmasters were charged 
among other duties with the 
task of keeping the caliph 
posted on all important hap- 
penings in their respective 
territories. 

In connection with the 
monetary changes it may be 
well to note the fiscal and 
administrative reforms that 
took place at this time. In 
principle no Moslem, what- 
ever his nationality might be, 
was under obligation to pay 
any tax other than the 2akah 
or poor rate, though in practice the privilege was often limited 
to Arabian Moslems. Taking advantage of this theory many 

new converts to Islam, par- 
ticularly from al-*lraq and 
Khurasan, now began to 
leave the villages where 
they had worked as agri- 
culturists and flock to the 
cities, hoping thereby to 
join the army as mawdti 
(clients). 2 This constituted 
a double loss to the treasury, 
for at conversion their taxes 
were greatly reduced and 
upon becoming soldiers they 
were entitled to a special subsidy. Al-yajjaj took the neces- 
sary measures to restore such men to their farms* and reim- 
posed on them the high tribute they had paid before conversion, 

1 Al *Uman, al-Tarif bi al-Mttffa!ah al-Skarlf (Cairo, 1312J, p 185. 

1 This * ord, used later for freedmen, had at this time no connotation of inferiority. 

* Mubarrad, p. 286 




Fr« m 'JCMUhr dtr ertiHaluthen Mttnsen in Bnhnrr 
Muuri {U alfrr de Grityter Cv , Berlin) 

COPPER COIN Or 'ABD-AL-MAUK 
Bearing on the obverse his image and hi* 
name and on the reverse on four 
steps together with the skakadah and 
the mint nitnc, Ba'labakk. An imitation 
of a Byzantine cola 



CH.xix^ *" f THE ZENITH "OF UMAYYAD POWER - 2t*9 

Which included the equivalent of kharaj (land tax) and juyah 
(poll tax). He even made Arabs who acquired property in a 
kharaj "territory pay the usual land tax* 

The Caliph *Umar II (717-20) tried to remedy the resultant 
dissatisfaction amongthcNeo-Moslems byre-establishing the old 
principle of his earlier namesake that a Moslem, whether Arab 
or mawla, need pay no tribute whatsoever, but he insisted that 
the kharaj land was the joint property of the Moslem com- 
munity. 1 He thus prohibited after the year A.H. 100 (718-19) 
the sale of kharaj lands to Arabs and Moslems and declared that 
if the owner of such land be converted his property should revert 
to the village community and he might continue to use it as a 
leaseholder. 

Though inspired by the best of intentions, 'Umar's policy was 
not successful. It diminished the revenues of the state and in- 
creased the number of clients in the cities. 3 Many Berbers and 
Persians embraced Islam to enjoy the pecuniary privileges thus 
accorded them. Later practice reverted to the system of al- 
IJajjaj, with minor modifications. It was not until then that the 
distinction was drawn between jizyah, a burden which "falls 
off with the acceptance of Islam", and kharaj, which does not. 
Since the jizyah was a comparatively small item, the treasury 
continued to receive its main income from the kharaj and did 
not in the long run appreciably suffer. 

Other cultural and agricultural reforms are attributed to the 
versatility and energy of al-yajjaj. He dug a number of new 
canals and restored the large one between the Tigris and the 
Euphrates. He drained and tilled submerged or uncultivated 
lands. He contributed to the development of diacritical marks in 
Arabic orthography to distinguish such similarly written letters 
as ba% tS and tha, dal and dhal x and to the adaptation from 
Syriac of vowel signs, dammah (u) y fatkah (a) and kasrak (i), 
inserted above and below the consonants. 3 In this orthographic 
reform he was prompted by the desire to prevent errors in the 

* lba-$a*d f vol v, pp. 262, 277; ibn-'Asakir, vol. iv, p. 80; Ya'qftbi, vol. ii, 
p. 362; ibn-aUJawzi, Strat 'Umar ibnSAbd-tVAxiz (Cairo, 1331), pp. 88-9. 

* Ibn-vaJ-JaTyzi, pp 90-100. 

* XbtvKhallikan, W&JayM nM'y&n (Cairo, 1209), vol. i^pp, 220 2i=de SUne, 
Ihn KhttllikStfs Biographical Dictionary (Paris, 1843), vol, i, pp. 359-60, cf. 
Suyuft jfytffc, vol. ii, p. 171; Thsodor Noldeke, Chtehichte des Qorans (Gottingcn, 
*B6o), pp* 3<>5*9; cf. G. C. Miles, Journal, //car East Studies, vol. viii (1948), 
pp. *3*-43« * " 



220 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part 



recitation of the sacred text, of which he evidently prepared a 
critical revision. He who started life as a schoolmaster never lost 
interest in literature and oratory. His patronage of poetry and 
science was notable. The Bedouin satirist Janr, who with his 
rivals al-Farazdaq and al-Akhtal formed the poetical trium- 
virate of the Umayyad period, was his panegyrist as well as poet 
laureate of the Caliph c Umar. His physician was a Christian 
named Tayadhuq. 1 The "slave of Thaqif, as he was dubbed by 
his 'Iraqi enemies, died in Wasit, June 714, at the age of fifty- 
three, leaving a name that is undoubtedly one of the greatest in 
the annals of Islam, 
Architect- Among the outstanding achievements of the period were the 
uralmomi- manv architectural monuments, some of which have survived 
to the present day. 

In Palestine the Caliph Sulayman built on the ruins of a more 
ancient town the city of al-Ramlah, 2 which he made his resi- 
dence. Traces of his palace could be seen there until the time of 
the first World War, and the minaret of his White Mosque (which 
after the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus and the Dome of the 
Rock in Jerusalem became the third leading sanctuary of Syria) 
as rebuilt by the Mamluks in the early part of the fourteenth 
century is still standing. With Sulayman the imperial capital 
ceased to be the home of the caliphs Hisham resided in al» 
Rusafah, a Roman settlement near al-Raqqah. 3 In 691 *Abd-al- 
Malik erected in Jerusalem the magnificent Dome of the Rock 
(Qubbat al-Sakhrah), wrongly styled by Europeans "the Mosque 
of ^mar", in order to divert thither the pilgrimage from Makkah 
which was held by his rival lbn-al-Zubayr. That 'Abd-al-Malik 
was the builder is attested by the Kufic inscription still preserved 
round the dome. Over a century later the structure underwent 
restoration by the 'Abbasid Caliph ai-Ma*mun (813-33), 
unscrupulously substituted his own name for that of *Abd*al- 
Malik but inadvertently forgot to change the date. 4 The 'Abbasid 
architect set close together the letters of the new name, crowding 
them into the narrow space originally occupied by the name of 

1 Or TryadhQq, Gr. Theodocus* Ibn al-*Ibri f p. J94. 

* Baladhun, p. 143 = Hitti, p. 220, 

* Identified by others with al-Hayr al-Sharqi, east of Palmyra. 

4 The inscription in its present form runs as follows: Hath built this dome 
THE SERVANT OF GOD 'ABDULLAH AX- 1 M AM AL-MA'mOk CO]MMANPBR OF 
THE BELIEVERS IN THE YEAR TWO ATiD SEVENTY.— MAY GOD ACCEPT OF HIM AND 
FAVOUR HIM I AMEK» 



CU. Xix ' THE 2ENITH-0K UMAYYAD POWER ' . / 221 

'Abo-al-Malik- 1 Close by the Dome and in the southern section 
afthc sacred area c Abd-al-Malik erected another mosque, pos- 
sibly on tke site of an earlier church. Local usage designates this 
mosque al-Masjid al-Aqsa (the farther mosque 2 ), but the term 
Is also used -in a more general sense to include the whole collec- 
tion of sacred buildings on that area* Al-rjaram al-Sharlf (the 
moble sanctuary) is another name for this group, only less sacred 
than the two PJarams of Makkah and al-Maduiah. 

The greatest Umayyad builder, however, was al-Walid, son 
of 'Abd-al-Malik, whose rule was one of comparative peace and 
opulence. So great was this caliph's penchant for building that 
during his reign whenever people in Damascus met together 
fine buildings formed the chief topic of conversation, as cookery 
and the fair sex did under Sulayman, and religion and the Koran 
under 'Urnar ibn-*Abd-al-*Aziz. s This al-Walrd, who lived only 
forty years, enlarged and beautified the great mosque of Mak- 
kah/ rebuilt that of al-Madfnah, erected in Syria a number of 
schools and places of worship and endowed institutions for the 
lepers, the lame and the blind. 5 He was perhaps the first ruler 
in medieval times to build hospitals for persons with chronic 
diseases, and the many lazar houses which later grew up in 
the West followed the Moslem precedent 0 From a church in 
Ba'labakk al-Walld removed a dome of gilded brass which he 
set over the dome of his father's mosque in Jerusalem, But his 
greatest accomplishment was the conversion in Damascus of the 
site of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, which he seized 
from his Christian subjects, into one of the subllrnest places of 
worship in the world. This Umayyad Mosque is still considered 
the fourth holiest sanctuary of Islam, after the three IJarams of 
Makkah, al-Madmah and Jerusalem. Before al-Walid the Mos- 
lems shared a part of the sacred enclosure with its Christian 
owners* To justify the seizure later tradition claimed that the 
eastern half of the city was captured by force and the western 
by capitulation and that the two Moslem contingents, each 

1 P« yogtf*, & knpU dzJSruiahm (Paris, 1864), pp. 85-6, was the first to dis- 
cover the falsification, 

* From a reference to the site in Koran 17 : 1. AI-Buraq made a stop there. 
Fcknti, p. 173, ^ate al-Wattd the builder of al-Aqsa- 

* FokAri, p. 173; Tafeari, vol. u, pp. 1272-3. 
, * Bal&dhuri, p. 47 = Hitti, p. 76. 

» Jaoari, voL ii, p. 1271; ibn-al-Faqlh, pp. 106-7, 
- » Consvdt ffitti, art "Chivalry: Arabic", Encyclop^U of the Secial Scitncet. 



222 THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES Wirtiii 

without knowing what the other had done, met in the metro- 
politan cathedral. The cathedral stood on the site of an earlier 
Roman temple almost in the centre of the town. Over the lintel 
of the southern portal of the enclosure, long since walled up, an 
ancient inscription in Greek can still be read; "Thy kingdom, 

0 Christ, is an everlasting kingdom, and Thy dominion endureth 
throughout all generations". 1 

Of the remaining caliphs in this period of Umayyad glory 
there is little to be said save of 'Umar II (717-20) and 
Hisham. 'Umar was entirely under the influence of the theo- 
logians and has enjoyed through the ages a reputation for piety 
and asceticism that stands in glaring contrast with the alleged 
impiety of the Umayyad regime. He was, in fact, the Umayyad 
saint. To the later tradition, which expected a ma&iith (one sent) 
to appear every hundred years to renovate Islam, he became the 
one sent "at the head" of the second century (A.H, 100), just as 
al-Shafi'i stood "at the head" of the third. His biographer 2 tells 
us that 'Umar wore clothes with so many patches and mingled 
with his subjects on such free terms that when a stranger came 
to petition him he would find it difficult to recognize the caliph. 
When one of his agents wrote that his fiscal reforms in favour 
of new converts would deplete the treasury f Umar replied, 
"Glad would I be, by Allah, to see everybody become Moslem, 
so that thou and I would have to till the soil with our own hands 
to earn a living." 8 'Umar discontinued the practice established 
in the time of Mu'awiyah of cursing *Aii from the pulpit at the 
Friday prayers.* The piety of 'Umar, who died at the age of 
thirty-nine, saved his grave from the desecration which was visited 
by the 'Abb as ids upon the other tombs of the preceding dynasty. 
With Hisham (724-43), the fourth son of * Abd-al-Malik, the 
Umayyad golden age came to a close. After Mu'awiyah and 
c Abd-al-Malik, Hisham was rightly considered by Arab author- 
ities the third and last statesman of the house of Umayyah.* 
When his young son Mu'awiyah, ancestor of the Spanish 
Umayyads, fell from his horse while hunting and was killed, the 

1 Cf. Ps. 145 : 13; Hcb. 1:8. * Ibn-al-Jawn, pp. I73*4» *45 s*q* 

* Ibid. pp. 99 loo. Kxtab al-Uyun w*aU$adaiq Ji Akkbar a!-f{aga*tq, cd. de 
Goeje (Leydcn, 1865), p. 4. 

* Fa&Ari,p. 176. 

* Mas'udi, vol. v f p. 479; cf. Ya'qubi, vol. u, p. 393; ibn-Qutaybah, Afa*drif, 
p. 185; abu-al-Kida*. vol. i, p. 216; Kit&b aI-X/yun t p. 69. 



CH.X1X ' ' THE ZENIT& OF UMAYYAD 'POWER ^ * ^ 

father's comment was^ "I brought Jiim up for the caliphate arid 
he pursues a fox!" 1 His governor of ai-'Iraq, Khalid ibn- 
'Abdullah al-Qasri, under whom the region prospered especially 
through the engineering and drainage works of ftassan al- 
Nabati, appropriated for himself a surplus of 13,000,000 dir- 
hams after squandering revenue to nearly three times that sum. 8 
Subsequently Khalid met the same fate that befell others like 
him — he was apprehended in 738, jailed, tortured and required 
to give an account of the state moneys and make repayments. 
His case is only one illustration of that maladministration and 
corruption in the body politic which helped to undermine the 
Umayyad throne and render its occupants an easy prey for their 
'Abbasid rivals. 

1 T»biri, vol.ti, pp. 1738-9. 
* Tabari, v< >h p 1642; Ya'qubi, vol. li, p. 387. 



By tcurttxy tfE. T. Xtntll 
Frvm " iihmttnuttc AVfcj &ud Mowfraphx. 1 So* 67 (JS r />w Ytrk< 2939)* 

A BYZANTINE WEIGHT VALIDATED 
BY AVWALlD (t 7I5> 

Bearing on the obverse a cross with the inscription TB, i.e. two ounces, and on 
the mersc a Kufic inscription stating that the caliph has recognized this as equiva- 
lent to two tvugfyats. Probably the earliest inscribed Moslem weight thus far found. 



CHAPTER XX 



POLITICAL ADMINISTRATION AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 
UNDER THE TJMAYYADS 



THE administrative divisions of the empire in Umayyad and 
even \Abbasid times corresponded in general to the provinces 
of the preceding Byzantine and Persian empires. They com- 
prised: (i) Syria-Palestine; (2) al-Kufah, including al-*Iraq; (3) 
al-Basrah with Persia, Sijistan, Khurasan, al-Bahrayn, *Uman 
and probably Najd and al-Yamamah; (4) Armenia; (5) al-rjijaz; 
(6) Karman and the frontier districts of India; (7) Egypt; 
(8) Ifnqiyah; (9) al-Yaman and the rest of South Arabia. 1 Gradu- 
ally combinations were made and five viceroyalties resulted. 
Mu'awiyah combined al-Basrah and al-Kufah into one vice- 
royalty, 2 that of al- f Iraq, which included most of Persia and % 
eastern Arabia and had al-Kufah for its capital. Later the 
viceroy of al-*Iraq was to have a deputy governor for Khurasan 1 
and Transoxiana, usually residing at Marw, and another for 
Sind and Panjab. Likewise al-yijaz, al-Yaman and Central 
Arabia were combined into another viceroyalty. Al-Jazlrah (the 
northern part of the land between the Tigris and Euphrates) 
with Armenia, Adharbayjan and parts of eastern Asia Minor 
formed the third. Lower and Upper Egypt constituted the fourth. 
Ifnqiyah, which embraced northern Africa west of Egypt, 
Spain, Sicily and other adjacent islands formed the fifth vice- 
royalty with al-Qayrawan as its seat of government. 

The threefold governmental function of political administra- 
tion, tax collection and religious leadership was now directed as 
a rule by three different officials. The viceroy [amtr y sdfyib) would 
appoint his own t dmil (agent, prefect) over any particular dis- 
trict and simply forward the name to the caliph. Under Hisham 
(724-43) we find the newly appointed governor of Armenia and 

1 CL ibn-Khaldun, vol. iii, pp. 4, io, 15, 17, 134-41; Alfred von Krcmcr, Cutter- 
gesckuhte des Orients unier den Ch alt/en , vol. i (Vienna, 1875), pp. 162-3. 
* Ya'qubi, vol ii, p. 272. 

224 



CH.XX SOCIAL CONDITIONS UWli&K UMAHAW 

Adharbayjan remaining in Damascus and sending a naib (ac- 
credited deputy) in his stead. The viceroy had full charge of 
political and military administration in his province, but quite 
often the revenues were under a special officer, sahib al-khardj } 
responsible directly to the caliph. Mu'awiyah was apparently the 
first to appoint such an officer, whom he sent to al-Kufah. 1 
Previously the government of a province in the Moslem empire 
had meant chiefly its financial administration. 

The revenue of the state was derived from the same sources as 
under the orthodox caliphate, chief among which was tribute 
from subject peoples. In the provinces all expenses of local 
administration, state annuities, soldiers' stipends and miscellane- 
ous services were met from the local income, and only the balance 
went to the caliphal treasury. Mu'awiyah's measure of deducting 
the zakah, about 2I per cent, from the fixed annuities of the 
Moslems, 2 bears a close resemblance to the income tax of a 
modern state* 

The judiciary had to do with Moslems only, all non-Moslems 
being allowed autonomy under their own religious heads. This 
explains why there were judges only in large cities. The Prophet 
and the early caliphs administered justice in person, as did their 
generals and prefects in the provinces, for the various functions 
of government were as yet undifferentiated. The first purely 
judicial officials in the provinces received their appointment from 
the governors. Under the 'Abbasids appointment by the caliphs 
became more common. Tradition, however, credits 'Umar with 
having appointed a judge (q ddi) over Egypt as early as A.H< 23 
(643).* After 661 we find in that country a regular series of judges 
succeeding one another. They were always recruited from the 
faqih class, whose members were scholars learned in the Koran 
and Moslem tradition. Besides deciding cases they administered 
pious foundations (wagf) and the estates of orphans and im- 
beciles. 

Discovering that some of his signed correspondence was being 
forged, Mu'awiyah created a bureau of registry,* a kind of state 
chancery, whose duty it was to make and preserve one copy of 

* Ibn-Khaldun, vo]. ui, p. 4, L 24. * Ya'oubi, vol. ii, p. 276, 1 10. 
AMCtmii, ICUSh at4Vu!ah t ed. Guest (Beirut, 100S}, pp. 300-301. See also 

ibn-Qutaybah/£/r/3* ahAkhbnr, vol t, p. 61. 

* mwan cMdtim, "bureau of the signet". Tabari, vol. u, pp. 205-6; Fakhri t 



326 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 

each official document before sealing and dispatching the 
original. By the time of *Abd-ai-Malik the Umayyads had 
developed a state archive in Damascus. 1 
Military The Umayyad army was modelled in its general organization 
Sro" 1 "" ***** tnat of the B y zantines - The division was into five corps: 
centre, two wings, vanguard and rearguard. The formation as 
of old was in lines. This general plan continued until the time 
of the last caliph, Marwan II (744-50), who abandoned the old 
division and introduced the small compact body of troops called 
kurdus (cohort). 2 In outfit and armour the Arab warrior was hard 
to distinguish from the Greek. The weapons were essentially the 
same. The cavalry used plain and rounded saddles not unlike 
those of the Byzantines and precisely like the ones still in fashion 
in the Near East. The heavy artillery was represented by the 
ballista (farrddafi), the mangonel (manjaniq) and the battering- 
ram (dabbabaht kabsk). Such heavy engines and siege machines 
together with the baggage were carried on camels behind the 
army. 

The forces kept at Damascus were chiefly Syrians and Syrian- 
ized Arabians, Al-Basrah and al-Kufah were the main recruiting 
grounds for the army of all the eastern provinces. Under the 
Sufyanids the standing army numbered 60,000, entailing a 
yearly expenditure of 60,000,000 dirhams, including family 
stipends. 3 Yazjd HI (744) reduced all annuities by 10 per cent, 
and thereby won the sobriquet ndqts (diminisher, also defi- 
cient). 4 Under the last Umayyad the army is said to have reached 
i2o,ooo, 6 a figure which is probably a mistake for 12,000. 

The arab navy was likewise an imitation of the Byzantine 
model. The fighting unit was a galley with a minimum of twenty- 
five seats on each of the two lower decks. Each seat held two men, 
and the hundred or more rowers in each ship were armed. But 
those who specialized in fighting took up their positions on the 
upper deck. 

Royal The evenings of the caliphs were set apart for entertainment 
Ilfe and social intercourse. Mu'awiyah was particularly fond of 

1 Mas'Sdi, vol. v, p. 239. 

1 Taban, vol. ii, p. 1944, ibn-Khaldun, vol. Ui,p. 165, 1. 16 (cf. p, 195, U. 25-7); 
ibn-al-Athir, vol. v, p 267, 11. 7-8. 
8 Mas'udi, vol. v t p. 195. 

* Ibn al-Athlr, vol. v, p. 220; Ya'qubi, vol. ii, p. 401. 

1 Fakhri ) p. 197; abu-al-Fida*, vol. 1, p. 222. See below, p. 2S5. 



CH . XX SOCIAL CONDITIONS UNDER THE UMAYYADS 25? 

listening to historical narratives and anecdotes, preferably South 
Arabian, and poetical recitations, To satisfy this desire he im- 
ported from al-Yaman a story-teller, *Abid ibn-Sharyah, who 
entertained the caliph through many long nights with tales of 
the heroes of the past. The favourite drink was rose sherbet, 
celebrated in Arabic song 1 and still enjoyed in Damascus and 
other Eastern towns. It was relished particularly by the women* 

Mu'awiyah's son YazTd was the first confirmed drunkard 
among the caliphs and won the title Yaztd ul-khumur % the Y&zJd 
of wines. 2 One of his pranks was the training of a pet monkey, 
abu-Qays, to participate in his drinking bouts, 8 Yazld, we are 
told, drank daily, whereas al-Walld I contented himself with 
drinking every other day; Hisham, once every Friday after the 
divine service, and 'Abd-al-Malik only once a month, but then 
so heavily that he perforce disburdened himself by the use of 
emetics. 4 Yazid II felt such attachment to two of his singing 
girls, Sallamah and $ ababah, &at when the latter was choked on 
a grape which he playfully threw into her mouth the passionate 
young caliph fretted himself to death. 5 But the palm for drinking 
should be handed to his son al-Waild II (743-4), an incorrigible 
libertine, who is said to have gone swimming habitually in a pool 
of wine of which he would gulp enough to lower the surface 
appreciably.* Al-Waiid is reported to have opened the Koran 
one day, and as his eye fell upon the verse "And every froward 
potentate was brought to naught", 7 he shot the sacred book to 
pieces with his bow and arrow, meanwhile repeating in defiance 
two verses of his own composition. 8 

This caliph spent his time in his desert castles, one of which 
stood by al-Qaryataynjinidway between Damascus and Palmyra* 
The Aghdni* has preserved for us an eye-witness's report of one 
of his debauched drinking parties. As always, dancing, singing 
and music served as the handmaids of drinking. When the caliph 

1 Agham 7 y&. xv, p, $ t I, 12, 

* *iqd t voL iu, p. 403; Kuwayri, fttka)ah r vol. iv, p. 91. 

* Mas'udt, vol, p. t$f m 

* Most of our information about the lighter side of the caliphs' lives comes from 
' A#k int, primarily a literary work, end similar hooks, which should not be taken too 

iUerufy. AgUm t vol. j> p. 3, gives this criterion for the choice of data "elegance 
that pleases the onlooker and entertains the hearer", 

* XttSb cVUy&n : (1865), pp. 40-41. of. AghSm, vol. xui, p. 165. 

* AI-Nawty, tfclhat aUKumayt (Cairo, 1290), p. 08. 

Sur, 14:18, * A$Um t vol. vi, p. 125. » Vol. ii, p 73. 



228 THE UMAYYAD AND \ABBASID EMPIRES part in 



was one of those who maintained reasonable self-respect he 
screened himself behind curtains which separated him from the 
entertainers. Otherwise, as in the case of al-Walid, he joined 
the party on a footing of equality. 1 

Such festivities as these were nevertheless not entirely lacking 
in cultural value. They undoubtedly encouraged the develop- 
ment of poetry, music and the esthetic side of life in general and 
were not always mere orgies. 

Among the more innocent and fashionable pastimes which 
engaged the interest of the caliphs and their courtiers were 
hunting, horse-racing and dicing. Polo, which became a favourite 
sport under the 'Abbasids, was probably introduced from Persia 
towards the end of the Umayyad penod, and cock-fights at the 
time were not infrequent. The chase was a sport early developed 
in Arabia, where the saluki (saliiqt, from Saluq in al-Yaman) 
dog was at first exclusively used. The cheetah (fahd) came on the 
scene later. Legend makes Kulayb ibn-Rabl'ah, hero of the War 
of Basus, the first Arabian to use it in hunting. The Persians 
and Indians had trained this animal long before the Arabians. 
Yazld I, son of Mu*awiyah, was the first great hunter in Islam 
and the first who trained the cheetah to ride on the croup of a 
horse He adorned his hunting dogs with gold anklets and as- 
signed to each a special slave. 2 Horse-racing was extremely 
popular among the Umayyads. Al-Walid, son of 'Abd-al-Malik, 
was one of the first caliphs to institute and patronize public 
races. 8 His brother and successor, Sulayman, had just completed 
arrangements for a national competition in horse-racing when 
death overtook him.* In one of the courses organized by their 
brother Hisham the number of racers from the royal and other 
stables reached 4000, " which finds no parallel in pre-Islamic or 
Islamic annals". 5 A favourite daughter of this caliph kept horses 
for racing. 6 

The ladies of the royal household seem to have enjoyed a 
relatively high degree of freedom. A Makkan poet, abu-Dahbal 
al-Jumahi, did not hesitate to address love poems to 'Atikah, the 
beautiful daughter of Mu'awiyah, of whom he had caught a 
glimpse through the lifted veils and curtains as she was on a pil- 

1 AI-Jahi?, al Taj fi Akhlaq al'Muiuk, ed Ahmad Zaki (Cairo, 1914), p. 32. 

* Fakhrt, p 76 * Mas'Gdt, vol. vi, pp. 13-17. 

* Ibn-al-Jawzi, Strat *Umar y p 56. 1 Mas'flcb, vol. v, p. 466. 

* KttSh at 'ty-un (1865), p- 69, 1. X2. 



* ch.'xx social conditions UNDER THE UMAYYAD5 ,229 ~ 

grimage and whom he later followed to her father's capital. The 
caliph had at last to "cut off the tongue of the poet" by offerings 
him a subsidy and finding him a suitable wife. 1 Another poet, 
the handsome Waddak al-Yaman, ventured to make love to one 
of the wives of al-Walld I in Damascus in spite of the threats of 
the caliph, and finally paid for his audacity with his life. 2 The 
influence exercised by the shrewd and pretty *Atikah, grand- 
daughterof Mu'awiyah, over her husband-caliph, *Abd-al-Malik, - 
may be illustrated by the story which tells how she locked her 
door when angry with the caliph and refused to open it until a 
favourite courtier came weeping and falsely said that one of his 
two sons had killed the other and that the caliph was intent on 
executing the fratricide* 8 The harem system, with its concomitant 
auxiliary of eunuchs, was not, it seems, fully instituted until the 
time of al-Walld II. 4 The first eunuchs were mostly Greeks and 
were evidently introduced into the Arab world following the 
Byzantine precedent, 5 

It is safe to assume that Damascus has not much changed its Th« 
general tone of life and character since its days as the Umayyad ttp 
capital. Then, as now, in the narrow, coveredstreets the Damascene 
with his wide trousers, red pointed shoes and huge turban could 
be seen rubbing shoulders with the sun-tanned Bedouin in his 
loose gown surmounted by kUftyah (head shawl) and % iqal (head 
band) and occasionally meeting a European-dressed Ifranji* 
Here and there the aristocrat, the well-to-do Damascene, might 
be seen on horseback cloaked in a white silk 'o&f and armed with 
a sword or lance. A few women, and those all veiled, cross the 
streets; others stealthily peep through the latticed windows of 
their homes overlooking the bazaars and public squares. Sherbet 
sellers and sweetmeat vendors raise their voices to the highest 
pitch in competition with the incessant tramp of the passers-by 
and the multitude of donkeys and camels laden with the varied 
products of the desert and the sown. The city atmosphere is 
charged with every kind of smell which the olfactory sense is 
capable of perceiving. 

\ $*f*f? VO l* Vi ' Pp * 1S8 * 6t * 1 PP- 36 seq. y vol. xa, p. 49. 

* Mas Odi, vol. v, pp, 273-5. 4 Aghdm, vol to, pp, 7S.9. 

Jj B « Bu *y» T&e Imperial Administrative System in the Ninth Century 
(London, 19x1), pp. 120 se$r, Charles Diehl, Byutnce: grandeur tt decadence (Paris, 

A I'rank, a word used for all Europeans; especially common during the Crusadet 



. CH-XX SOCIAL" CONDITIONS UNDER, THE UMAYYADS 231 

As in other cities the Arabians lived in separate quarters of 
their own according to their tribal affiliation. In Damascus, 
#ims, Aleppo ($ alab) and other towns these hdrahs (quarters) 
are still well marked. The doorway of each house opened from 
the street into a courtyard in the centre of which usually stood 
a large water-basin with a flowing jet emitting from time to 
time a veil-like spray. An orange or citron tree grew by the basin. 
The rooms surrounded the courtyard, which in larger houses was 
provided Vith a cloister. It is to the eternal glory of the banu- 
Umayyah that they supplied Damascus with a water system 
which was unexcelled in the contemporary Orient and still con- 
tinues to function* Yazld's name is borne today by a canal, Nahr 
YazTd, which this son of Mu'awiyah dug from the Barada,or more 
probably widened, 1 in order to perfect the irrigation of the 
Ghutah. This rich oasis outside Damascus with its luxurious 
gardens owes its very existence to the Barada. Besides the Nahr 
Yazld, the Barada sends off four other arms or channels which 
spread fertility and freshness throughout the town* 

The population throughout the empire was divided into four Soa 
social classes. The highest consisted naturally of the ruling Mos- 
lems headed by the caliphal household and the aristocracy of 
Arabian conquerors* Exactly how numerous was this class can- 
not be ascertained. Under al-Walid I the number of annuities 
apportioned to Arabian Moslems in Damascus and its district 
(jund) reached 45,000.* Under Marwan I, y im§ and its district 
registered 20,000 pensions. The number of converted Moslems 
could not have been great before the restrictions imposed by 
*Umar II. Although the capital of the caliphate may have pre- 
sented by the end of the Umayyad period the aspect of a Moslem 
town, Syria as a whole remained largely Christian until the third 
Moslem century. The small towns and villages and especially 
the mountainous regions — always the home of the lost cause — 
preserved their native features and ancient cultural patterns. In 
fact the Lebanon remained Christian in faith and Syriac in 
speech for centuries after the conquest. Only the physical con- 
flicted ended with the conquest; the religious, the racial, 

Ctmsuit hp&hn, p. 59; cf. H. Sauvairc, "Description de Damns: 'OyoOn ct- 
Tnwarikh, par Mohammad cbn Chkkct' 1 , Journal asiatique t scr. 9, vol. vii (1896), 
p. 400. 

c * Consult H. Lato mens, la Sjru/ pricit histortqut (Beirut, 1921), vol. i % pp. 



232 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES pahtih 



the social and above all the linguistic conflicts were just be- 
ginning. 

Client* Next below the Arabian Moslems came the Neo-Moslems, 
who by force or persuasion had professed Islam and were thereby 
admitted in theory, though not in practice, to the full rights of 
Islamic citizenship. Here Arabian chauvinism, pitted against 
theoretical claims, proved too strong for those claims to be real- 
ized. There is no doubt that throughout practically all the period 
of the Umayyads, holders of land, whether believers or unbe- 
lievers, were made to pay kharaj (land tax). There is no evidence 
of mass conversion to Islam in the provinces until after such 
stringent regulations as those of *Umar II and the 'Abbasid al« 
Mutawakkil (847-61). In Egypt resistance to the new religion 
was always least obstinate. The revenue of that country was re- 
duced from fourteen million dinars in the time of "Amr ibn-al-* As 
to five in the time of Mu'awiyah and later to four under the 
'Abbasid Harun al-Rashid (786-809). 1 In al- f Iraq it fell from a 
hundred million under 'Urnar ibn-al-Khattab to forty million 
in the days of f Abd-al~Malik. a One of the causes for the decline 
of state revenue was undoubtedly conversion to Islam. Under 
the early 'Abbasids, the Egyptians, Persians and Aramaeans who 
had accepted Islam began to outnumber the Moslems of Arabian 
origin. 

Reduced to the position of clients (mawalt), these neophyte 
Moslems formed the lowest stratum of Moslem society, a status 
which they bitterly resented. This explains our finding them in 
many cases espousing such causes as the Shi'ite in al- r lraq or 
the Kharijite in Persia. Some of them, however, as often happens, 
proved religiously "more royal than the king", and their zeal 
for the new faith, bordering on fanaticism, made them persecute 
non-Moslems. Among the most intolerant early Moslems were 
some of these converts from Christianity and Judaism. 

Within the Moslem society these clients were naturally the first 
to devote themselves to learned studies and fine arts, for they 
represented the longer tradition of culture. As they outshone the 
Moslem Arabians in the intellectual field they began to contest 
with them the political leadership. Through their intermarriages 

* Al-Ya*qubi, Kttab al-Bulddn, ed, de Goeje (Leyden, 1892), p. 339. 

* Cf. Yn'qtibi, vol. ii, p. 277, T. W. Arnold, Thi Preaching of Islam, and e<U 
(London, 1913), p. Si. 



CH. 30C SOCIAL CONDITIONS UNDER THE UMAYYADS 233 

with the conquering stock they served to dilute the Arabian 
blood and ultimately make that element inconspicuous amidst 
the mixture of varied racial strains. 

The third class was made up of members of tolerated sects, ] 
professors of revealed religions, the so-called ahl al-dkimmak, 
i.e. the Christians, Jews and Sabians with whom the Moslems 
had made covenant. The Sabians, who were identical with the 
Mandeans, the so-called Christians of St. John who still survive 
in the marshy district at the mouth of the Euphrates, are men- 
tioned thrice in the Koran (2 : 59, 5 : 73, 22 : 17). From this it 
would appear that Muhammad regarded them as believers in 
the true God. This recognition of tolerated religions, whose de- 
votees were to be disarmed and compelled to pay tribute in re- 
turn for Moslem protection, was the chief political innovation of 
Muhammad and was largely due to the esteem in which the 
Prophet held the Bible and partly to the aristocratic connections 
of the banu-Ghassan, Bakr, Taghhb and other Christian tribes. 

In this status the dhimmis enjoyed, against the payment of 
land and capitation taxes, a wide measure of toleration. Even m 
matters of civil and criminal judicial procedure, except where a 
Moslem was involved, these people were practically under their 
own spiritual heads. Moslem law was too sacred to be applicable 
to them. Essential parts of this system were still in force as late 
as the Ottoman period and the mandatory regimes of Traq, 
Syria and Palestine. 

Originally confined to the ahl al-kitab (Scripturaries) of the 
Koran 1 who came under the rule of Islam, the tolerated status 
was later extended by the Moslems to include the fire-worship- 
ping Zoroastrians (Mqfus), the heathen of Flarran and the pagan 
Berbers. Though not devotees of a revealed religion and thus 
technically outside the pale of protection, the Persian Zoroastrians 
and the North African Berbers *vere offered by the Moslem in- 
vaders the three choices: Islam, the sword or tribute, rather than 
the first two only. Here* where the sword of Islam was not long 
enough to reach all the necks involved, technicality gave way 
to expediency. In such inaccessible regions as the Lebanon 
'the Christians remained always in the ascendant and defied 
even 'Abd-al-Malik at the height of the Umayyad caliphate. 2 
Throughout all Syria the Christians were well treated under the 
«.» Siirs. 0 : 29* 2 * 99» *<>3> 3 : 6= 65, etc, * Sec above, p. 205. 

4 



434 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES fast in 

banu-Umayyah until the reign of the pious 'Umar H.'As tye 
have already learned, Mu'awiyah's wife was a Christian,^? Were 
his poet, physician and secretary of finance. We read of only one 
conspicuous exception, that of al-Walld I, who put to death 'the 
chief of the Christian Arab tribe of the banu-Taghlib for refusing 
to profess Islam. 1 Even in Egypt Copts rose several times against 
their Moslem overlords before they finally succumbed in the days 
of the 'Abbasid al-Ma'mun (8 1 3-33)^ 

The fame of r Umar II does not rest solely on his piety or on 
his remission of taxes imposed on neophyte Moslems. *Umar was 
the first caliph and the only Umayyad to impose humiliating 
restrictions on Christian subjects — measures wrongly ascribed to 
his earlier namesake and maternal great-grandfather, r Umar L 
This so-called "covenant of 'llmar 1 ', implying 'Umar I, is re* 
corded in several forms, 3 mostly in later sources; and the pro- 
visions presuppose closer intercourse between Moslems and 
Christians than was possible in the early days of the conquest. 
The most striking regulations issued by this Umayyad caliph 
were the excluding of Christians from public offices, prohibiting 
their wearing turbans, requiring them to cut their forelocks, to 
don distinctive clothes with girdles of leather, to ride without 
saddles or only on pack saddles, to erect no places of worship 
and not to lift their voices in time of prayer. According to his 
decree if a Moslem killed a Christian his penalty was only a fine 
and no Christian's testimony against a Moslem in courts could 
be accepted. The Jews were evidently also included under some 
of these restrictions and excluded from governmental positions.* 
That many of these enactments were not long in force is indi- 
cated by the fact that Khalid ibn- f Abdullah al-Qasri, governor 
of al- f Iraq under Hisham, built a church in al-Kufah to please 
his Christian mother, 6 granted Christians and Jews the privilege 
of building places of worship and even appointed Zoroastrians 
to posts in the government. 

1 Aghant) vol x, p. 99. H. Lammens in Journal astattgue t $zr* 9, vol. iv (1894), 
PP 43S9 

* Kindi, pp. 73, 81, 96, 116, 117; Maqrfa, Khifaf (Bulaq, 1270), vol.5, p 497. 

* Ibn *Abd-al Hakarfl, pp. 151-2, ibn-*Asakir> vol. i, pp. 178*80; al-Ibshlhi, 
al'Mustattaf (Cairo, 1314), vol 1, pp 100x01. 

* Abu«Yusuf, Khar&j t pp. 152-3; ibn al-Jawzi, Strat 'Umar, p. loo; *Iqd t 
vol. u, pp. 339 40/ ibn ol-Athlr, vol. v, p. 49, A. S. Tritton, Tht Cahphs and Jhtr 
non'Mushm Subjects (Oxford, 1930), pp. 5-35. 

Ibn-KhallikSn, vol. I, p. 302 - de Sialic, vol. i, p. 485. 



felt/XX ^SOCIAL CONDITIONS UNDER THE UMAYYADS ^235/ 

'At the bottoni of society stood the slaves. 1 Islam preserved* 
the ancient Semitic institution of slavery, the legality of which 
the Old Testament admitted, but it appreciably ameliorated the 
condition of the slave. Canon law forbade the Moslem to en- 
slave his co-religionist, but promised no liberty to an alien slave 
who adopted Islam. Slaves in early Islam were recruited from 
prisoners of war, including women and children, unless ransomed, 
and by purchase or raiding. Soon the slave trade became very 
brisk and lucrative in all Moslem lands. Some slaves from East * i 
or Central Africa Were black; others from Farghanah or Chinese 
Turkestan were yellow; still others from the Near East or from 
eastern and southern Europe were white. The Spanish slaves, 
called Saqalibah?' from Spanish esdavo^ fetched about a thou- 
sand dinars each, while Turkish slaves fetched only six hundred 
apiece. According to Islamic law the offspring of a female slave 
by another slave, by any man other than her master, or by her 
master in case he does not acknowledge th6 fatherhood of the 
child, is likewise a slave; but the offspring of a male slave by a 
freewoman is free. 

An idea of the number of slaves flooding the Moslem empire 
as a result of conquest may be gained from such exaggerated 
figures, as the following: Musa ibn-Nu?ayr took 300,000 captives 
From Ifriqiyah, one-fifth of whom he forwarded to al-Walld, 3 and 
from the Gothic nobility in Spain he captured 30,000 virgins; 4 
Qutaybah's captives from Sogdiana alone numbered ioo,ooo; 5 
al-Zubayr ibn-al-'Awwam bequeathed among other chattels one 
thousand male and female slaves, 6 The famous Makkan poet of 
love, *Umar ibn-abi-Rabi f ah (f ca. 719), had many more than 
seventy slaves, 7 For an Umayyad prince to maintain a retinue of 
about a thousand slaves was nothing extraordinary. Even the 
private in the Syrian army at the battle of Siffin had from one 
to ten servants waiting on him. 8 

Between the master and the female slave concubinage, but 

not legal marriage, was permissible. The children of such a union 

1 Ar. *ahd (pL '(titd), especially if black; otherwise mamluk (pi. mamalik), 
possessed. 

* Same term used by the Arabs for the Slavs. Sec below, p, 525. 

* Maqqari, vol. i, p. 14S, * Ibiwd-Athir, vol. iv, p. 44S 

* voLiv, p. 454- • Mas'udi, vol iv, p. 254. 
7 Agkdni, vol. i, p. 37. 

* Mtttadi, vol. iv, p. 3S7, Consult Jurji Zaydan, TJriiA &Tamad4u* *A 
IxUim % 3rd ed. (Cairo, 192a). vol. v» pp. %z uq* 



236 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES partii^ 

belonged to the master and were therefore free; but the status of 
the concubine was thereby raised only to that of umm-whlad 
(mother of children), who could neither be sold by her husband- 
master nor given away and who at his death was declared free. 
In the melting-pot process which resulted in the amalgamation 
of Arabians and foreigners, the slave trade undoubtedly played 
an extremely important role. 

The liberation of slaves was always looked upon as a good 
work (gutda/i) entitling the master to a special reward in the 
next world* When liberated the slave enjoyed the status of a client 
to his former master, now his patron. In case the patron died 
without heirs the client inherited his estate. 
Ai- The quiet life of aUMadlnah, rendered venerable by its early 

Mwjinah Moslem association, attracted thither would-be scholars devoted 
MaUah to the study of the mementos of its sacred past and to tbe 
collecting of legal and ritual enactments. The city containing the 
bunal-place of the Prophet thus became the first centre oflslamic 
tradition, which under such men as Anas ibn -Malik (f between 
709 and 711) and f Abdullah ibn-'Umar ibn-al-Khattab 1 (t (593) 
developed into a science of the first order. 

The school of Makkah owes its reputation to 'Abdullah ibn- 
al- r Abbas, surnamed abu-al-'Abbas (f ca. 688), a cousin of the 
Prophet and ancestor of the 'Abbasid caliphs, a man who was 
so universally admired for his knowledge of profane and sacred 
tradition and jurisprudence and for his skill in commenting on 
the Koran that he won the enviable title of hibr al-ummah (the 
sage of the community). Modern criticism, however, has exposed 
him as a fabricator of several i>adlths. 

Under the Umayyads the two cities of al-rjijaz entirely changed 
their aspect. To al-Madlnah, the forsaken capital of Arabia, now 
retired many of those anxious to keep aloof from the turmoil 
of political activity or desirous of enjoying undisturbed the great 
fortunes which the wars of conquest had gained for them. Fol- 
lowing al-PJasan and al-Husayn, a large number of nouveatix 
riches flocked there. Inside the city arose palaces and outside u 
villas, all swarming with servants and slaves and providing their 
occupants with every variety of luxury. 2 Makkah shared with its 

1 Eldest son of the second caliph. As a traditionist he is considered more reliable 
than ibn«Malii, whose collection has been preserved in the Musticd of AJimad ibn- 
IJanbal 

* Mas'Gdi, vol. iv, pp. 254-5. 



sister city this attractiveness for lovers of pleasure. As life in the 
two cities became more luxurious its excesses became more 
notorious. 1 Pilgrims from all over the Moslem world brought 
every year vast fresh supplies of money* What a contrast to the 
primitive times when the Caliph 'Umar's agent arrived from al- 
Bahrayn claiming to be the bearer of tribute amounting to 
500,000 dirhams! The caliph questioned the possibility of such a 
figure, and when doubly assured that it was "a hundred thou- 
sand five times", he summoned the people and proclaimed, "O ye 
men, we have just received an enormous sum. If ye wish we 
shall give each his share by measure, otherwise by count."* 

With this increased flow of wealth the two Holy Cities became 
less holy. They developed into a centre of worldly pleasure and 
gaiety and a home of secular Arab music and song. In Makkah 
was established a kind of clubhouse patronized by guests who, 
we are told, had facilities for hanging their outer garments on 
pegs — apparently an innovation for al-yijaz — before indulging 
in chess, backgammon, dice or reading. 8 To al-Madlnah Persian, 
and Byzantine slave songstresses (qiydn) flocked in increasing 
numbers. Amorous poetry kept pace with other new develop- 
ments. Houses of ill repute (buyiit al-qiyan) flourished in al- 
Madmah and were patronized by no less a poet than al-Farazdaq 
of national fame, 4 As these female slaves sang and played soft 
melodies far the entertainment of their wealthy masters and 
guests^ the latter, attired in colourful robes, reclined on square 
mattresses or cushions while they inhaled the perfume of burning 
spices and sipped from silver goblets the ruddy wines of Syria. 

Al-Madlnah boasted under the early Marwanids the proud 
and beautiful Sayyidah 5 Sukaynah (f 73$), daughter of the mar- 
tyred al-£lusayn and granddaughter of * Ali, one of the most re- 
markable women of the age. 

Sukaynah's rank and learning combined with her fondness for 
song and poetry and her charm, good taste and quick-wittedness 
to make her the arbiter of fashion, beauty and literature in the 
region of the sacred cities. Sukaynah was noted for her jests 
and hoaxes « The crude humour appreciated even in the high 
society of the time is illustrated by the occasion when she 

* Xf&*nt\\ol xxi, p. 197, s Ibn-Sa'd, vol. hi, pt x, p. 216. 

* Sri 'S*. iv > 52; rf - p- 339> * Md. vol xxi, p. 197. 

Lad} ,ataUeori^ntaiytcscmdfor thcdcsccndanksof*AHandF5timali. 
vol. »v, pp. 164-5; vol. svii, pp. 97, 101-2. 



338 



THE UMAYVAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PART ill 



made an old Persian sheikh sit on a basket of eggs and cluck 
like a hen, to the merriment of her incoming guests. On another 
she sent word to the chief of police that a Syrian had broken 
into her apartment; w hen the chief himself and his aide arrived 
in haste they found her maid holding a flea. 1 Then as now Syria 
was evidently noted for its fleas. The brilliant assemblies of 
poets and jurists held in her residence, a sort of salon, never 
failed to be enlivened by her sallies of repartee. Special pride 
she took in her ancestry, in her daughter, whom she liked to 
bedeck with jewels, and in her own hair, which she had her own 
peculiar way of dressing. This coiffure a la Sukaynah (Jttrrah 
Sukaymyafi)* became popular among men and was at a later 
date strictly prohibited by the puritan Caliph 'Umar II, 8 one 
of w hose brothers had married Sukaynah without consummating 
the union. As for the successive husbands whom the charms of 
this lady captivated for a longer or shorter period, they could 
hardly be counted on the fingers of two hands.* In more than one 
instance she made complete freedom of action a condition pre- 
cedent to marriage. 

Sukaynah had a rival in al-f a*if, the famous summer resort of 
Makkah and al-Madlnah, whose patricians witnessed a number 
of striking scenes and episodes centring on young 'A'ishah 
bint-Talhah. 'A'ishah's father was a distinguished Companion 
of the Prophet; her mother was a daughter of abu-Bakr and 
sister of 'A'ishah, Muhammad's favourite wife. This daughter 
of Talhah combined with noble descent a rare beauty and a 
proud and lofty spirit — the three qualities most highly prized in 
a woman by the Arabs. No favour she requested could very 
well be refused. Her appearance in public was even more im- 
pressive than that of Sukaynah. 5 Once when she was on a 
pilgrimage to Makkah she asked the master of ceremonies, who 
was also the governor of the town, to defer the public religious 
service until she had completed the last of the seven prescribed 
processions around the Ka'bah. This the gallant governor of 
course did, which resulted in his dismissal from office by the 
Caliph 'Abd-al-Malik 6 c A*ishah's record of marriages included 

1 Agh&nt % tel. xiv, p 1 66, vol xvii, p 94 1 Ibn-Khalhkan, vol. i, p. 377, 

8 AghSnt, vol. xiv, p. 165 

* Compare their lists inibn Sa*<3, vol vui,p 349, lbn Qutaybah,i*/tf pp. ioi, 
log-lQ, 1 T3, 122, 289 90, ibn Khalhkan, vol. 1, p 377, Aghcnu vol. xiv, pp. 168-72. 

* Aghant* \ol x, p. 60. f Ibid, vol. 111, p. 103. 



T CH,XX SOCIAL CONDITIONS UNDER THE UMAYYADS 239 

only thrceAWhen her second husband, MuVab ibn-al-Zubayr, 
who had also married Sukaynah and is said to have given each 
a million dirhams as dowry, 5 took her to task for never veiling 
her face her characteristic reply was, "Since God, may He remain 
blessed and exalted, hath put upon me the stamp of beauty, it 
is my wish that the pubHc should view that beauty and thereby 
recognize His grace unto them. Under no conditions, therefore, 
wilt I veil myself." 3 

1 Ibn-Sa'd, vol. viii, p, 342. * Aghoni y vol. iii, p. 122* 

* find vol. x, p. 54. 



CHAPTER XXI 
INTELLECTUAL ASPECTS OF LIFE UNDER THE UMAYYADS 



The invaders from the desert brought with them no tradition 
of learning, no heritage of culture, to the lands they conquered. 
In Syria, in Egypt, in al-'Iraq, in Persia, they sat as pupils at 
the feet of the peoples they subdued. And what acquisitive pupils 
they proved to be! 

The closeness of the Umayyad period to the Jahillyah age, 
its many wars, civil and foreign, and the unsettled social and 
economic conditions of the Moslem world — all these militated 
against the possibility of intellectual development in that early 
epoch. But the seed was then sown and the tree of knowledge 
which came into full bloom under the early 'Abbasids in Bagh- 
dad certainly had its roots in this preceding period of Greek, 
Syrian and Persian culture. The Umayyad age, therefore, was in 
general one of incubation. 

As Persians, Syrians, Copts, Berbers and others flocked within 
the fold of Islam and intermarried with the Arabians the original 
high wall raised earlier between Arabians and non-Arabians 
tumbled down. The nationality of the Moslem receded into the 
background. No matter what his nationality may originally have 
been, the follower of Muhammad now passed for an Arab. An 
Arab henceforth became one who professed Islam and spoke 
and wrote the Arabic tongue, regardless of his racial affiliation. 
This is one of the most significant facts in the history of Islamic 
civilization. When we therefore speak of "Arab medicine" or 
"Arab philosophy" or "Arab mathematics" we do not mean the 
medical science, philosophy or mathematics that are necessarily 
the product of the Arabian mind or developed by people living 
in the Arabian peninsula, but that body of knowledge enshrined 
in books written in the Arabic language by men who flourished 
chiefly during the caliphate and were themselves Persians, 
Syrians, Egyptians or Arabians, Christian, Jewish or Moslem, 

240 



CK.&U ASPECTS OF LIFE UNDER THE UMAYYADS 241 

and who may have drawn some of their material from Greek, 
Aramaean, Indo-Persian or other sources* 

As the two sister cities of al-fclijaz, Makkah and al-Madmah, ai- 
became under the Umayyads the home of music and song, love ™ 
and poetry, so did the twin cities of al- e lraq, ai-Basrah 1 and 
al-Kufah, develop during this period into centres of the most 
animated intellectual activity in the Moslem world* 

These two capitals of al-*Iraq, as we have learned before, were An 
originally military camps built by order of the Caliph f Umar in 
the Moslem year 17 (638).* Al-Kufah, the former capital of 'Ali, 
arose not far from the ruins of ancient Babylon and in a sense 
fell heir to its neighbour, al-IJ Irah, the Lakhmid capital. Through 
favoured location, commerce and immigration the sister towns 
soon grew into wealthy and populous cities of over a hundred 
thousand inhabitants. Al-Basrah, from which Khurasan was 
governed under the Umayyads, is said to have reached as 
early as the year 30 (670) a total population of 300,000 and to 
have had at a later date 120,000 (!) canals. 3 Here on the border- 
land of Persia the scientific study of the Arabic language and 
grammar was begun and carried on mainly for foreign con- 
verts and partly by them. The first impulse cam<i from the 
desire to supply the linguistic needs of Neo-Moslems who 
wanted to study the Koran, hold government positions and 
converse with the conquerors. In addition, the ever-widening 
gap between the classical language of the Koran and the 
. everyday vernacular corrupted by Syriac, Persian and other 
tongues and dialects was partly responsible for evoking such 
linguistic interest. 

<It was by no mere chance, therefore, that the legend^iry founder 
of Arabic grammar, abu-al-Aswad al-Du ali (f 688), should have 
flourished in al-Basrah. According to the famous biographer 
tbn-Khaliikan* it was "*Ali who laid down for aKDu'ali this 
principle: The parts of speech are three- — noun, verb and particle, 
and told him to found a complete treatise thereon 1 '. This he 
successfully did. Arabic grammar, however, shows slow and long 

, 1 Eng.Bassora, Present-day al-Basrah lies six miles to the north-cast of the ancient 
City. * 

* Al-KSfah may h*ve been built one or two years after al-Basrah; Yaqut. vol iv. 

* I^akhn, p So; ibn^Iawqal, p. 159* 

4 Vol. i, ppr420-3o = d£ Slane, vol. i t p. 663. 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PART in 



development and bears striking marks of the influence of Greek 
logic. Al-Du'ali was followed by al-Khalll ibn-Alimad, another 
Basrite scholar, who died about 786. To al-Khalll, who was the 
first to compile an Arabic dictionary, the Kitab al-Ayn, bio- 
graphers attribute the discovery of Arabic prosody and its rules, 
which still hold sway today. His pupil the Persian Slbawayh (f ca. 
793) composed the first systematic textbook on Arabic grammar, 
known by the honorific title al-Kitab (the book), which has 
ever since been the basis of all native studies of the subject. 
Religious The study of the Koran and the necessity of expounding it 
2d aSn £ ave r * se to tne tw * n sciences of philology and lexicography as 
law well as to that most characteristically Moslem literary activity 
— the science of tradition Qiadtth, literally "narrative"). In its 
technical sense a tradition is an act or saying attributed to the 
Prophet or to one of his Companions. The Koran and tradition 
provided the foundation upon which theology and fiqh (law), 
the obverse and reverse of sacred law, were raised. Law in Islam 
is more intimately related to religion than to jurisprudence as 
modern lawyers understand it. Roman law, directly or through 
the Talmud and other media, did undoubtedly affect Umayyad 
legislation, but to what extent has not been fully ascertained. In 
fact, of this period, from which hardly any literature has come 
down to us, we know only a few of the traditionibts and jurists, 
the most renowned of whom were al- Hasan al-Basri and ibn- 
Shihab al-Zuhri (f 742). The latter, who traced his descent to 
the Prophet's tribe, was always so deeply absorbed in his studies 
to the neglect of all worldly concerns that his wife once remarked, 
"By Allah, tliese books of yours are worse to me than three rival 
wives possibly could be!" 1 Al-Basri was highly esteemed as a trans- 
mitter of tradition, since he was believed to have known personally 
seventy of those who took part in the battle of Badr. Most of the 
religious movements within Islam trace their origin back to 
al-Basri. The Sufis felt throughout the ages the lasting influence 
of his ascetic piety, the orthodox Sunnis 2 never tire of quoting his 
devout sayings and even the Mu'tazilitcs reckon him as one of 
themselves. No wonder the populace of al-Basrah turned out in 
a body to follow his funeral on Friday the tenth of October 728, 
and none was left to attend or conduct the afternoon prayer in 

* Ibn-Khallikan, vol. 11, p. 223, abu-al-Fida*, vol. i, pp. 215-16. 
• See below, p. 393, n, 2. 



'ch!xxe ASPECTS OF LIFE UNDER THE UMAYYADS * 243 



the mosque that day — "an unprecedented happening in the 
history of Islam' 1 . 1 

The contributions of the fickle and unorthodox Kufans, many 
of whom were Shf ites or c AKds, to Arabic philology and Moslem 
learning were almost, but not quite, as brilliant as those of their 
neighbours the Ba^rites. Rivalry between the scholars of the two 
camps developed two well-recognized schools of Arabic gram- 
mar and literature. Among the celebrated Companions, regarded 
as authorities on Moslem tradition, who settled in al-Kufah 
during the caliphates of 'Umar and 'Uthman was the red- 
haired) thin*legged f AbduHahibn-Mas*ud (ca. 653), who is said 
to have been responsible for eight hundred and forty-eight 
traditions. 2 It was a peculiar feature of ibn-Mas*ud, when giving 
information about the Prophet, to tremble, exude sweat from 
his forehead and express himself with deliberate and hesitant 
caution, lest he transmit something inexact. 3 Equally dis- 
tinguished among the Kufan traditionists was t Amir ibn- 
Sharahll al-Sha f bi (f ta. 728), one of the many South Arabians 
who gained eminence in the early days of Islam, who is said to 
have heard traditions from some hundred and fifty Companions * 
which he related from memory without putting down a single 
line in black and white. Withal, the general judgment of modern 
critics is quite favourable in regard to his trustworthiness. The 
most eminent of al-Sha'bi's pupils was the great abu-Hanlfah. 
We have it on the authority of al-Sha'bi that he himself was sent 
by the Caliph 'Abd-al-Malik on an important mission to the 
Byzantine emperor in Constantinople. 

It was under the *Abbasids, as we shall see later, that these 
twin cities of al-*Iraq reached their highest level of intellectual 
endeavour and achievement. In their later development the 
'Iraq schools of tradition and jurisprudence were not swayed hy 
the old conservative traditions as were the schools of al-^Iijaz. 
^Arabic historiography, which also began at this time, started H^to 
in tlxe form of -tradition Qiaditlt). It was therefore one of the*™" 
earliest disciplines cultivated by the Arab Moslems. The desire 
of the early caliphs to scan the proceedings of kings and rulers 

r 1 Um-KhaUikan, vol. i t p. 228. 

* 3WjA&-ii-Axrt# 9 «L F. WOstenfdd (Gdttingen, 1843-7), p. 370. 

v •OJbbSAM, vol. iii, i, pp. txo.ii. 

^?: SaiR,fi ? 5 » cl-dnsabt *a. Mturgoliouth (Leydea, 191s), fol. 334 recto; cf, ibn* 
KMIik&j,. vol, *, p. 436, 



244 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PART in 

before their time, the interest of the believers in collecting the 
old stories about the Prophet and his Companions — which stories 
became the bases of later books on biography (strah) and con* 
quests (maghast) — the necessity of ascertaining the genealogical 
relationship of each Moslem Arabian in order to determine the 
amount of stipend he received from the public treasury, the 
elucidation of passages in Arabic poetry and the identification 
of persons and places cited in religious works, the anxiety 
of the subject peoples to record the past achievements of their 
races as a counterpoise to Arab chauvinism — all these provided 
the stimulus for historical research. Among the early distin- 
guished story-tellers was the semi-legendary South Arabian 'Abld 
fUbayd) ibn-Sharyah, who on the invitation of Mu'awiyah went 
to Damascus to inform the caliph about "the early kings of the 
Arabians and their races' 1 , 1 'Abld composed for his royal patron 
a number of works on his specialty, one of which, the Kitab 
aUMuluk wa-Akhbar al-Mdtfin (the book of kings and the 
history of the ancients), was in wide circulation at the time of 
the historian al-Mas'udi 2 (f 956). Another of those versed in the 
"science of origins' ' i^ilm al-atvail) was Wahb ibn-Munabbih 
(fin San'a\ ca. 728), a Yamanite Jew of Persian origin who prob- 
ably professed Islam and one of whose works has recently been 
published. 3 Wahb, whose trustworthiness is open to grave ques- 
tion, became one of the chief sources of information, or rather 
misinformation, about pre-lslamic South Arabia and foreign 
lands. 4 Still another was Ka'b al-Ahbar (Ka'b of the rabbis, 
f 652 or 654 in yims), also a Yamanite Jew, who accepted Islam 
under one of the first two caliphs and acted as teacher and coun- 
sellor to the court of Mu'awiyah when the latter was still governor 
of Syria. 6 Thus did Ka*b become the earliest authority for the 
Jewish-Moslem traditions. Through Ka*b> ibn-Munabbih and 
other Jewish converts a number of talmudic stories ultimately 
found their way into Moslem tradition and were incorporated 
with Arabic historical lore. 

1 Al-Nadlm, al-Fihrist, ed. G. FlOgcl (Leipzig, 1872), p. 89, 1, 26; cf» ibn-Khal* 
likfin, vol. ii, p. 365. 

* Vol iv, p. 89. 

* Al-Tijan Aluluk ffimyar (Haydarilbad, 1347), v,ith a supplement (pp. 311- 
489) entitled "AkhbSr 'Abid", by 'Abld. 

4 Ibn-Khalhkun, \'ol. ui, pp. 106-7; Tabari, vol. in, pp. 2493-4; Nawawi, p. 619. 

* Consult Nauawi, p. 523; ibn-Sa'd, vol. vii, pt. 2, p. 156; ibn-Qutaybab, Mt?arif % 
p. 219. 



CH.XXI ASPECTS OF LIFE UNDER THE XJMAYYADS 345 



In the Umayyad period we can also detect the rudiments of 
many of those religio-phtlosophical movements which were later 
to shake Islam to its very foundation. In the first half of the 
eighth century there flourished in ai-Basrah a certain Wasil ibn- 
'Ata* (f 748), the founder of the famous school of rationafism 
termed Mu'tazilah. The Mu*tazilites (seceders, schismatics) 
were so called because of their major doctrine that he who com- 
mits a mortal sin (kabtrah) secedes from the ranks of the believers 
but does not become an unbeliever; he occupies a medial position 
between the two* 1 Wa§il was a pupil of al-ftasan al-Basri, who 
inclined for a time to the doctrine of free will, which doctrine 
became another cardinal point in Mu f tazilite belief. This doctrine 
of free will was at the time held by a group called Qadarites 
(from qadar^ power) as opposed to the Jabrites (from ja6r** 
compulsion). 2 The Qadarites represent a reaction against the 
harsh predestinarianism of Islam, a corollary of God's almighti- 
ness so strongly emphasized in the Koran, 3 and betray Christian 
Greek influence* The Qadarites were the earliest school of 
philosophy in Islam, and how widely spread their ideas were may 
be inferred from the fact that two of the Umayyad caliphs, 
Mu'awiyah II and YazTd III, were Qadarites 4 

To the cardinal doctrine of free will the Mu'tazilites added 
another: the denial of the coexistence with God of the divine 
attributes, such as power, wisdom and life, on the ground that 
such conceptions would destroy the unity of God* Hence the 
Mu f tazilites , favourite appellation for themselves: "the partisans 
of justice and unity". This rationalistic movement attained 
significant importance under the *Abbasids, especially al- 
MaVnun (813-33), as we shall see later* Intellectually, Baghdad 
began where al-Basrah and al-Kufah ended. 

One of the principal agents through whom Christian lore and St , 
Greek thought at this time found their way into Islam was St p 3r 
John of Damascus (Joannes Damascenus), surnamed Chrysor- 
rhoas (golden-tongued), as his earlier Antiochene namesake was 
surnamed Chrysostom. Although he wrote in Greek, John was 

1 Mas'udj, vol. vi, p, 22, vn, p. 534. Cf. Shahrastani, p 33, al-BaghdSdi, Uful 
c/"Z>M (Istanbul, 1928), vol \ r p 335^o t Mukktatcrcd-FiLrqhayn(d-Firaq 1 f&.TA\X& 
(Cairo, 1924), p 9S, al Nawbakhti, Firaq at ShVak, cd« H, Ritter (Istanbul, 1931), 
V 5* 

Cf. aMji, KxtZb a! Afatvcpf, cd Th Soerensen (Leipzig, 1848), pp 334, 362. 

* £ QrB A*? 5 * 26 * 15 4 "> 41 * 26 ' 43 - JO, S4 49, jcf. ibn Hazm,voLm, p. 31. 

* Ibxwa* Ibn,p 190, Ya'qubi, vol. 11, p 402. 



246 THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES part m 



not a Greek but a Syrian who spoke Aramaic at home and knew, 
in addition to both of these languages, Arabic. His grandfather 
Mansur ibn-Sarjun was the financial administrator of Damascus 
at the time of its % Arab conquest and connived with its bishop 
in surrendering the town. He kept his position under the Mos- 
lems and John's father succeeded to the office. As a young man 
John attended drinking bouts of al-Akhtal and Mu awiyah's son 
YazTd and succeeded his father in that most important office in 
the Arab government. In his early thirties he gave it all up 
in favour of a life of asceticism and devotion in the monastery 
of St. Saba near Jerusalem. Here he died about 748. Among 
St. John's works is a dialogue with a "Saracen" on the 
divinity of Christ and the freedom of human will which is 
intended to be an apology for Christianity, a manual for the 
guidance of Christians in their arguments with the Moslems. 
John himself probably held many such debates in the presence of 
the caliph. His influence is not hard to detect in the formation 
of the Qadarite school. To St. John tradition ascribes the story 
of the ascetic Barlaam and the Hindu prince Josaphat, perhaps 
the most famous religious romance of the Middle Ages. Modern 
critics recognize the story as a Christian version of an episode 
in the life of the Buddha, who under the name Josaphat (or 
Ioasaph) was, strange as it may seem, canonized by both the 
Latin and the Greek Churches. Thus did the Buddha twice 
become a Christian saint. The medieval story of Barlaam and 
Josaphat goes back through Latin, Greek and Georgian into 
Arabic, itself evidently a translation from Pahlawi done after 
St. John's days. 1 Mention is made in the Fihrist* of a Kitab ah 
Budd (the book of Buddha) and of a Kttdb Buddsaf. John 
Damascene is considered the greatest and last theologian of the 
Oriental Greek Church. In ecclesiastical literature the hymnshe 
composed (some of which are still used in Protestant hymnals) 
mark the highest attainment of beauty by Christian Church 
poets. As hymnologist, theologian, orator, polemic writer, father 
of Byzantine music and codifier of Byzantine art he stands out as 
an ornament to the body of the Church under the caliphate. 
Khfirijues The Qadarite was the earliest philosophical school of thought 
in Islam, but the Kharijites formed the earliest religio-political 

1 Paulus Pettrus in Annaltcta Bollandtana, vol xlix (Brussels, 1931), pp 
276-312 1 P. 305, 



1 CH. XXI ASPECTS OF LIFE UNDER THE UMAYYADS - * 247 

sect. These deadly opponents of *Aii, once his supporters, re- 
peatedly arose in armed opposition to the prerogative conferred 
on the Quraysh that the caliph should be one of their number. 1 
In endeavouring: to maintain the primitive, democratic prin- 
ciples of Islam the puritanical Kharijites caused rivers of blood 
to flow in the first three Moslem centuries. In course of time 
they forbade the cult of saints with the attendant local pil- 
grimages and prohibited Sufi fraternities. Today they survive in 
the form of a subdivision called Ibadite (commonly Abadite), after 
ibn-Ibad 2 (second half of first Moslem century), the most tolerant 
of the Kharijite founders of sub-sects, and are scattered in Algeria, 
Tripolitania and 'Uman, whence they later crossed to Zanzibar. 

Another sect, but of minor importance, which arose in the 
Umayyad age was the Murji'ite, whose fundamental article of 
faith consisted in the suspension (trjet) of judgment against 
believers who commit sins and in not declaring them infidels. 3 
More specifically, the Murji'ites refused to see in the suppression 
of religious law by the Umayyad caliphs a justifiable cause for 
denying that house the homage due them as the de facto political 
leaders of Islam, To the followers of this doctrine the fact that 
the Umayyads were nominally Moslems sufficed. 'Uthman and 
*Ali as well as Mu'awiyah were all servants of God, and by God 
alone must they be judged. In general, Murji'ite influence was 
on the side of tolerance. The most illustrious representative of 
the moderate wing of this school was the great divine abu- 
rjanlfah (f 767), who founded the first of the four orthodox 
schools of jurisprudence in Islam. 

The Shi'ah, one of the two hostile camps into which early 
Islam split on the issue of the caliphate, took definite form during 
the Umayyad period. The imamship then became, and has since 
continued to be, the differentiating element between Sunnites 
(orthodox) and Shfites. The persistence with which the Shi f ah 
clings to its basic belief in e Ali and 'All's sons as the true imams, 
not unlike the persistence of the Roman Catholic Church in the 
dogma of its relation to Peter and his successors, has ever re- 
mained its distinguishing feature. The founder of Islam made a 
revelation, the Koran, the intermediary between God and man; 

^ 1 Ibn-al-Jawzi, Naqd al*Ilm t\)*al*Ulam& (Cairo, r$4o), p- *02. 
% Shahrastatu, p 100, Baghdadi, ed. Hitti, pp. 87-8; Iji, p. 356. 
* Cf. Baghdadi, */ tit. pp. 122-3; ibn-tfazm, vol. ii, p. Sq. 



THE U MAY VAX) AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PArtih 



the Shi ah made the intermediary a person, the imam. x To "I 
believe in Allah the one God" and "I believe in the revelation of 
the Koran, which is uncreated from eternity* 1 , the Shi'ites now 
added a new article of faith: "I believe that the imam especially 
chosen by Allah as the beaier of a part of the divine being is the 
leader to salvation". 

The institution of the imamate was a product of theocratic 
opposition to the profane conception of might. According to 
its theory, as opposed to the Sunnite view, 2 the imam is the sole 
legitimate head of the Moslem community, divinely designated 
for the supreme office. He is a lineal descendant of Muhammad 
through Fatimah and *AIi. He is a spiritual and religious leader 
as well as a secular one, endowed with a mysterious power trans- 
mitted to him from his predecessor. 3 As such he stands far 
superior to any other human being and enjoys impeccability 
('tsma/i).* Extremists among the Shl'ah went so far as to consider 
the imam, on account of this divine and luminous essence, the in- 
carnation of God himself. 6 To them *AH and his descendent 
imams constitute a continuous divine revelation in human form. 
A later ultra-Shfite sect even held that Gabriel mistook Muham- 
mad for 'Ali, 6 who was originally intended for the reception of 
the revelation. In all this the Shl*ite stands in opposition to the 
Sunnite creed. 

How much ShI'ah in its birth and evolution owed to Persian 
notions and how much to Judaeo-Christian ideas is hard to 
ascertain. The Mahdi hypothesis which developed later and 
involved the expectation of a saviour-leader who will usher in a 
new era of liberty and prosperity was undoubtedly a reflex of 
Messianic and allied ideas. The enigmatic 'Abdullah ibn-Saba*, 
who was converted to Islam during the caliphate of 'Uthman 
and embarrassed 'Ali with his excessive veneration, thus be- 

1 From an Arabic stem meaning to precede, to lead The term, which occurs in 
the Koran (2 1 18, 15 : 79, 25:74, 36. 1 1) in no technical sense, is ordinarily applied 
to the person v,ho in the canonical services indicates the ritual movements Origin* 
ally the Prophet, and after him the cihphs or their delegates, filled this office. 
Ibn-Khaldun, Muqaddamah^ pp 159 60 

* For this mcw consult Iji, pp 296 $tg. 

* Shahrastani, pp 10S 9, Mas'udi, \ol i, p. 70. 

* Immunity from error and sin is ascribed in varying degrees by Sunnitcs to the 
prophet* only, especial!) to Muhammad. Ibn-Hazm, \ol n, pp. 2*25; I. Goldziher 
tn Der Islam, \ol m (1912), pp 23S 45; Iji, pp 2 18 seg. 

s See below, pp 440 se$. 

* Baghdadi, ed. Hitti, p 157; ibn-al-Jawzi, Naqd, pp. 103-4 



L XXi ASPECTS OF LIFE UNDER THE UKAYYAOS 240 



coming the founder of extreme Shfisrn, 1 was a Yamanite Jew. 
Gnosticism also undoubtedly contributed its share to the develop- 
ment of the imamate conception. Of all the lands of Islam, al- 
'Iraq proved the most fertile soil for the germination of 'Alid 
doctrines, and to the present day Persia with its fifteen millions 
is the bulwark of the Shi* ah. 3 Within the Shfite community 
itself an almost unlimited number of minor sects arose. Different 
members of "the house of the Prophet" (a/il al-dayt, i.e. *Ali and 
his descendants) became the natural centre of attraction for all 
sorts of non-conformists and malcontents, economic, social, 
political and religious. Many of the heterodoxies which arose in 
the first century of Islam and were in themselves a veiled protest 
against the victorious religion of the Arabians, gradually gravi- 
tated to the bosom of Shi* ah as the representative of opposition 
to the established order. The Isma'flites, the Qarmatians, the 
Druzes, the Nusayris and the like, with whom we shall deal later, 
were all offshoots from the Shfite sect. 

Public speaking in its several forms was cultivated during 
the Umayyad epoch as never before and attained a height un- 
surpassed in later times. The kkattb used it as an instrument of 
religion in his Friday noon sermons, the general resorted to it as 
a means of arousing military enthusiasm among his troops and 
the provincial governor depended upon it for instilling patriotic 
feeling in his subjects. In an age with no special facilities for 
propaganda, oratory provided an excellent channel for spreading 
ideas and kindling emotions. The highly ethical orations of 'Ali, 
with their rhymes and wise sayings, the sermonettes of the 
ascetic al-rj asan al-Basri (f 728) delivered in the presence of the 
Caliph 'Umar ibn-'Abd-al-'Aziz and preserved by the latter's 
biographer, 3 the military and patriotic speeches of Ziyad ibn- 
Ablh and the fiery al~y ajjaj — all these are among the most valu- 
able literary treasures handed down to us from that early age. 4 

1 1ft p. 343- 

* In all there arc today some 50,000,000 ShT*itcs, of whom about eighteen millions 
live in Iran, seven in India, three in aVIraq, four in al-Yaman t where they are 
known by the name of Zaydis, 350,000 in Lebanon and Syria, where they go by 
tl,« name of Matawilah (i.e. partisans [of *Ali]). Ultra-Shf ite sects, including the 
lsma*iUtcs, Druzes, Nusayris, Yasldis and *Alt-Ilahis, swell the total to approximately 
^ 60,000,000, ftbout 14 per cent of the whole Moslem body. Cf. above, p. 3; below, 

. „ ^*-Jbn-al*Jaw2a, $$r&h t pp. m-6, 

" * Consult ibn*Qutaybah, *Vyun el-AkhbSr % vol. ii t pp. 231 -ja; al Jafci?! aUBay&n* 
t * vol i (Cairo, 1926), pp, 177 seg. t vol »\ pp. 47 Vgd, voL S, pp, 172 se$. 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PART HI 



Corre- Political correspondence under the orthodox caliphs was so 
ipondeac* ^Hef and to the point that we hardly have an official note more 
than a few lines in length. 1 To 'Abd-al-JJamid al-Katib (i.e. 
the scribe, f 750),- secretary of the last Umayyad caliphs, is 
ascribed by ibn-Khalhkan 2 the introduction of the flowery, 
long-drawn-out style with its conventional, polite phraseology 
betraying Persian influence. This affected style became a model 
for future generations of writers. A favourite Arabic saying had 
it that "the art of epistolary composition [zttsha] began with 
f Abd-al-rJamTd and ended with ibn-aI-*Amid , \ 8 Persian literary 
influence can also be detected in the many wise sayings and 
proverbs attributed to ^Ali, to his lieutenant al-Ahnaf (the bandy- 
legged) 4 ibn-Qays (f after 687) and even to Aktham ibn-Sayfi 
of pre-Islamic reputation, one of whose titles was 11 the sage 
[hakim] of the Arabians". 5 
Poetry The greatest intellectual measure of progress achieved under 
the Uma} r yads, however, was undoubtedly in the field of poetical 
composition. That the birth of Islam was not favourable to the 
chief of the Muses is evinced by the fact that the glorious periodof 
conquest and expansion inspired no poet in a "nation of poets". 
With the accession of the worldly Umayyads the old connections 
with the goddesses of wine, song and poetry were re-established. 
For the first time the poet of love makes his full appearance in 
Arabic. While many pre- Islamic bards did preface their long 
pieces (qafidahs) with a few verses of erotic character, yet none 
of them could be said to have specialized in love poetry (g/tasal). 
From this amatory prelude {nasib) of the early qasidaks Arabic 
lyric poetry arose under the influence of Persian singers and after 
their example. 

The peninsular school has 'Umar ibn-abi-Rabf ah 6 (f ea. 719) 
as its chief exponent. This prince of erotic poetry, "the Ovid of 
Arabia", was an impious Qurayshite of independent means, 7 
who made it his business to make love to the beautiful damsels 

1 For specimens consult Qalqashandi, §ubh t vol. vi, pp. 388-91. 

* Vol i,p 550J cf Mas'Qdi,vol vi,p 81. 

4 A vizir of Rukn al-DawIah the Buwavhid. 

* Jahiz, Boy an, vol i, p. 58 See ibn Qutaybah, Ma'arzf, p. 216; Takari, 
PP 43S 9 

* Ibn-Quta>bah, Afa'&tf, p 153, cf. Agham t vol x\, p 73, I 28. See Jafcif, 
gcxert, vol », p 63 * His Dizian, ed Paul Sclmarz, 2 \ols (Leipzig, 1901-9) 

Agham ) vol 1, p. 32. On his life and ^orks. see jibra'il Jabbur, *Vmar tbti-abt- 
Rabiah> 2 vols (Beirut, 1935-9). 



ck xxi ASPECTS OF LIFE UNDER THE UMAYYADS 251 

pilgrimaging in Makkah and al-Madlnah as well as to sucli 
charming residents as the famous Sukaynah.* In language of 
intense passion and exquisite felicity he immortalized his feeling 
towards the fair sex* The freshness and chivalry of his verse 
stand in marked contrast to the primitive passion of Imru'-al- 
Qays on the one hand and to the stereotyped sentiment of a 
later age on the other. 3 

If 'Umar represented free love in poetry, his contemporary 
Jamil (f 701) of the banu- f Udhrah, a Christian tribe of Yaman- 
ite origin settled in aHJijaz, stood for pure and innocent love 
of the platonic type, Jamil's verses, all addressed to his sweet- 
heart Buthaynah, who belonged to the same tribe/ breathe a 
spirit of tenderness unparalleled in that age. Because of their 
esthetic value and simple unaffected language they have since 
been set to music by many Arabic singers. Like Jamil al-*Udhri, 
the semi-mythical Majnun Layla,* whose original name is said 
to have been Qays ibn-al-Mulawwah, 5 represents the lyric type 
of poetical composition. Qays, according to legend, became in- 
fatuated to the point of madness (whence his surname ntajnuti) 
with a woman of the same tribe named Layla, who reciprocated 
his love but was obliged to marry another to satisfy her father. 
Crazed with despair, Qays passes the rest of his life wandering 
half-naked among the hills and valleys of his native Najd singing 
the beauty of his beloved and yearning for a sight of her. Only 
when her name was mentioned would he return to his normal 
self. 6 Thus did Majnun Layla become the hero of numberless 
Arabic, Persian and Turkish romances extolling the power of 
undying love. Undoubtedly many of the poems attached to the 
names of Jamil and Majnun were not actually composed by 
them but were originally ballads and folk-songs. 

Besides love poetry, political poetry made its appearance under 
Umayyad auspices. The first occasion was the request made of 
Misldn al-Darimi to compose and sing publicly verses com- 
memorating the nomination of Yazld to the caliphate. 7 To this 

1 Ita'Quttybah, Skfr, p. 349. 

* Sec W, G. Palgravc, Essays on Eastern Questions (London, 187a), p. 279. 

* Consult ibn-Qutaybah, Shfr % pp. 260-6$, Aghani^ voL vii\ pp. 77-H0. 
1 " * AghSm, vol. i, p. 169, quoted by ibn-Khalkkan, vol. i, p. 148. 

* At-Kutubi, Fawat al-Wafaytt (Bulaq, 1283), vol. ii, p. l?2, makes the date of 
his death about A*H . 80 ~ 699. 

« Ibn*Qutaybab ( SAi*r t pp. 358*63. 
' * Jf&&ti 9 vol. xviu,pp, 71-2; cf. ibn-Qutaybah, Skfr, p. 347. 



252 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 



period also belongs the first attempt to compile ancient pre- 
Islamic poetry, which attempt was undertaken by Hammad 
al-Rawiyah (i.e. the transmitter, ca. 713-72). 1 rlammad was 
born in al-Kufah of a Daylami (Persian) prisoner of war 2 and 
spoke Arabic with an accent, but he was one of those famed in 
Arabic annals for possessing phenomenal memories. In answer 
to a question by al-Walid II he offered to recite of thzjdhiliyah 
poems alone, rhyming in each of the letters of the alphabet, at 
least one hundred different odes for each letter. After listening 
in person and by proxy to 2900 gasTda/is, as we are told, al-Walid 
felt satisfied and ordered 100,000 dirhams for the reciter* 
rjammad's great merit, no doubt, was his collection of the 
famous Golden Odes, otherwise called Mu'allaqat. 

The provincial school of poetry in the Umayyad period was 
headed by al-Farazdaq (ca. 640-728* and Jarir (f ca. 729), that 
of the capital by al-Akhtal (ca. 640-ca. 7x0). All three were 
born and brought up in al- f Iraq. They were satirists as well as 
panegyrists. As poets the trio stand in the very front rank among 
those with whom Arab criticism has found nothing to compare 
since their time. Al-Akhtal, the Christian, was the champion 
of the Umayyad cause against the theocratic party; * al-Farazdaq, 
the dissolute, was the poet laureate of *Abd-al-Malik and his 
sons al-Walid, Sulayman* and Yazld; Jarir, the greatest satirist 
of the age, was the court poet of al-FJajjaj. 6 In their panegyrics, 
on which they lived rather than on their lampoons, these poets 
performed the same function as the party press today. Al- 
Farazdaq 7 and Jarir often attacked each other in the most 
virulent and abusive language, and al-Akhtal as a rule sided 
with the former. How lightly Christianity sat on the heart of the 
profane, wine-bibbing Akhtal is illustrated by the words of con- 
solation he addressed to his pregnant wife as she rushed to touch 

1 Ftkrist, p. 91; ibn-KbalHkan, vol. i, p. 294. 

* Ibn-Qutaybah, Madrif t p. 26S. 

» Ibn-Khalhkan, vol, i, p. 292; Agkani, vol. v, pp. 164-5. See *Iqd 3 vol. Hi, pp. 
137-S. 

4 Ibn Qutajbah, «S%xV,pp 301-4. 

* Ibid. pp. 297-8. For Farazdaq's eulogies of his patron caliphs sec his Diwan t 
ed. K. Boucher (Paris, 1875), passim. 

e Ibn-Qutaybah, p. 2S7* For samples of his encomiums see his Ditran (Cairo, 
I3 J 3)» vol. i. 

7 On him sec Aghoni, vol. viii, pp. 1S6-97, vol. xix, pp. 2-52; ibn-Khallikan, 
vol. ui f pp. 136-46 — dc Slane, vol. 111, pp. 612-28; Joseph Hell, Das Leben des 
Farazdak (Leipzig, 1903). 



CK.XKI ASPECTS OF LIFE UNDER THE UMAYYADS ' 353 



the garment of a passing bishop and succeeded only in reaching 
the tail of the donkey he was riding: "He and the tail of his ass- 
there is no differcnceP > 1 

Education of the formal type was not common in those days* 
To the early Umayyad princes the iadtyafi, Syrian desert, acted 
as a sort of school to which they sent their young sons to acquire 
die pure Arabic tongue and become well versed in poetry. It was 
thither that Mu'awiyah sent his son and future successor Yasud* 
The public considered him educated who could read and write 
his native language, use the bow and arrow and swim. Such 
a person was styled al-kamil^ the perfect one. 5 The value of 
swimming was enhanced by life on the Mediterranean coast 
The ethical ideals of education as gleaned from the litera- 
ture bearing on the subject were courage, endurance in time 
of trouble {§abr\ observance of the rights and obligations of 
neighbourliness (Jiwar), manliness (mttrii'ah), generosity and 
hospitality, regard for women and fulfilment of solemn promises. 
Many of these will be recognized as the virtues highly prized in 
Bedouin life. 

After the time of *Abd-al-Malik the tutor or preceptor 
(muaddii), usually a client or a Christian, became a standing 
figure in the court* The tutor of this caliph's sons received the 
following injunction from their father; "Teach them to swim 
and accustom them to little sleep",® *Umar II took his children 
so severely to task for violating the rules of Arabic grammar 
that he was inclined to use corporal punishment.* Significant are 
the instructions he communicated officially to their tutor: "Let 
the first moral lesson impressed upon them be hatred of means of 
amusement, whose initiative is from the devil and whose con- 
sequence is the wrath of God*\ 5 

The public desiring to secure an education, as education went 
in those days, patronized the mosques where classes centring 
on the Koran and hadTth were given. The earliest teachers in 
Islam were therefore the Koran readers (gurra ). As early as 
the year 1? (63S) the Caliph 'Umar sent such teachers in all 

* Aghmi> vol* p, 183, where the anecdote is reported to illustrate his devotion 
to religion t 

* Ibn-SaM, voL iii, pt 2, p. or, fl. io-ii, ef. vol v, p. 30& 1L 7 Agkcni, 
vol* vi, p* 163, L 9. 

* Mubarrad, p. 77, U. 6-7. 

t £^ati^*>«* cl.UJcb&\ ed. Margohouth, roll {Levden, 1907V pp , 2 r^ 
Ibn-al-Jami, Sir**, pp. 357*8. Consult Jar/*, Baydn, vol. ii, pp. 13S-43. 



254 



THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES PAHTtu 



directions and ordered the people to meet with them on Fridays 
in the mosques. *Umar II sent as chief judge to Egypt Yazid 
ibn-abi-rjabib (t 746), who is said to have been the first to 
distinguish himself as teacher there. 1 In al-Kufah we read of a 
certain ai-Dahhak ibn-Muzahim* (f 723), who kept an element- 
ary school (kuttah) and made no charges for instruction. 3 In 
the second Moslem century we even hear of a Bedouin settling 
in al-Basrah and conducting a school where fees were charged. 4 

"Science," the Arabs say, ascribing the words to the Prophet, 
"is twofold: that which relates to religion and that which relates 
to the body [i.e. medicine]." 

The peninsular medicine was very primitive indeed. Legitimate 
remedies mingled with magical practices and talismans against 
the evil eye. A few prescriptions limiting treatment to the use 
of honey, cupping and bleeding embedded in traditions termed 
"the Prophet's medicine" have been preserved and handed down 
to posterity. The critical ibn-Khaldun in *his famous Muqad- 
damah* speaks slightingly of this type of medicine, declaring 
that the Prophet w as sent to teach religious laws and principles 
rather than medication. 

Scientific Arab medicine springs from sources mainly Greek 
and partly Persian. Persian medicine itself was influenced by 
Greek tradition. The list of Arabian physicians in the first 
century of Islam is headed by ai-IJarith ibn-Kaladah (f ca. 634) 
of al-Ta if, who studied in Persia.* Al-Hanth was the first 
scientifically trained man in the peninsula and won the honorary 
title of "the doctor of the Arabians". 7 In the art of healing he was 
succeeded, as was customary, by his son al-Nadr, whose mother 
was the Prophet's maternal aunt. 8 

By the time of the Arab conquest of Western Asia, Greek 
science was no more a living force. It was rather a tradition in 
the hands of Greek- or Syriac-writing commentators and practi- 
tioners. The court doctors of the Umayyads belonged to this 
group. Outstanding among them were ibn-Uthal, the Christian 

1 Suyuji, flusn, vol. i, p. 134; cf. Kindi, IVutah, p. 89. 

* Mentioned by Jofri*, Bayan, vol. i, p 175, as a tutor to *Abd-al«MahVs sons* 
■ Ibn-Sa'd, vol. vi t p. 210. * Yaqut, Udab&\ vol. ii, p. 339. * P. 412. 

* Ibn-abi-Usaybi'ah, *Uyun al-Anba* fi fabaqat a!-Afxbbd\ ed, A. Mailer (Cairo, 
1882), vol. i, p. 109; ibn al-*Jbri, p. 

7 Ibn-al-*Ibri, pp. 156-7; Qifft {/uiamd\ p, 161. 

* lbn abi-Usaybi'ah, vol. i, p. 113; cf. Nawawi Tchdhib, p. 593» 



CH. XXI AJWCA^IO ur uanupjciv liar* um/u iawo 



physician of Mu'awiyah, 1 and Tayadhuq, the evidently Greek 
physician of al-tfajjaj, 3 Some of Tayadhuq's aphorisms have 
been preserved, but none of the three or four books ascribed to 
him. A Jewish physician of Persian origin, Masarjawayh of al- 
Basrah, who flourished in the first days of Marwan ibn-al- 
rjakam, translated (683) into Arabic a Syriac treatise on 
medicine originally composed in Greek by a Christian priest in 
Alexandria, Ahrun by name, 3 and was thus responsible for the 
earliest scientific book in the language of Islam. The Caliph 
al-Walid is credited with having segregated persons afflicted with 
leprosy and with having made special provision for their treat- 
ment. 4 r Umar II is said to have transferred the schools of 
medicine from Alexandria, where the Greek tradition flourished, 
to Antioch and rjarran. 6 

Alchemy, like medicine, one of the few sciences in which the 
Arabs later made a distinct contribution, was one of the discip- 
lines early developed. Khalid (f 704 or 708), the son of the second 
Umayyad caliph and the " philosopher [fcakim] of the Mar- 
wanids", was according to the Fikrist* (our oldest and best 
source of information) the first in Islam to have translations 
made from Greek and Coptic books on alchemy, medicine and 
astrology, Though proved legendary, 7 the ascription of this 
activity to Khalid is significant, since it points out the truth that 
the Arabs drew their scientific knowledge from the older Greek 
sources and received their first impulse therefrom. With the name 
of this Umayyad prince legend associates the name of the famous 
Jabir ibn-Qayyan (Latinized Geber); but Jabir flourished later, 
about 776, and will be dealt with under the *Abbasids. Likewise 
the astrological and alchemical treatises ascribed to Ja'far al- 
Sadiq (700-765), 8 a descendant of *Ali and one of the twelve 
imams of the Shi* ah, have been discredited by critical modern 
scholarship. 9 The most unfortunate fact about the intellectual 

1 Ibn-abi-Usaybi'ah, vol. i, p. 116. 5 /ltd, p. Ml; see above, p. 220. 

* lbn*al-*Ibri } p. 192. * Ibid. p. 195; Jaban, vol. ii, p. 1196. 

* Ibn abi-Usaybi'ah, vol. i, p. u6, 11 25-6. * Pp, 242, 354. 

T JuUus Ruska, Arahiuhe Alehertisttn, I. Ch&hd Ibn Jazld Ibn Mudwija 
(Heidelberg, 1 924), pp. S s e g. 

* fihrtstt p. 317, 1. 25; ibn-KhalhUn, vol. t, p, 185 = de Slane, vol. i, p, 300; 
^»3)1 Khalfuh, Koikf ol-Zunun 'an Asami al-Kutub tv-al+Funun, ed, Fluegcl, 
vol ii (Leipzig, 1837), pp. 581 , 604, vol. m (London, 1842), pp. 53, 128. 

f J, Ruska, Arabischc Akhetnisten, II. (fa'far AlfSdtq t der Sechste /mart 
(Heidelberg, 1924), pp. 49-59. 



7$6 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PART m 



hfe under the Umayyads is that it left no extant traces in the 
form of documents from which we can properly evaluate it. 
Aichnec- If there ever was an indigenous Arabian architecture it could 
ture have existed only in al-Yaman, concerning which our present 
state of investigation and exploration is as yet unable to afford 
sufficient data. Even then South Arabian art could not have 
played much of a part in the northern hfe of the peninsula. Here 
the tent was the ordinary dwelling, the open air the temple and 
the desert sands the tomb. The inhabitant of the rare oasis had, 
as he still has today, a rude architecture represented by build- 
ings of sun-dried brick covered with fiat roofs of palm wood and 
clay, devoid of decoration and ornament and suited only to the 
simplest needs. Even the yijaz national shrine, al-Ka'bah, was 
nothing- but a primitive cube-like structure with no roof. As the 
structure stood at the time of Muhammad it was the work of a 
Coptic Christian carpenter who used wood salvaged from the 
wreck of some Byzantine ships cast ashore at Juddah. The rock- 
cut tombs of Mada*in Sahh (ancient al-flijr), the picturesque 
chambers carved in the multi-coloured sand cliffs of Petra, 
the colonnaded and arched palaces and sanctuaries of Pal- 
myra, such churches as the magnificent one rebuilt by the 
Ghassanid phylarch al-Mundhir ibn-al-rlarith on the grave of 
the martyred St. Sergius at al-Rusafah — all these indeed reveal 
a high order of artistic technique, but it is a technique borrowed 
from Hellenized Egypt and Syria and is not characteristically 
Arabian. 

Architecture, as the first and most permanent of the arts, has 
in its religious variety always been the principal representative 
of the building art. The place of w r orship, literally the home of 
the deity, is the first structure on which the newly awakened soul 
strives to impress a loftier character than that required to satisfy 
the material needs of a human habitation. In the case of the 
Moslem Arabs art found its supreme expression in religious 
architecture. The Moslem architects, or the men they employed, 
evolved a scheme of building, simple and dignified, based on 
earlier patterns but singularly expressive of the spirit of the new 
religion. Thus we have in the mosque (from Ar. masjid^ a place 
to prostrate oneself) an epitome of the history of the development 
of Islamic civilization in its interracial and international rela- 
tionships. Perhaps no clearer example could be cited to illustrate 



2 5 8 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PARTlii 



the cultural interplay between Islam and its neighbours than the 
mosque. 

Thc The simple mosque of Muhammad at al-MadTnah rather than 

or ai- Ue the Makkan sanctuary fortuitously became the general proto- 
Mndinah type of the congregational mosque in the first century of Islam. 
This mosque consisted of a courtyard open to the sky enclosed 
by walls of sun-baked clay. 1 As a protection from the sun the 
Prophet later extended the flat roof from the adjacent buildings 




Fr m Ibrihim Rtj at, A/tr at al ffarama) n 



THr mosque or makkah srEN i rom the east 



to cover the whole open court. The roof consisted of palm trunks 
used as columns to support a cover of palm fronds and mud. 2 A 
palm trunk fixed in the ground served first as a pulpit (mtnbar)* 
for the Prophet to stand on while addressing the congregation. 1 
This was later replaced by a small platform of tamarisk wood with 
three steps copied from those seen in Christian churches in Syria. 

1 Ibn Hisham, pp 336 7. 

* Biladhun, p 6, Bukhuri, vol. i, pp 106*7. 

* In Ontntahscht Siudtcn* Theodor Noldeke, ed C Bczold (Giessen, 1906), 
vol t, pp 331 seq , C H Becker has shown that the mtnbar was originally a raised 
seat or throne used by the ruler and not associated with worship 

4 Ibn-Sa'd, \o\ \, pt 2, p 9, F. Wiistenfeld, Geschichte der Stadt Medina (Got* 
twgen, 1860), p 63, cf Bukhan, \ o\ 1, p. 107. 



CH.XXt ASPECTS OF LIFE UNDER THE UMAYYADS 



^59 



Whether the Prophet found it necessary to erect an indicator 
{tnihrab) of the direction of prayer {qiblah) in his mosque is not 
certain- In reciting their prayers the worshippers arranged 
themselves in ranks parallel to and facing the wall, originally 
toward Jerusalem and later toward Makkah. 1 From the top of 
the flat roof the Abyssinian Bilal with his stentorian voice called 
the believers to prayer. 2 Here, then, we have in their simplest 
forms almost all the rudiments of a congregational mosque — a 
court, some cover to shelter the worshipper and a pulpit. 

The subsequent advance of the Arabians fan wise through 
Western Asia and North Africa brought them into possession 




From /irjfatr JRtf " 1/ir at a/ {faramajn" 



THE INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE OF AL MADlNAH 

of numberless standing and ruined structures representing a 
high artistic development and, what is more essential, it put them 
in control of the living technical knowledge and skill inherited 
by members of the conquered races from ages past. This tech- 
nique, applied to the religious needs of the Moslem community as 
indicated by the Madinah Mosque and modified by local con- 
ditions in different regions, produced in course of time what 

* has been variously designated Saracenic, Arabian, Moslem and 
Mohammedan 8 art. The structural material, whether stone, brick 
1 Ibn-SaM, vol. i, |>t. pp. 3*5. 

^ * * Oae or two years after his arrival in al-Madlnah the Prophet decided on the 
&dh$n as the formal call to prayer after considering the possibility of using the 
fta$u$ (wooden gong) as in the Christian churches Ihn-Sa'd, vol \. pt 2, p 7, 
r * Modern Moslems object to the use of this term because of its parallelism to the 
terra "Christian** applied to the worshippers of Christ, while they, as they maintain, 
*re not worshippers of Muhammad, 



26o THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES partiii 



or clay, was in each case determined by what had prevailed in the 
particular locality. In Syria Moslem architecture was influenced 
by the pre-existent Christian Syro-Byzantine style with its native 
and Roman antecedents. In Mesopotamia and Persia it was 
affected by the Nestorian and Sasanid forms based on an earlier 
native tradition. In Egypt many decorative motifs were supplied 
by the local Copts. Thus there gradually developed a number of 
distinct schools of Arab art: (i) Syro-Egyptian, following the 
Greco-Roman and native precedents; (2) 'Iraqo-Persian, based 
on Sasanid and ancient Chaldaean and Assyrian styles; (3) 
Spanish and North African, showing native Christian and 
Visigothic influence and often called Moorish or Maghribi; and 
(4) Indian, bearing clear marks of the Hindu style. In China the 
mosque is almost a replica of the Buddhist temple. 
Earh The first mosque erected in a conquered land was that of al- 

in?hc UC3 Basrah built by r Utbah ibn-Ghazwan (637 or 638), who also 
provinces founded the city itself as a winter camp for the army. This place 
of prayer was at first an open space fenced round with reeds. 
The edifice was later rebuilt of clay and sun-dried bricks (Izin) by 
abu-Musa al-Ash*ari, 'Umar's governor, who covered the roof 
with grass. 1 In 638 or 639 the invading general, Sa f d ibn-abi- 
Waqqas, established the other military camp, al-Kufah, with a 
simple mosque as its centre. Close by the mosque stood the 
governor's rcs\dcncc(daral-zmarati). As inal-Basrah,themosque 
was originally an open square with walls of reed and later of clay 
and sun-dried bricks. 2 Ziyad, the viceroy of Mu'awiyah, rebuilt 
this mosque with a colonnade following the Sasanid model. In 
other respects the mosque conformed to the type fortuitously 
formulated by Muhammad in al-Madmah. No trace is left of this 
structure or of the Basrahmosque. Of the *Ali mosque in al-Kufah, 
erected about 656 and visited in 1184 by the famous Andalusian 
traveller ibn-Jubayr, 3 little is known. 

The third important camp in Islam was that of *Amr ibn-al- 
'As in al-Fustat (Old Cairo). Here in 642 'Amr laid out the first 
Moslem place of prayer in Africa. In its original form , Amr > s 
mosque, of which there is likewise no trace, 4 was like the others 
a simple quadrangle with no niche (mihrab) to indicate the direc- 

1 Balldhun, pp 346 7, 350, YaqQt, Bulddn, \ol. i, p 642 

* Taban, vol* i, p. 24S9, Yaqut, vol iv f pp 323-4. * Pp 

4 For the many early rebuildmgs it underwent see YfiqQt, vol. iu, pp. 899 900. 



CB,xxi ASPECTS OF LIFE UNDER'THE UMAVYAlDS r 261 



tion of prayer and with no minaret {midhanali). *Amr equipped 
it later with a pulpit built and presented by the Christian king of 
Nubia. 1 The next important mosque was that of *Uqbah ibn- 
Nafi* in al-Qayrawan (670-7$) which, like al-Fustat, was a 
military camp- * Uqbah started with the mosque and government 
house as a centre and grouped the peopled dwellings around 
them. 2 The mosque was rebuilt several times by his successors 
and finally by the Aghlabid Ziyadat-AIlah I (817-38), since 
whose days it has stood as one of the greatest sanctuaries in 
Islam. 

In those cases where Moslems established themselves in 
towns already standing, use was made of older structures. In 
al~Mada*m, Sa'd ibn-abi-Waqqas used the Iwdn (arched hall) of 
the Persian emperor as a place of worship.* In Damascus the 
Cathedral of St. John was rebuilt into a mosque by al-WalTd I.* 
But in IJims the same building is said to have been used in 
common as a mosque and as a church* 5 

The mifcrab, a recess or niche in the wall of the mosque indicat- 
ing the direction of prayer, was a later addition into the equip- 
ment of the mosque taken over from the church. AUWalid and 
his governor, *Umar ibn- f Abd-al-'AzIz, are usually credited with 
its introduction, 0 though some credit Mu'awiyah. 7 The Madfnah 
Mosque was evidently the first to get a mihrab. The mihrab 
rapidly became a common feature of all mosques and like the 
Christian altar appropriated for itself the largest measure of 
sacredness. As such it became the recipient of the varied forms 
of decoration lavished on it by the believers and may therefore be 
considered the standard for determining the quality of the con- 
tinually changing styles of Islamic decorative art 

A profane innovation in the mosque for which MiTawiyah* is 
generally blamed is the maqsiirah* a fenced-off part in the in- 
terior of the mosque reserved for the use of the caliph. Different 

1 MuqrTzi (Bulaq), vol u, p 248, 1. 30 1 Yaqut, vol iv, p. 213 

3 Taban,vol i,pp 2443,5451. 

* Baiudhuxi, p 125, Yaqut, vol. 11, p 591; lbn Jubayr, p 262. 

* J«akhri,p,6t;*bn«HaMqaI,p. 117; Maqdisi,p 156 

« Maqnti, \ol. u, p 247* 11. 16^7, Maqdisi, p. 8o, I 17; ibn-Battujah, \ol. i, pp 
W> 272; ibn Duqmaq, a^/rj^dr h-Wasi/ai *Igd al-Amdr, ed. Yollers (Bulac/ 
- * «93). iv» p. 62, 1. 12; Suyu|i, flusn t vol. ii, p. 149 
9 Ibn-aKFaqih, p„ 109, 1 2. 

' \ ^Pfe*** 0 *-"*?' 57i» Others ascribe it to Marwan ibn-ahHaUm (BattdhurL 
p 6, 1. 16 =r Hitti, p. 20) or to 'Uthtnan (Maqrfci, vol. it, p 247, 1. 32). 



2<>2 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part m 



reasons have been assigned for its introduction, the chief being 
protection for the person of the caliph after the Kharijite attempt 
upon his life. 1 The maq$urak was evidently used by the caliphs 
for retirement and rest or for deliberation. 2 

Like the mthrdb, the minaret was introduced by the Umayyads. 
Syria was therefore the original home of the minaret. Here the 
minaret took the form of the native watch-tower or of its suc- 
cessor the church tower, which was square. 3 

One of the earliest authorities* to mention a minaret on the 
Umayyad Mosque in Damascus explicitly states that it had been 
a watch-tower (ndtur) belonging to the Cathedral of St John. 
In Egypt the minaret is said to have been introduced by a 
governor of Mu'awiyah who provided each of the four corners of 
the Mosque of 'Amr in al-Fustat with one. 5 In al-'Iraq the Basrah 
Mosque was provided by Mu'awiyah's governor, Ziyad, with a 
stone minaret.* But it was again the famous Umayyad builder, 
al-Walld, who was probably responsible for many minarets in 
Syria and al-Hijaz Al-Walid*s governor, 'Umar, introduced the 
new feature into the Madinah Mosque. 7 After his time minarets 
became more and more numerous. 

While the square stone minaret of Syria was the oldest in 
Islam and served as prototype for others, especially in North 
Africa and Spain, it was not the only type developed. Moslem 
minarets followed the traditional shape of the towers of the 
country in which they arose. In Egypt minarets for many cen- 
turies were built only of brick and the famous lighthouse of 
Alexandria, the Pharos, is said by some to have exercised some 
architectural influence. In al- r Iraq a ninth-century Moslem 
tower-minaret at Samarra on the Tigris reflects the ancient 
Assyrian ziggurat (high place) with its seven stories representing 
the sun, the moon and the five planets then known, 8 
The Dome Because of its biblical association and as the first qiblah of 
Kock Islam 0 and the traditional stopping-place of Muhammad on 

1 Dinawan, p. 229; ibn-Khaldun, Muqaddamah t pp 224*6; cf. T<*bari, v °l« h 
P 3465> 11 s 0 

* Cf. Aghant, vol scvii, p. 1 16, 1 6 ■ Maqdisi, p. 182, 11. 8-9. 

* Ibn al Taqih, p 108, cf ibn BatJufah, vol 1, p. 203 

* MaqraS, vol u, p 24S. * Baladhuri, p. 348 
T Wustenfeld, Stadt ) p 75; lbn-Baftfctah, vol i, p 272. 

* Moms Jastrow, Jr , The Ctxnhzatton of Babylonia and Assyria (Philadelphia, 
I9i5)> PP 376-7 ScebcW, pp 418 19 

* Ibn-SaM, vol. 1, pL 2, p. 3; see Koran 2 : 136, 138. 



264 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES fARTin 



his famous nocturnal journey heavenward, Jerusalem very early 
acquired special sanctity in the eyes of all Moslems. 1 In 638 
when the Caliph 'Umar visited the city he possibly erected a 
simple place of worship of timber or brick on the Moriah hili> 
where once stood the Temple of Solomon and later a heathen 
sanctuary and a Christian church. When 'Abd-al-Malik felt 
the need for a centre of worship that should outshine the Church 
of the Holy Sepulchre, 2 rival the Mosque of Makkah then in the 
hands of the anti-caliph 'Abdullah ibn-al-Zubayr and deviate 
therefrom the current of pilgrimage, 3 he built in 691 on the same 
site in Jerusalem the Dome of the Rock, wrongly called the 
"Mosque of 'Umar u . The Dome therefore stands on one of the 
most sacred spots on earth, a spot hallowed by Jewish, heathen, 
Christian and Moslem associations and considered by tradition 
the place where Abraham intended to sacrifice his son Isaac. 
The Kufic inscription round its dome, a part of which was later 
falsified by the Caliph al-Ma'rnun, 4 is one of the oldest Islamic 
writings extant. 5 f Abd-al-Malik used materials derived from the 
Christian buildings that had stood there before they were 
destroyed or damaged by Chosroes II in 614 and employed native 
craftsmen, some of whom may have been of Byzantine origin. 
Here was a radical change from the old pattern, involving the 
introduction of mosaic and other decorative motifs and a dome 
intended to surpass the beautiful cupola of the Church of the 
Holy Sepulchre. 6 The result was an architectural monument of 
such noble beauty that it has scarcely been surpassed anywhere. 
To the Moslems the Dome of the Rock is more than a place of 
archaeological interest and artistic value — it is a living symbol 
of their faith. Although it has gone through a few changes and 
repairs, particularly as a result of the terrific earthquake of 
1016, 7 the Dome has preserved in general its original form and 
is therefore the earliest Moslem monument surviving. The oldest 
description of it is that of ibn-al-Faq!h, 8 written about 903, 
followed by that of al-Maqdisi 8 written about 985. 

1 For Jerusalem as the scene of judgment day see Nuwayn," vol i, pp 334 st$. 
a Maqdisi, p 159 * Ya*qubi, \ol 11, p 31 1. * Sec above, p. 220 

* In the Arab Museum at Cairo as a tombstone found in the cemetery of Old 
Cairo bearing a Kufic inscription dated A » 31/651-2. See Hasan Muhammad 
al-Hiwan in aUHtldl t vol xxxvui (1930), pp 1 179 91. 

* Maqdisi,p 150 The Dome <was modelled after the cathedral of Busra. Cf. M.S. 
Briggs, Mukamtrtadan Architecture in Egypt and Palesttne (Oxford, 1924), p 37. 

T Ibn-akAthIr, vol. ix, p. 209. * Pp. toa-xoi. * Pp 169-71. 



CH XXI ASPECTS OF LIFE UNDER THE UMAYYADS 



The Dome is the shrine of which the Aqsa Mosque is the ri 
sanctuary. The term al-Masjid al-Aqsa, as we have learned M 
before, is used in Arabic literature in a general sense to include 
the whole collection of sacred buildings comprising the Dome 
itself, the tombs, dervish monasteries (sing, taktyah or z&wiyak) 
and public fountains (sing, sabzl) erected by many caliphs from 
f Abd-aI-Malik to the Ottoman Sultan Sulayman the Magni- 
ficent which cover an area of some thirty-four acres. Strictly, the 
word Aq?a is applied to the mosque built by f Abd-aI-Malik not 
far from the Dome. In its construction use was made of the ruins 
of St Mary's Church of Justinian, which stood on that site until 
demolished by Chosroes* The Aqsa was rebuilt about 771 by 
the 'Abbasid al-Man§ur following an earthquake, and was later 
modified by the Crusaders. Salah~al-Dln (Saladin) restored it 
(1 187) to Islam, As in the case of the Dome our earliest descrip- 
tion of it dates from ibn-al-Faqlh 1 and al-Maqdisi. 2 

In 705 * Abd-al-Malik's son al-Walid took over the site of the Th 
basilica of Damascus dedicated to St. John, originally a temple ^ 
of Jupiter, and built there the grand mosque named after the 
Umayyads. 3 How much of the Christian construction was pre- 
served in al-Walld's mosque is difficult to ascertain. The two 
southern minarets stand on ancient church towers which be- 
longed to the old basilica, 4 but the northern minaret, used as a 
beacon tower, was certainly constructed by al-Walld and became 
the model for similar structures in Syria, North Africa and 
Spain. It is the oldest purely Moslem minaret surviving. The 
three naves and a transept, above which rises the great dome, 
with their mosaics, are also the work of this caliph who, we are 
told, employed Persian and Indian craftsmen as well as Greek 
artisans provided by the emperor of Constantinople. 6 Papyri 
recently discovered show that material and skilled workmen were 
imported from Egypt. 0 The walls were sumptuously decorated 
with marbles and mosaics. The geographer al-Maqdisi, 7 who 
visited the mosque in the latter part of the tenth century, speaks 

1 100. * Pp. x68-9 

v * Among the present leading mosques of Aleppo, Him? and Beirut arc some which 
'fctre churches in the past. 

* Cf. Yaqut, vol. ii, p» 593. 

4 Maqdisi, p, 15S; ibn-'AsJUdr, vol. i, p. 202; ibn-Jubayr, p. 261: cf. Tabari, 
toh ii, p* 

* H*l. Bell In X>trIsTaw 9 \o\ \\ (1911), pp. 274, 374. 

* mi see also Itfakhn, p 57; ibn-Uustah, p. 346. 



au xn ASPECTS OF LIFE UNDER THE UMAYYADS '267 

of its mosaics of gold and precious stones representing trees and 
cities and bearing- beautiful inscriptions. These same representa- 
tions, covered later by some pious caliph, were rediscovered 
in 1928. 1 In this mosque we find the first appearance of the semi- 
circular niche for prayer (mifrrdi). Here the horseshoe arch is 
also apparent. The vignette decorations served as a model for 
those of the great Qayrawan Mosque as remodelled by the 
Aghlabids in the ninth century. Though it was burned in 1069, 
again in 1400 by Tamerlane and for the last time in 1893, the 
Umayyad Mosque has always held its place in Moslem imagina- 
tion as the fourth wonder of the world. 2 It is also considered 
the fourth sanctuary in Islam (above, p. 221), 

In the period between the first primitive place of worship of 
al-Madinah and the two sumptuous mosques of Jerusalem and 
Damascus the evolution of the Moslem congregational (Jama ah) 
mosque was rendered complete. The congregational mosque, be 
it noted, has always been more than a building for devotion; it 
serves as a general assembly hall and as apolitical and educational 
forum. 3 The physical needs of the congregation are now amply 
provided for by a sheltered sanctuary and a covered approach; 
the ritual needs are met by the minarets, niches, pulpits and 
outside fountains for ablution; and the political needs by a majesty 
of plan4md splendour of ornament that help to serve notice on 
the world that the followers of the new faith are in nowise behind 
those* who worship in the grand cathedrals of Christendom. 

In architectural fields other than the religious the Umayyads Pa 
left but few monuments. Chief among these are the desert^ 
palaces erected by princes of the caliphal family. Most of the 
caliphs themselves, like the Ghassanid rulers before them, had 
country seats, and apart from Mu*awiyah and f Abd-al-Maiik 
hardly any of them lived in Damascus* In the capital itself 
nothing is left of the Khadra ,* the imperial residence adjoining 
the great mosque, nor are any traces left of al-I^ajjaj's residence 
of the same name, al-Qubbah al-Khadra\ $ in Wasit. But the 

L J E. tie Lorey and M. van Berchem, Let mosciquts ds tc vtosqult des Omayyadet & 
pantarWartSi 1930). K. A. C CresweU, Early Muslim Architecture^ pt. 1 (Oxford, 

s »JHba*ia~Faqih, p« 106; ibn-'Asakir, vol. i, p. 198; Yaqut, vol. il p. 59** 
>*Jn recent years the principal outbreaks against European authority in Syria 

,and Kgypt have had their inception in the Friday mosque meetings. 
»•* See above, p. 2*5. Ibn-al-Athir, voL v, p. 224, 
* Baladhuri, p. 290; Mas'udi, Tanbih, p. 360; Wqubi, p. 327 



ch.xxi ASPECTS OF LIFE UNDER THE UMAYYAbS 269 

fringes of the Syrian desert are strewn with the remains of 
palaces which were originally either Roman fortresses on the 
limes repaired and remodelled by Umayyad architects or which 
were erected by those architects on Byzantine and Persian 
patterns. The ruins of a palace known by the modem name of 
al-Ukhaydir lie not far from *Ayn at-Tamr on the eastern side 
of the Syrian desert, but it is not certain whether they belong to 
a late Umayyad or an early 'Abbasid structure. 1 On the south- 
western edge of the desert the remains are more numerous* 
Here Yazid, son of *Abd-al-Ma!ik, either built or restored a 
palace called Muwaqqar,* of which few remains are left. His son 
al-Walid II, who was addicted to the chase and leas innocent 
pastimes, occupied the neighbouring Qastal 3 and al-Azraq,* both 
Roman posts in Transjordan. To this same Caliph al-Walid II 
is ascribed the building of another palace in this region known by 
the modem name al-Mushatta (al-Mashta), 5 which \v a s the first 
in this region to be visited by archaeologists The structure was 
left unfinished at the death of its caliph-builder. The magnificently 
carved facade of this beautiful chateau is now in the Kaiser 
Friednch Museum, Berlin 6 The best known structure in this 
group is, however, Qusayr (the little palace of) *Anirah, lying 
cast of the Jordan in a direct line from the northern edge of the 
Dead Sea. This castle, built between 712 and 715 probably by 
aUWalld I, was discovered for the learned world by Alois Musil 7 
in 1898. The name is presumably modern, since we see no trace 
of it in Arabic literature. What makes this building especially 
remarkable is the extraordinary mufai paintings to be discussed 
in the next section. 

Most theologians of Islam maintained that the fepresenta- Pai 
tion of men and animals was the prerogative of God alone and 

* Gertrude L. Bell, Palace and Afosque at Ukkaidir (Oxford, 1914), p. 167. 

* Yaqut ? vol. iv, p. 687. A1-Balqa\ where the palace stood» was the southern 
region of the eastern Jordan district and comprised ancient Moab. 

4 From Latin casteltvm % castle. Vaqut, vol. iv, p. 95. 

* Tftbari, vol. ii f p. 1743. 

1 Bedouin pronunciation Mshatta, winter resort. 

* Consult R. E. Bnlnnow and A. v. DomaS2ewski, Dte Prwincia Arabia, 
vol. « (Strassburg, 1905)* VP 105-70; B. Schuiz and J. Strzygowbki, "Mschatta"! 
Jnhrbuch der konigUeh-prtustisckcn fCitnstsainmlungert y vol xxv (1904), pp. 

373* 

* gvtejr "Antra und andcre SMosser dsthch von Mcab % pt. x (Vienna, 1902), 
PP. 5 I Musil, guftjr *Amra, I. Ttxthand (Vienna, 1907). Muni tonsidered al- 
Waitd II the ouilder* 



ca>*»~ f ASPECTS OF LIFE UNDER THE UMAYYADS 37* 

consideredTiim who intruded on this domain a blasphemer. This 
hostile attitude toward representational art, a corollary of the 
uncompromising monotheism of the Koran and its prohibition 
of idolatry, derives its direct sanction from a hadtth in which 
the Prophet is reported to have declared that those to be most 
severely punished on the day of judgment are the painters. 1 
The term used, mu^awwirun (portrayers), would apply to sculp- 
tofs f as well. No representation of human beings therefore occurs 
anywhere on mosques, though in a few cases we find it on palaces 
and in books. Almost all decorative motifs in Moslem art are 
derived from the vegetable kingdom or from geometrical figures. 
The success achieved in later ages in this field is evinced by the 
term "arabesque" applied to this style of decoration in most of 
the European languages. But the Arabians themselves had no 
developed feelingfor either plasticor pictorial art, as their remains 
in the peninsula and the literary descriptions of their sanctuaries 
dearly indicate, What we call Moslem art was eclectic in its origin, 
motifs and execution, mostly the product of the artistic genius of 
the" subjugated peoples, but developed under Moslem auspices 
and peculiarly adapted to the demands of the Moslem religion. 
"The earliest illustrations of Moslem pictorial art are the 
frescoes of Qusayr 'Amrah, which suggest workmanship of 
Christian painters. On the walls of this Transjordanian pleasure- 
house 'and bath of al-Walid I are pictures of six royal per- 
sonage^, including Roderick, the last Visigothic king of Spain. 
u Q#ys&f* (Gaesar) and "Najask?* (Negus) are inscribed above 
two of thevfigures and "Chosroes" (in Greek) above the third. 
Sasanld influence is manifest in the painting. Other symbolic 
figuires represent Victory, Philosophy, History and Poetry, A 
hunting-scene depicts a lion attacking a wild ass. A number of 
nude pictures represent dancers, musicians and merrymakers. 
The ornament consists of draperies, foliage growing out of 
vases, vines, palm trees with clusters of fruit, laurel and birds of 
the desert. The inscriptions are mostly Arabic with a few names 
in Greek, . 

r In pre-Islamic time the Arabians had various types of song: Mu 
caravan, "martial, religious and amorous. Traces of the primi- 
<tive religious hymns are still preserved in the talbiyak* of the 
V 1 Bufehan, v<& vii, p. 61* 

, * The recitation of the hymn beginning vnth "Labkayka" (htre I am); Bukhari* 



CH XXI ASPECTS OF LIFE UNDER THE UMAYYADS &73 

pilgrimage ceremony. The inshdd, or chanting of poetry, is main- 
tained in the cantillation {tajwtd) of the Koran. Bui the caravan 
song, huda\ was their favourite and, in their estimation, the 
first form of singing. The huda — so goes the legend in al- 
Mas'udi 1 — originated v/hen one of the founders of the race, 
Mudar ibn-Ma'add,* fell from his camel, fractured his hand 
and in his beautiful voice began to cry, "Ya-yadah! Y5-yadah!" 
(O, my hand! O, my hand!), which synchronized with the steps 
of the camel and kept it moving. It was this cry that created 
the metre of rajas used in caravan songs and the simplest of 
all poetical metres. 

The South Arabians undoubtedly had their own types of song 
and musical instruments 3 about which very little is known, but 
it is doubtful whether that tradition formed a part of the heritage 
of the Northern, and consequently the Moslem, Arabians. The 
prc-Islamic inhabitants of al-rjhjaz used as their principal instru- 
ments the square tambourine (duff), the flute {qasabah y qassabah) 
and the reed pipe or oboe (samr, misrnar)* They also knew the 
skin-bellied lute (mis har) , 5 At about the time of the Prophet 
foreign musical influences were beginning to tell. The Ghas- 
samd princes kept choruses of Greek girl singers The Lakhmids 
of al-yirah had the Persian wooden-bellied lute (?ud t whence 
Eng. "lute"), which the Pjijazis borrowed. One tradition makes 
al-Nadr ibn-al-rjarith ibn-Kaladah, the physician and poet- 
minstrel whose pagan recitals competed with the revelations of 
Muhammad in winning the favour of the people, 6 responsible 
for the introduction of this instrument into Makkah from 
at-ftirah. 7 Another tradition credits ibn-Surayj (f ca, 726) 
with introducing this Persian lute. He is said to have seen it 
for the first time in the hands of Persian workers brought to 
Arabia in 684 by 'Abdullah ibn-al-Zubayr to rebuild the 
Ka*bah. 8 Later the wood-wind instrument called in Persian nay 
(vertical flute) was likewise borrowed, together with the name, 
as the researches of Henry G. Farmer 9 indicate. Evidently 

I VoU nn, p 92. * Cf. "Almond" m r Ch. 1 : 20. 

* Mas fldi, vol. vm, p. 93. « Agham, vol. 11, p 175. 
" *9*» vo1 * ui > P- *37» Mas'Qdi, vol. vui, p. 93. 

He is supposed to be the one referred to in sur 31:5-6 

* Ma$'udi,\ol vin,pp 93-4, b ^W,vol i> p. 98. 

pf Arcbtan Music to the XlUtk Century (London, 1929), p. 7. 



174 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part m 

most of the Jahiliyah professional singers were female, and 
the Aghani? itself a book of songs, has handed down to us the 
names of a few of them. Some of the elegies mourning the 
famous hero Sakhr by his sister al-Khansa\ a contemporary of 
the Prophet and celebrated as the greatest poetess of the Arabs, 
were evidently composed as songs. 2 Most of the pre-Islamic 
poets evidently sang their compositions to music. 

Muhammad's denunciation of poets 8 was not directed against 
them as such but merely as the mouthpieces of heathenism. The 1 
Prophet may have looked with disfavour upon music also be- 
cause of its association with pagan religious rites. According 
to a hadith he is said to have declared the musical instrument 
to be the devil's muezzin, serving to call men to his worship, 4 
Most Moslem legists and theologians frowned on music; some 
condemned it in all its aspects; a few looked upon it as religiously 
unpraiseworthy {makruh) % though not actually sinful (hardm), 
but the view of the masses was better expressed in the adage, 
" Wine is as the body, music as the soul, and joy is their off- t 
spring". 6 

Soon after the first awe inspired by Islam had worn off the 
tendency of social change in al-PJijaz veered toward the esthetic 
side, especially under 'Uthman, the first caliph with a taste for 
wealth and display. Harmony between voice and instrument 
was then learned. What the Arabic authors style al-ghina al~ 
muiqan or aUraqtq t artistic or elegant singing, that highly 
developed type in which there is application of rhythm (tqa*) to 
the melody of song, became well established in al-fjijaz. Male 
professional musicians appear for the first time under the 
sobriquet mukhannathun^ i.e. effeminate, men who dyed their 
hands and affected the manners of women* Such a man was 
Tuways (the little peacock* 632-710) of al-Madmah, considered 
the father of song in Islam. Tuways is supposed to have intro- 
duced rhythm into Arabic music and to have been the first to 
sing in that language to the accompaniment of an instrument, 
the tambounne. 6 

1 Vol vm, p 3, vol x, p 48. * Aghanti vol. xm, p 140. * Sur, 26^2246 

* Consult Nuwayri, A'/^jyff£, vol iv,pp 132-5? Farmer, Arabian Muste t pp 24-5; 
A J Wensinck, A Handbook of Early Muhammadan Tradttton (Lcyden, 1927), 
p 171 

* N-vwajk, p 178 Consult Nnwayn, vol. iv, pp. 136 seq, 

* Aghant t vol 11, pp. 170, 171, 173. 



cfr'XXt ASPECTS OF LIFE UNDER THE UMAYYADS 275" 

The first generation of Moslem singers, headed by Tuways, 
consisted of foreign libertines. Tuways left a progeny of students, 
chief among whom was ibn-Surayj (ea. 634-726), regarded as 
one of the four great singers of Islam. 1 Besides crediting him 
with the introduction of the Persian Jute tradition ascribes to 
him the use of the baton for directing musical performances. 
Ibn-Surayj was a freedman, the son of a Turk, and enjoyed 
the patronage of the famous beauty Sukaynah, daughter of ai- 
rjusayn. He counted among his teachers the Makkan negro 
client Sa'Id ibn-Misjah (or Musajjah, f ea~ 714). Sa'ld, the first 
Makkan musician and perhaps the greatest of the Umayyad 
period, is said to have travelled in Syria and Persia and to have 
been the first to put Byzantine and Persian songs into Arabic. 2 
He is evidently the one who systematized Arabian musical 
theory and practice of classical times. Another student of his 
was al-Ghand, 8 a half-breed Berber who, as a slave of Sukaynah, 
was also trained by ibn-Surayj * and, after his second master, 
attained the enviable rank of one of the four singers of Islam. 
The other two were ibn-Mtxhriz (f ca« 7/5), of Persian origin, 
popularly dubbed **the cymbalist [sanndj] of the Arabs", 6 and 
Ma*bad fl 743), a Madlnese mulatto who was a special favourite 
at the courts of al-Walld I, Yazld II and al-Walld IL* Before 
settling in the capital Ma'bad had wandered as a minstrel all 
over Arabia. Among the songstresses {qty&i) Jamtlah (f ca. 
720), a Madlnese freedwoman, was the artistic queen of the 
first generation^ Her residence proved a centre of attraction for 
the leading musicians and singers of Makkah and al-Madinah, 
many of whom were her pupils; conspicuous among the frequent 
auditors at her concerts was the poet of love, 'Umax ibn-abi- 
Rabl'ah. Among her pupils she counted FJababah and SaHamah, 
the favourites of Yazld IL The crowning event of Jamllah's 
picturesque career was her imposing pilgrimage to Makkah at 
the head of a gorgeous procession of singers and songstresses, 
poets and musicians, admirers and friends, all in gala dress and 
on richly caparisoned mounts. 8 

1 Occasional concerts and brilliant musical events held in the 

* Agkjnii vol. i, p, 9$. * ihd. voL iii, p. $4. 

* Ills first name \ras 'Abd-al-Mahk. Ghorld means "the good singer". 
\A&foH vol i, pp. 99-100. * Ihd vol. i> p, 151. 

* Ihd, voLvii* p. 135. * * 



276 THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES PArtih * 



homes of aristocratic ladies attracted throngs of dilettanti. The 
wood-bellied lute int$ educed from Persia through al-I$Irah had 
by this time partly superseded the native skin-bellied lute. 
Another favourite stringed instrument was the 7>it t zafak i a kind of 
psaltery. The wind instruments included the flute {qasabak) and 
reed pipe {vnztftd? )aswcll as thehorn (£?7<7).The percussion instru- 
ments were represented by the square tambourine, especially 
favoured by the women, and by the drum (iabl) and cymbals 
or castanets (sunuj). Notes, when known, were transmitted by 
word of mouth from one generation to another and have con- 
sequently been entirely lost. The Aghant is replete with verses 
set to music under the Umayyads, yet it has preserved not a 
solitary note for us. On the occasion of a visit to al-rjijaz by the 
Christian Hunayn al-rlin, dean of the 'Iraq singers, such a 
crowd gathered at the residence of Sukaynah to hear him that 
the porch on which they met collapsed, resulting in the death 
of the distinguished visiting artist. 1 The holy pilgrimage, with ail 
the celebrities it brought from different parts of the Moslem 
world, afforded the Hijaz musicians and singers an annual 
opportunity for the display of their talent. It was customary for 
them on special occasions to meet the caravan and perform en 
route. The Aghdni has left us a description of a pilgrimage- 
parade in which 'Umar ibn-abi-Rabfah, the representative of 
the poetical spirit of the age, clad in his finest attire and flirting 
with female wayfarers, took the leading parL In his company 
was ibn-Surayj, whose singing of *Umar's verses distracted the 
pilgrims from the observance of their ritualistic ceremonies. 2 

Thus did Makkah, and more particularly al-Madmah, become 
in the Umayyad period a nursery of song and a conservatory 
for music. 3 As such they supplied the court of Damascus with an 
ever-increasing stream of talent. In vain did the conservatives 
and ulcma press their objections, linking music and song with 
wine-bibbing and gaming as forbidden pleasures (inaldhi) and 
quoting Prophetic hadtths which place such diversions among 
the most powerful means by which the devil seduces men. The 
tide could not be stemmed; the Muses stood too high in public 
favour to suffer from such verbal attacks. Their devotees could 
quote equally striking sayings ascribed to the Prophet * and 

1 Aghant, vol 11, p 127. 1 Ibid, vol i, p. 102. s *!qct t \ol. in, p 237. 

* Gliuunh, Ihy£ W/upj ahDtn (Cairo, 1 334). *ol ii, pp 238^?. 



278 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 

might very well argue that poetry, music and song did not always 
tend to debase, that they contributed their share to the refine- 
ment of social intercourse and to the sublimation of the relation- 
ships between the sexes. 1 It was the second Umayyad cahph, 
Yazld I, himself a composer, who introduced singing and musical 
instruments into the Damascus court. 2 He initiated the practice of 
holding grand festivities in the palace which featured wine and 
song, hereafter inseparable in royal festivals. 'Abd-al-Mahk 
patronized ibn-Misjah of the IJijaz school. His son al-Walld, 
the patron of arts, summoned ibn-Surayj and Ma'bad to the 
capital, where they were received with great honour. Yazld II, 
successor of the austere and puritanical 'Umar, reinstated poetry 
and music in public favour through his rjababah and Sallamah.* 
Hisham bestowed his patronage on rjLunayn of al-rjlrah. The 
pleasure-loving Walid II, himself a player on the lute and com- 
poser of songs, welcomed to his court a host of musician-singers, 
including the noted Ma'bad. 4 His reign coincided with the 
blossoming of music in the twin cities of al-rjtfjaz. So widely 
spread was the cultivation of the musical art under the last 
Umayyads that it provided their enemies, the 'Abbasid faction, 
with an effective argument in their propaganda to undermine 
the house of "ungodly usurpers"* 

1 *f$d, vol. iii, pp. 225-6, Nawaji, pp. 177-9. 

1 Agh&nt, vol. xvi, p. 70, cf. Mas'Qch, \ol. v, pp. 156-7 

* Mas*adi, vol. v, pp. 446 seq. * Hid. vol. vi, p. 4. 



CHAPTER. XXII 
DECLINE AND FALL OF THE UMAYYAD DYNASTY 



4. Majiwan t (683-5) 



Muhammad 



5. *Abd-al-MaUK (685-705) 



♦Abd-ai-'Azi 



6. AlAvalId I 7, SulaymXn 9. YazId II 10. HishXm & 'Umap, Jl 
frosts) friS-17) (7*0-^4) (7^4-43) {717-20) 



r4, MAftwAK ir 
(744-50) 



12, YAZfD III 13. XBRAHfM 
(744) (744) 



IKAL-tVAtfoH 
(743-4) 



A tree showing- the genealogical relationship of the Marwamd 
caliphs of the Ura&yyad dynasty 

ARAB authorities highly esteem Hisham and, as we learned 
before* rightly rank him after Mu'awiyah and *Abd-al-Maiik as 
the third and last true statesman of the banu-Umayyah. His 
four successors, with the exception of Marwan II, who ended 
the dynasty, proved incapable if not dissolute or degenerate. 
Even, before the time of Hisham it became the fashion for the 
caliph, as exemplified by YazId II, to pass his time in the chase 
and over his wine cup and to be absorbed more in music and 
poetry than in the Koran and state affairs.* The eunuch system, 
which made the harem institution possible, was now fully de- 
veloped. Indulgence in luxury due to increased wealth and a 
superabundance of slaves was rife* Even the reigning family 
could no longer boast pure Arabian blood. Yazid III (744) was 
the first caliph in Islam born of a slave mother* 1 His two sue- 
cessors y were also sons of such freed women. 2 Such evils among 

Taban, U,p« *8?j&* Ya*<$fcbS, vol. «, p. 40%; Mas'udi, vol. vi, pp. 31-2. Sec 
wtaw, p. 332. 

, * YaVjj&bi t vtO,pju 403/404, 

379 



28o THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part hi 

the ruling class were only too symptomatic of general moral 
turpitude. The characteristic vices of civilization, especially 
those involving wine, women and song, had seized upon the 
sons of the desert and were beginning to sap the vitality of the 
youthful Arab society. 

The ancient and typical weakness of Arabian social life, with 
its over- emphasis on individualism, tribal spirit (^asabiyak) and 
feuds, was again reasserting itself. Such bonds as Islam had 
temporarily provided for holding in check the centrifugal forces 
latent in social life organized on a large scale were now becoming 
loose Beginning with 'Uthman, the hitherto repressed family 
spirit began to assert itself. 

North Arabian tribes had before Islam emigrated into al- 
'Iraq, where they established the Diyar Rabl'ah (the abode of 
the RabT'ah tribe) along the Tigris, and the Diyar Mudar (the 
abode of the Mudar tribe) along the Euphrates. The first place 
among the banu-Mudar was held by the Qays clan. Other tribes 
who had settled in Syria originally came from South Arabia 
and were therefore called Yamanites. In the Yamanite party 
of Syria the leading faction was the banu-Kalb. The Arabs of 
Khurasan, the north-eastern province of Persia, were mainly 
colonists from al-Basrah and were therefore mostly North 
Arabians; the leading tribe there was Tamlm, corresponding to 
Qays in the Euphrates region. In Khurasan the Yamanite party 
went by the appellation of Azdite, after the name of the leading 
family. In other regions the Qaysites were called Nizarites or 
Ma'addites. 1 But no matter what name these tribes went by 
the alignment was usually that of North Arabian against South 
Arabian tribes Conscious of some deep-rooted national distinc- 
tion, the North Arabians, who traced their descent to Ishmael and 
styled themselves 'Adnani, were never fully amalgamated with 
the South Arabians, who carried their pedigree back to Qahtan, 
the Joktan of Genesis 10 : 25 seq> The Qaysites became m course 
of time the nucleus of one political party, and the Yamanites of 
another. 

Mu'awiyah, the founder of the Umayyad dynasty, raised his 
Syrian throne on Yamanite shoulders. His son and successor, 

On Arab tribes consult ibn«Durayd, Ishttqaq, F. Wustcnield, Geneabgiscke 
Tabellen der arafoschen Stamme (Gottingcn, 1852)5 and Register tu der gen *• 
logtschen Tabellen der orabischen Stair me (Gottingen, 1853). 



CH. ran DECLINE AND FALL OF UMAYYAD DYNASTY 281 

YazTd, whose mother, Maysun, belonged to the Kalbites of the 
Yamanite party, contracted a marriage with a Italbite woman. 
The jealous Qaysites refused to recognize his successor, 
Mu'awiyah II, and declared for the pseudo-caliph ibn-al-Zubayr, 
The decisive victory of the Kalbites over the Qaysites at Marj 
Rahit (684) secured the throne for Marwan, the father of the 
Marwanid branch of the Umayyad house. Under al-Walid I 
Qaysite power reached its culmination in al-yajjaj and his 
cousin Muhammad, the conqueror of India, and in Qutaybah, 
the subduer of Central Asia. Al-Walid's brother Sulayman 
favoured the Yamanites. YazTd II, however, under the influence 
of his Mudari mother patronized the Qaysite party, as did al- 
Walid II; Yazid III relied upon Yamani arms in wresting the 
sceptre from the hands of his predecessor, al-Walid II. Thus did 
the caliph in the latter part of the Umayyad period appear to 
be rather the head of a particular party than the sovereign of a 
united empire. 

The polarization of the Moslem world by this Arab dualism 
of Q&ys and Yaman, who also appear under other names, became 
now complete. It precipitated the downfall of the dynasty and 
its ill effects were manifest in years to come and in widely sepa- 
rated places. The district of Damascus itself was once the scene 
of relentless warfare for two years all because, as we are told, 1 
a Ma'additehad filched a water-melon from a Yamanite's garden. 
In distant Murcia in Spain blood is said to have flowed for 
several years because a Mudarite picked a vine leaf from the 
yard of a Yamanite. 2 Everywhere, in the capital as well as in the 
provinces, on the banks of the Indus, the shores of Sicily and 
the borders of the Sahara, the ancestral feud, transformed into 
an alignment of two political parties, one against the other, madfe 
itself felt. It proved a potent factor in ultimately arresting the 
progress of Moslem arms in France and in the decline of the 
Andalusian caliphate. In Lebanon and Palestine the issue seems 
to have remained a living one until modern times, for we know 
of pitched battles fought between the two parties as late as the 
eaily part of the eighteenth century. 

The lack of any definite and fixed rule of hereditary succession The 
to the caliphal throne caused no small measure of national dis- bIcnr 
turbance* Mu'awiyah initiated the wise and far-sighted policy 
* Abu-aUW*, yol. ii« p, 14. » Ibn- T Idtan, Bs^an, vol. », p. 84. 



282 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES partiii 



of nominating his son as his successor, but the antiquated 
Arabian tribal principle of seniority in succession stood in con- 
stant conflict with the natural ambition of the ruling father to 
pass the sovereignty on to his son. Homage by the people became 
the only sure title to the throne. Of the fourteen Umayyad 
caliphs only four — Mu'awiyah I, Yazid I, Marwan I and e Abd- 
al-Malik — had their sons as immediate successors. The already 
complicated problem was rendered more complicated by the 
precedent established when the founder of the Marwanid branch 
designated his son *Abd-al-Mahk as his successor, to be fol- 
lowed by his other son *Abd-al- f Aziz. 1 Once in power, *Abd-al- 
Malik did the natural thing: he tried to divert the succession 
from his brother ^bd-al-'AzIz to his own son al-Walid, in the 
meantime designating his other son, Sulayman, as the second 
nominee. 2 Al-Walld in his turn made an unsuccessful effort to 
deprive his brother Sulayman of his right in favour of his own 
son. All these manoeuvres were, of course, far from being con- 
ducive to the stability and continuity of the regime. 
The The dissentient Shl'ites, who never acquiesced in the rule oi 

of^Al? nS *k e "Umayyad usurpers** and never forgave them the wrong 
they perpetrated against \Ali and al~Husayn, became now more 
active than ever. Their whole-hearted devotion to the descendants 
of the Prophet made them the focus of popular sympathy. To 
their camp rallied many of those who were dissatisfied politically, 
economically or socially with the rule of the banu-Umayyah, 
In al-'Iraq, where the majority of the population had by now 
become ShI'ah, opposition to Syrian rule, which arose originally 
out of the feeling that it deprived their country of its national 
independence, now took on a religious colour. In the Sunnite 
ranks themselves, the pietists charged the caliphs with worJdli- 
ness and neglect of koranic and traditional law and were every- 
where ready to give religious sanction to any opposition that 
might be raised. 

Wbb&sid Still another destructive force was in operation. The f Abbasids, 
claimants descendants of an uncle of the Prophet, al-* Abbas ibn- f Abd-al- 
Muttalib ibn-Hashim, began to press their claim to the throne. 
Cleverly they made common cause with the 'Alids by emphasiz- 
ing the rights of the house of Hashim. The Shi'ah regarded 
this family as consisting primarily of the descendants of r AU, but 
* Ya'qubi, vol. h t p. 306. * Jfbzd pp 334*5- 



at. XXII DECLINE AND FAL'l/OF UMAYYAD DYNASTY 283 

the 'Abbasids included themselves as members of the Hashimtte 
branch of the Quraysh and therefore closer to the Prophet than 
the banu-Umayyah. 1 

Taking advantage of the widespread discontent and posing 
as defenders of the true faith, the descendants of al- c Abbas 
soon became the champions and leaders of the anti-Umayyad 
movement. For their headquarters and seat of propaganda they 
chose a litde village south of the Dead Sea, al-Humaymah 2 by 
name, seemingly harmless and aloof from the rest of the world 
but in reality strategically close to the caravan route and the 
junction of die pilgrim roads. Here the stage was set for the 
earliest and most subtle propagandist movement in political 
Islam. 

Non-Arabian Moslems in general and Persian Moslems in The 
particular had good reason for dissatisfaction. Far from being Ktan* 
granted the expected economic and social equality with Arabian 
Moslems, they were instead generally reduced to the position of 
clients and were not always exempted from the capitation tax 
paid by non- Moslems. What made them more discontented was 
the consciousness that they represented a higher and more 
ancient culture, a fact acknowledged even by the Arabians 
themselves. It was among such discontented neophytes that the 
Shl'ite-'Abbasid seed found fertile soil. From al-'Iraq, always 
loyal to the 'Alid cause, the Shfah doctrine spread into Persia 
and struck root cspeciallyin the north-eastern province, Khurasan, 
which was then much larger than now. In Persia the way had 
been somewhat prepared by the Azd-Mudar feud perpetuated 
by the Arabs. But deeper forces were at work. Under die guise 
of Shfah Islam, Iranianism was revivifying itself. 

The zero hour in the life of the Umayyad dynnsty approached 
when a coalition was effected between the Shf ite, Khurasanian 
and *Abbasid forces which was utilized by the last for their own 

* Hoshim 
•Abd*al-Muttalib 



- "Abdullah Abu-Jalib Al-'AccaS 

Mohammad V\u+Fatimah 

* Yft'q&faS, vol. ii, pp. 356-7; J?aUn, pp. 192.3; T*haH, vol. iii, p. 34; YaqQt, 
voLu,p.342; Musll, Northern i£*£&t (New York, 1926), pp. 56-61 and mapin pocket 



284 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES paKthi , 

advantage. This coalition was headed by abu-aU c Abbas, a great- 
great-grandson of al-' Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet. Under his 
leadership revolutionary Islam opposed the existing order with 
a feigned ideal of theocracy and a promise of return to ortho- 
doxy. On June 9, 747, the long-meditated revolt broke out when 
the 'Abbasid agent in Khurasan, abu-Muslim, a Persian freed- 
man of obscure origin, 1 unfurled the black banner, originally 
the standard of Muhammad but now the 'Abbasid emblem. At 
the head of the Azd (Yamani) tribe he entered the capital, Marw, 
but the majority of his adherents were Iranian peasants and 
clients rather than Arabs 2 In vain did Nasr ibn-Sayyar, the 
Umayyad governor of Khurasan, appeal to Marwan II for aid. 
In a pathetic letter he had recourse to poetry. 3 But Marwan, 
though in personal energy and capacity superior to his immediate 
predecessors, made no response, for his hands were full with an 
uprising at home which had spread from Palestine to rjims. 
It was the same old trouble between Qaysites and Yamanites 
which, exploited by ambitious aspirants to the caliphate, had 
assumed the proportions of civil war under his two predecessors 
Yazld III and Ibrahim. Yazld had made matters worse by 
espousing the Qadarite doctrine. Ibrahim headed the Yamanite 
party. Marwan II, favoured by the Qaysites, had committed the 
fatal mistake of transferring not only his residence but also 
the state bureaux to rjarran in Mesopotamia, thus alienating 
the sympathies of all Syrians. Besides the Syrians, the mainstay 
of Umayyad power, the Kharijitcs of al-'Iraq — ever the deadly 
enemy of established order — were now in open rebellion.* In 
Spain the ancestral feuds were rending in pieces that western- 
most province of Islam. For three years the sexagenarian caliph, 
who previous to his accession had won the sobriquet Marwan 
ai-Himar (the ass) for his unfailing perseverance in warfare,* 
held the field against the Syrian and Kharijite insurgents and 
proved himself an able general. To him as the military organizer 
of these campaigns is ascribed the change from fighting in lines 
($ufi!f)> a practice hallowed by association with the Prophet's 
method of warfare, to that of cohorts (karddis\ small units more 
compact and at the same time more mobile. But it was too late 

1 Cf. Fak/trt, p. 186. * Tabari, vol. it, pp. 1953 sea.; Djnawari, pp. 359^ 

* Fakhn, p 194, Nicholson, Literary History t p. 2SX. 

* Tabari, vol u pp. 1943-9- * Fakhri,?. 184. 



' CH.XX1I DECLINE AND FALL OF UMAYYAD* DYNASTY' ^3$ 



for him to redeem the general situation. The sun of the banu- 
Umayyah was fast approaching its setting. 

The fall of the capital of Khurasan, Marw, was followed in 
749 by the fall of the leading city of al-'Iraq, al-Kufah, the 
hiding-place of abu-al- f Abbas, which surrendered to the insur- 
gents without much opposition. Here on Thursday, October 30, 
749, public homage was paid in the chief mosque to abu-al- 
'Abbas as caliph. 1 The first 'Abbasid caliph was thus enthroned. 
Everywhere the white banner of the Umayyads was in retreat 
before the black banner of the *Abbasids and their confederates. 
Marwan resolved on a last, desperate stand. With 12,000 2 men 
he advanced from rjarran and was met (January 750) on the 
left bank of the Greater Zab, a tributary of the Tigris, by the 
enemy forces headed by 'Abdullah ibn- f Ali, an uncle of the new 
caliph. The will to win and the expectation of victory were no 
longer on the side of the Syrian army and its defeat was decisive. 
After the battle of the Zab Syria lay at the feet of the 'Abbasid 
victors. Its leading towns, one after the other, opened their 
gates to 'Abdullah and his Khurasani troops. Only at Damascus 
was it found necessary to lay siege, but die proud capital sur- 
rendered on April 26, 750, after a few days. From Palestine 
'Abdullah sent a detachment in pursuit of the fugitive caliph, 
who was caught and killed (August 5, 7S°) outside a church in 
which he had sought refuge at Buslr 3 (Busiris) in Egypt, where 
his tomb is still pointed out. His head and, according to al- 
Mas'udi, 4 the insignia of the caliphate were sent to abu-al- 
'Abbas. 

The 'Abbasids now embarked upon a policy of exterminating 
the Umayyad house. Their general 'Abdullah shrank from no 
measure necessary for wiping out the kindred enemy root and 
branch. On June 25, 750, he invited eighty of them to a banquet 
at abu-Futrus, ancient Antipatris on the *Awja* River near 
Jaffa, and in the course of the feast had them all cut down. After 
spreading leathern covers over the dead and dying he and his 
lieutenants continued their repast to the accompaniment of 

1 X* tqfiVl ' voi p P* 4 *7-i$; Tabari, vol. hi, pp. 27-33; Mas'udi, vol. vi, pp. 87 , 08. 

* Talari, vol. iii, p. 47 (cf. p. 45). See above, p. 226. 

3 Also Abutfr, probably Bu$ir al-Malaq in the Fayyum. Consult Sawirus ibn*al- 
Muqaffa , Siyar ai^BafdHkah al-fskcndardniyin, cd. C. F. Seybold (Hamburg 
tou), pp. 181 scg.; Jabari, vol. iii, pp. 49.50. 

* VaUi,p.77. 



2S6 THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES 

human groans. 1 Agents and spies were sent all over the Moslem* 
world to hunt down iugitive scions of the fallen family, some of 
whom "sought refuge in the bowels of the earth". 2 The dramatic 
escape of the youthful c Abd-al-Rahman ibn-Mu r awiyah ibn- 
Hisham to Spain, where he succeeded in establishing a new 
and brilliant Umayyad dynasty, belongs to a later chapter. 
Even the dead were not to escape the ruthless chastisement 
meted out by the 'Abbasids. The remains of the caliphs in 
Damascus, Qinnasrin and other places were exhumed by 'Ab- 
dullah and desecrated. The corpse of Sulayman was dug out 
from Dabiq. That of Hisham was disentombed from al-Rusafah, 
where it was found embalmed, and after being scourged eighty 
times was burned to ashes. 3 Only the tomb of the pious 'Umar II 
escaped violation. 

With the fall of the Umayyads the glory of Syria passed away, 
its hegemony ended. The Syrians awoke too late to the realiza- 
tion that the centre of gravity in Islam had left their land and 
shifted eastward, and though they made several armed attempts > 
to regain their former importance all proved futile. At last they 
set their hopes on an expected Sufyani, 4 a sort of Messiah, to 
come and deliver them from the yoke of their 'Iraqi oppressors. 
To the present day one hears Moslems in Syria referring to a 
forthcoming descendant of Mu'awiyah. But the Umayyad fall 
meant more than this. The truly Arab period in the history of 
Islam had now passed and the first purely Arab phase of the 
Islamic empire began to move rapidly toward its close. The 
'Abbasid government called itself daxulak* new era, and a new 
era it was. The 'Iraqis felt freed from Syrian tutelage. The Shutes , 
considered themselves avenged. The clients became emanci- 
pated. Al-Kufah, on the border of Persia, was made the new - 
capital. Khurasanians formed the caiiphal bodyguard and 

1 Ya'qubi, vol. ii, pp. 425-6; Mas'udi, vol. vi, p. 76; ibn-al-Athir, vol. v, pp. 
329-30; Mubarrad, p. 707; Aghcni, vol. iv, p. 161; cf. ibid. pp. 92-6; Fc&hri t pp. 
203-4; Theophanes, p. 427. Compare the story of Jehu's extermination of Ahab's 
house (2 K. 9 : 14-34) and the destruction of the MamlGks of Egypt by Muhammad 
*AH{Jurji Za\ dan, TarihhMisr a}-][Iadtih t 3rd ed., Cairo, 1925, vol. ii, pp. 160-62), 

* Ibn-Khaldun, vol. iv, p. 120. 

* Mas'udi, vol. v, p. 471; cf. Ya'qubi, vol. ii, pp. 427-8. See Fakhri % p. 204. 

* Xabari, vol. Hi, p. 1320; ibn-Miskawayh, Tajarib al-Utnam %va~Ta'd$ub al* 
Him am, cd. dc Gocje and de Jong, vol. ii (Leydcn, 1871), p. 526; Yaqut, voU iv, 
p. 1000; Agh&ni, vol. acvi, p. £8; II. Latnmens, Btudes sur It sitett des Omctyyadts 
(Beirut, t93<>), PP- 3<U*4oS. 

1 Tabari, vol. iii, p. 85, H. 16, 17, p. 115,1.9. 



CH. XXII BJETCLINE AND FALL OF UMAYYAD DYNASTY „ 287 

Persians occupied the chief posts in the government. The 
original Arabian aristocracy was replaced by a hierarchy of 
officers drawn from the whole gamut of nationalities under the 
caliphate. The old Arabian Moslems and the new foreign con- 
verts were beginning to coalesce and shade off into each other, 
Arabianism fell, but Islam continued, and under the guise of 
international Islam Iranianism marched triumphantly on* 



CHAPTER XXIII 
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE 'ABBASID DYNASTY 



THE third act in the great political drama of Islam opens with the 
Caliph abu-al-' Abbas (7S°-54) Paying the chief role. Al-*Iraqis 
the stage. In his inaugural khufbak, delivered the preceding year 
in the mosque of al-Kufah, the first 'Abbasid caliph referred to 
himself as al-saffdk, 1 the bloodshedder, which became his sobri- 
quet. This was ominous, since the incoming dynasty, much more 
than the outgoing, depended upon force in the execution of its 
policies For the first time in the history of Islam the leathern 
spread beside the caliph's seat, which served as a carpet for the 
use of the executioner, became a necessary adjunct of the 
imperial throne. This al-Saffah became the founder of the most 
celebrated and longest-lived Arab dynasty in Islam, the third, 
after the Orthodox (Rashidun) and the Umayyad. From 750 to 
1258 the successors of abu-al-* Abbas reigned, though they did 
not always rule. 

At the time of its achievement the 'Abbasid victory was gener- 
ally hailed as representing the substitution of the true conception 
of the caliphate, the idea of a theocratic state, for the purely 
secular state (mulk) of the Umayyads As a mark of the religious 
character of his exalted office, the caliph now donned on such 
ceremonial occasions as the day of his accession and the time 
of the Friday prayer the mantle (purdalt) once worn by his dis- 
tant cousin, the Prophet. 2 He surrounded himself with men 
versed in canon law r whom he patronized and whose advice on 
matters of state affairs he sought. The highly organized machinery 
for propaganda which helped to undermine public confidence 
in the Umayyad regime was now cleverly directed toward per- 
manently entrenching the 'Abbasids in public favour. From the 
very beginning the idea was cultivated that authority should 

1 Taban, vol P* 30» L 20, Jbn al-Athlr, vol. v, p 316. 
* The genealogical tree on the follow ing page makes clear the relationship be- 
twecn the 'Abbj^ds and Muhammad 

288 



CH< xxm ESTABLISHMENT OF 'ABBASID "DYNASTY . a*9 " 

remain forever in *Abbasid hands, to be finally delivered to 
Jesus ('Isa), the Messiah. 1 Later the theory was promulgated * 
that if this caliphate were destroyed the whole universe would 
be disorganized.* As a matter of fact the religious change was 
more apparent than real; although unlike his Umayyad pre- 
decessor he assumed piety and feigned religiosity, the Baghdad 
caliph proved as worldly-minded as lie of Damascus whom he 
had displaced. In one respect there was a fundamental difference: 
the Umayyad empire was Arab, the 'Abbasid was more inter- 

Hashim 



Al-'Abb 



•AMulUh Abu-Talib Al-'Abbos 

Muhammad *AH 'Abdullah 



Alj 



asaii AHiusayn 'AH 

Muhammad 



X. Al-Saffah 2. Al-Man§Ur 

(750-54) ' (754-75) 

Tree showing the relationship between the *Abbasids and Muhammad 

national. The *Abbasid was an empire of Neo-Moslems in which 
the Arabs formed only one of the many component races. 

There were also other differences. For the first time in its 
history the caliphate was not coterminous with Islam. Spain and 
North Africa, *Uman, Sind and even Khurasan 3 did not fully 
acknowledge the new caliph. Egypt's acknowledgment was more 
nominal than real. Wasit, the Umayyad capital of al-'Iruq, held 
out for eleven months. 4 Syria was in constant turmoil, chiefly as 
a result of the outrages perpetrated against its royal house. The 
f Abbasid f Alid alliance cemented solely by a feeling of common 
hatred toward a mighty foe could not long survive the overthrow 
of that foe. Those 'Alids who had naively thought the 'Abbasids 
were fighting the battle for them were soon to be disillusioned. 

Feeling insecure in the fickle and pro-'Alid Kufah, al-Saffah 
built a courtly residence, ai-Hashimlyah 5 (after Hashim, an early 

1 Tobari, vol. hi, p. 33; ibn-al-Athlr, vol. v, p. 318 

I ;* e P 4S7* s Dinawan, p 373. 

* gmawan, pp. 367-72; Taban, vol. iu, pp. 361-6; ib^al-Athlr, voh v, p. 33S. 

* Ya qubt, vol. u, p. 429, Binawari, pp. 371*3. 



ancestor of the family), in al-Anban 1 AI-Kufah's sisters city, al- 
Basrah, was avoided for the same reason, also because of its 
southern situation, which made it unsuitable for a centre of a 
kingdom. In his newly erected capital al-Safiah died (754) of 
smallpox in his early thirties. 2 
ai MajifGr, His brother and successor, abu-Ja*far (754-75), who now 
/oundw assumed the honorific title al-Mansur (rendered victorious [by 
of the God]), proved one of the greatest, though most unscrupulous, of 
dynasty ^ e 'Abbasids. He, rather than al-Saffah, was the one who firmly 
established the new dynasty. All the thirty-five caliphs who 
succeeded were his lineal descendants. His uncle 'Abdullah, the 
hero of the ZSb and under al-Saffah the governor of Syria, now 
disputed the caliphate with his nephew, but was defeated 
(November 754) by abu-Muslim at Naslbln (Nisibis). After seven 
years' imprisonment he was ceremoniously conducted into a house 
the foundations of which had been purposely laid on salt sur- 
rounded by water, which buried him under its ruins. 3 Immediately 
after the victor} 7 of Na§Ibin the turn of abu-Muslim himself came 
On his way back to his province, Khurasan, which he ruled 
almost independently, abu-Muslim was induced to turn aside 
from his march and visit the caliphal court The Khurasatii 
leader, to whose sword after that of 'Abdullah the 'Abbasids 
owed their throne, was attacked while having an audience with 
the cahph and treacherously put to death. 4 A curious new sect 
of Persian extremists, the Rawandlyah, who tried to identify the 
cahph with God, were mercilessly put down (758).* The revolt of 
the disgruntled Shfah, headed by Ibrahim and by his brother 
Muhammad, surnamed al-Nafs al-Zaklyah (the pure soul), the 
great-grandsons of al-rjfasan,° was ruthlessly crushed. Muham- 
mad %vas killed and gibbeted (December 6, 762) in al-Madinah; 
Ibrahim was decapitated (February 14, 763) near the unruly 
Kufah and his head dispatched to the caliph. 7 To the irrecon- 
cilable 'Alids the 'Abbasid caliphs were usurpers, the rightful 
caliphs, imams, being the descendants of *Ali and Fatimah. 

1 On the left bant of the Euphrates, in the north of al-*lraq. The site is today 
quite waste 

3 Ya'qubi, vol. u, p 434; Taban, vol 111, pp 87-8. 

1 Taban, vol m, p 330 * Ibtd pp. 105-17; DInawari, pp. 376 8. 

6 Taban, \ol lit, pp 129 33; Mas'fidt, vol vi, pp 26, 54 seq\ Baghdad!, cd 
Hitti p 37 Raw and was a town near Isbahan 
• bee genealogical tree on following page 

1 Taban, vol.111, pp. 245-65, 315-16. Mas'udx, vol. vi,pp 189 203; Pmaw*an,p.^8i 



v " CH. xxui ESTABLISHMENT OF *ABBASID DYNASTY 191 

The 'Alids never ceased to exercise a disruptive influence on 
the body politic of Islam, and persisted in claiming for their 
imams a measure of hereditary wisdom derived from the Prophet, 
as well as a sort of special divine illumination. In Khurasan 
the insurrection of Sunbad (Sinbadh) the Magian (755)* who 
came out as the avenger of abu-Muslim, and that of Ustadhsis 
(767-8), were quenched; 1 Persia, where strong national senti- 
ments were interwoven with ancient Zoroastrian and Mazdakian 
religious ideas, was at least temporarily pacified. Thus was the 
greater part of the Islamic empire once more consolidated, with the 

'Abd-al-Muttalib 



•Abdullah 



Muhammad 



Abu-T^b 



Ai-Abbas 
(ancestor of 'Abbasid 
caliphs) 



Fatimah + *AU 



iBRAHfM (t 763) 



Al-#asaa 

Al-ftasan 

I 

'Abdullah 
I 



Al-^usayn 



Muhammad (t 762) 

The descendants of 'AH 



exception of North Africa, where the caliph's authority did not ex- 
tend much beyond al-Qayrawan, and of Spain, where the 'Abbasid 
caliph found in the Umayyad 'Abd-al-Rahman (whose mother, 
like al-Mansur's, a was a Berber slave) more than his match. 

With the domestic situation well in hand the baneful frontier 
wars with the eternal enemy to the west, the Byzantines, which 
had been carried on intermittently for over a century, were 
resumed in the nature of raids on neighbouring- strongholds. The 
ruined border fortresses {tkughfir) of Malatyah (Melitene) in 
Lesser Armenia and al-Ma§st§ah in Cilicia were restored. 3 Even 

1 Tabari, vol. ui, pp. 119.20, 354-8; Ya'qubi, >ol. ii, pp. 441-2; ibn-al-Athir, vol. 

* YaVH, vol. ii, p, 436; ibn-Qutaybah. Afa\irif, p, 191. 



292 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES partih 

the naphtha springs of Baku 1 were reached and a tax levied on 
them. Mountainous Tabaristan, south of the Caspian (Bahr al* 
Khazar), where a family of high functionaries of the defunct 
Sasanid empire had maintained a virtually independent rule, 
was now temporarily annexed* On the Indian frontier Qandahar 
(al-Qunduhar), among other places, was reduced, and a statue 
of the Buddha found in it was demolished. 8 In fact, al-MansuVs 
lieutenants carried their raids as far as Kashmir (Ar. QashmTr), 
the rich and extensive valley of the north-west Himalaya. A 
fleet was dispatched (770) from al-Basrah to the delta of the 
Indus to chastise pirates who had ventured to plunder Juddah. 
Madinat In 762 al-Mansur, who had his residence at al-Hashimiyah 
ni-sdim k etween ai.Kufah and al-Hirah, 4 laid the foundation stone of his 
new capital, Baghdad, scene of the legendary adventures so 
brilliantly commemorated by Shahrazad in The Thousand and 
One Nights. The site was an ancient one occupied by a Sasanid 
village of the same name, 6 meaning "given by God". Al-Mansur 
fixed on the site after canvassing a number of others "because", 
said he, "it is excellent as a military camp. Besides, here is the 
Tigris to put us in touch with lands as far as China and bring 
us all that the seas yield as well as the food products of Meso- 
potamia, Armenia and their environs. Then there is the Eu- 
phrates to carry for us all that Syria, al-Raqqah and adjacent lands 
have to offer." 6 In the construction of his city, completed in four 
years, al-Mansur spent some 4,883,000 dirhams 7 and employed 
about a hundred thousand architects, craftsmen and labourers 
drawn from Syria, Mesopotamia and other parts of the empire* 
Madinat al-Salam (city of peace), which was the official name' 
given by al-Mansur to his city, lay on the west bank of the Tigris 
in that same valley which had furnished sites for some of the 
mightiest capitals of the ancient world. It was circular in 
form, whence the name the Round City (al-mudazvwarah), with 

double brick walls, a deep moat and a third innermost wall rising 

i 

1 Mas'udi, vol. ii, p. 25; Yaqut, vol. i, p. 477. 

* Ya*qQbi, vol. ii, pp. 446*7. 

3 Baladhuri, p. 445; Yaqut, vol. iv, pp. 183-4; Ya'qQbi, vol «, p. 449. 

* Ya'qubi, Bulddn, p. 237. 

* Ibid p. 235, Baladhuri, p. 294»Hitti, p. 457. 

* Tftban, vol. in, p. 272. 

T Al-Khatfb (al-Baghdadi), Ta'riih Baghdad, vol. i (Cairo, 193 1 ), pp. 69 70; 
Tabari, voL hi, p 326; YaqQt, vol. i, p. 683. 

* Tabari, vol. hi, p. 276; Ya^uU. p. 238; Kha^Ib, vol. i, pp. 66-7. 



CH. XSIU ESTABLISHMENT OF 'ABB ASID DYNASTY 



293 



ninety feet and surrounding the central area. The walls had four 
equidistant gates from which four highways, starting from the 
centre of the circle, radiated like the spokes of a wheel to the 
four corners of the empire. The whole thus formed concentric 
circles with the caliphal palace, styled the Golden Gate (6d6 
al-dhahab) on account of its gilded entrance, or the Green Dome 
{al-qubbah al-k7iadra)> as the hub. Beside the palace stood the 
great mosque* The dome of the audience chamber, after which 
the imperial palace was named, rose to a height of one hundred 
and thirty feet. Later tradition topped it by the figure of a 
mounted man holding a lance which in time of danger pointed 
the direction from which the enemy might be expected. 1 But 
Yaqut, quick to detect the fallacy, remarks that the figure 
necessarily pointed always in some direction, which would mean 
the existence of a constant enemy threatening the city, and 
declares the Moslems "too intelligent to believe such fabrica- 
tions". 2 The adjacent ruins of the Sasanid capital, Ctesiphon, 
served as the main quarry for the new city and furnished the 
necessary building material, while brick was also made on the 
spot. Before his death al-Mansur built on the bank of the Tigris 
outside the walls another palace, Qasr al-Khuld (palace of 
eternity), so called because its gardens were supposed to .rival 
those of Paradise (Koran 25 ; 16-17), and farther north a third 
palace called al-Ru^afah (causeway), which was intended for the 
crown prince, the caliph's son al-Mahdi. 

The horoscope under which al-Mansur started the building 
of this military post for himself, his family and his Khurasanian 
bodyguard certainly proved fully as auspicious as predicted by 
the court astrologer. 8 In a few years the town grew into an 
emporium of trade and commerce and a political centre of the 
greatest international importance. As if called into existence by 
a magician's wand this city of al-Mansur fell heir to the power 
and prestige of Ctesiphon, Babylon, Nineveh, Ur and other 
capitals of the ancient Orient, attained a degree of prestige and 
splendour unrivalled in the Middle Ages, except perhaps by 
Constantinople, and after many vicissitudes was recently re- 
suscitated as the capital of the new 'Iraqi kingdom under a truly 
Arabian king, PayPal. 

( * Khatfl, voU,p 73, t Voi.i p 

* Yaqilt, vol. \ t pp t 6S4-S; Khatib, vol. i, pp, 67*8 



294 THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES part m 

The new location opened the way for ideas from the East. 
Here the caliphs built up a government modelled on Sasanid 
Chosroism. Arab Islam succumbed to Persian influence; the 
caliphate became more of a revival of Iranian despotism and less 
of an Arabian sheikhdom. Gradually Persian tides, Persian 
wines and wives, Persian mistresses, Persian songs, as well as 
Persian ideas and thoughts, won the day* Al-Mansur, we are 
told, was the first to adopt the characteristic Persian head-gear 
(pi. qalanis)) in which he was naturally followed by his subjects, 1 
Persian influence, it should be noted, softened the rough edges 
of the primitive Arabian life and paved the way for a new era 
distinguished by the cultivation of science and scholarly pur* 
suits. In two fields only did the Arabian hold his own: Islam 
remained the religion of the state and Arabic continued to be the 
official language of the state registers. 
A Persian Under al-Mansur the vizirate, a Persian office, appears for the 
family first time in Islamic government. Khalid ibn-Barmak was the first 
incumbent of that high office. 3 Khalid's mother was a prisoner 
whom Qutaybah ibn-Muslim captured (705) in Balkh; his father 
was a barmak, i.e. chief priest, in a Buddhist monastery in the 
same place. 3 Khalid was on such intimate terms with aUSaffah 
that his daughter was nursed by the wife of the former caliph, 
whose daughter was likewise nursed by KMlid's wife/ Early 
under the 'Abbasid regime Khalid rose to the headship of the 
department of finance (diwdn al-khardj). In 765 he received the 
governorship of Tabaristan, where he crushed a dangerous up- 
rising. 5 In his old age he distinguished himself at the capture of 
a Byzantine fortress. 6 Though not actually a vizir, 7 a minister in 
the later sense of the term, this official of Persian origin seems 
to have acted on various occasions as counsellor for the caliph 
and became the founder of an illustrious family of vizirs 

On October 7, 775, al-Mansur died near Makkah while on a 
pilgrimage. He was over sixty years of age. One hundred graves 
were dug for him near the Holy City, but he was secretly interred 
in another which no enemy might find and desecrate, 8 He was a 

1 Tab**"* vol iu, p. 371. * Cf ibn-Khalhk5n, vol, i, p 200. 

\ l»tre uatir for al~H*mdani is probablv used in same sense as m sur* 20 * 30. 

* Ibn al Faqlh, pp 522 4, lab-in, vol n, p. 1181; Yaqut vol jv, p SlS. 
4 Taban, vol 11, p 840 * Ibn*al Taqlh, p 314. 

* Taban, vol. m, p 497. 

7 Cf. Fakhrt t pp 206, 211. Mas'Qdx, Tanblh t p. 340. 

* Ibn al-Athir, vol. M, p. $3, 



CH.xxm ESTABLISHMENT OF *ABBASID DYNASTY 



29$ 



slender, tall man, dark of complexion and thin-bearded* 1 Austere 
in nature and stern in manner, he stands in marked contrast to 
the type represented by his successors. But his policies continued 
for many generations to guide those who came after him just as 
those of Mu'awiyah had guided the Umayyads. 

To Khalid's son Yahya, al-Mansur's successor, al-Mahdi 
(775-85), entrusted the education of his son Harun. When Harun, 
following the brief reign of his brother al-Hadi (785-6), became 
caliph he appointed the Barmakid, whom he still respectfully 
called "father", as vizir with unrestricted power, Yahya, who 
died in 805, and his two sons al-Fadl and Ja'far practically ruled 
the empire from 786 to 803.* 

These Barmakids had their palaces in eastern Baghdad, 
where they lived in grand style. Here Ja'far's palace, al~Ja*fari, 
became the nucleus of a large group of magnificent residences 
later occupied by al-Ma'mun and transformed into the Caliphal 
Palace (dtir al-khilafah). The buildings stood by the Tigris with 
spacious gardens behind enclosing many minor structures within 
their precincts. Fabulous fortunes were amassed by the members 
of the Barmakid family. Even what they saw fit to bestow on 
their clients, panegyrists and partisans was enough to make such 
proteges wealthy. Their generosity was proverbial. Even today 
in all the Arabic-speaking lands the word bartnaki is used as a 
synonym of generous, and "as munificent as Ja'far" 3 is a simile 
that is everywhere well understood. 

A number of canals, 4 mosques and other public works owe 
their existence to the initiative and munificence of the Bar- 
makids Ai-Fadl is credited with being the first in Islam to 
introduce the use of lamps in the mosques during the month of 
Ramadan. Ja'far acquired great fame for eloquence, literary 
ability and penmanship. 5 Chiefly because of him Arab historians 
regard the Barmakids as the founders of the class designated 
"people of the pen" (aid al-gala?n). But he was more than a man 
of letters. He was a leader of fashion, and the long neck which 
he possessed is said to have been responsible for the introduction 
of the custom of wearing high collars,* Ja'far's intimacy with the 

* Tabari, vol, m, p 391 p ibn-al AthFr, vol vi, p 14, Mas'udi, Tattblh, p 341. 

» Ya. qftbl, vol. 11, p 520 * Consult ibn-KhalliUn, vol. i, pp. 185 uq. 

\ Sfe Taban, vol m t p 645, J}. 18-19, Baladhun. p 363. 

* Tabari, %oI \\ y p ^43, Mas'Cdi, vol. vi, p. 361, 

* J&hir, ft*iv£n> vol p. 201. 



296 THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES part 111 



Caliph Harun was not pleasing to his father, Yahya, as it was 
suspiciously immoral* 1 

The time at last came for the caliph to rid himself of this 
Persian tutelage. The Shf ite Bamiakids were getting too power- 
ful for the strong-willed Harun (786-809), in whose caliphal 
firmament there could not be two suns. First the thirty-seven- 
year-old Ja'far was slain in 803; his severed head was impaled 
on one bridge of Baghdad and the two halves of his body on the 
other two bridges. 2 The usual reason given by historians is that 
the caliph had allowed him, as a boon companion, to marry in 
name only his favourite sister, al-*Abbasah, but discovered later 
while on a holy pilgrimage that she had secretly given birth to a 
son whom she had concealed in Makkah. 8 The aged Yahya, 
together with his distinguished son al-Fadl and his other two 
sons, were all apprehended and cast into prison. Both Yahya 
and al-Fadl died in confinement. Ail the property of the family, 
said to have amounted to 30,676,000 (dinars) in cash exclusive 
of farms, palaces and furniture, was confiscated.* Thus the 
celebrated house founded by KMlid al-Barmaki fell, never to 
rise again. 

1 Jabari, vol. iu, pp. 674-6. 

* 'Jqd, vol. iii, p. 28; Jakari, vol. iii, p. 6$o. 

* Tabari, vol iii, pp. 676-7; Mas'ttdi, vol. vj, pp. 387-94: Fahkri, p. 28S. Cf. ibn* 
Khaldun vol. iii, pp. 223-4: Kitab a}-CIyun t pt. 3, pp. 306*8. 

* *fqd f vol. iii, p. 28. 



CHAPTER XXIV 
THE GOLDEN PRIME OF THE 'ABBASIDS 



AVAbbas 



"1 



t. Al-Saffa^ (750) Al-Man$tlr (754) 

3, Al-Mahdi (775) 



4. Al-ffidi (785) 5. Al-Roshld (786) 



& Al-Amfn (S09) 7. Al-Ma'mun (813) 8. Al-Mu*ta$im (833) 



9. Al-Wathiq (842) 10. Al-Mutawakkil (847) 

THE 'Abbasid dynasty, like others in Moslem history, attained 
its most brilliant period of political and intellectual life soon after 
its establishment. The Baghdad caliphate founded by al-Saffah 
and al-Mansur reached its prime in the period between the reigns 
of the third caliph, ai-Mahdi, and the ninth, al-Wathiq, more 
particularly in the days of Harun al-Rashid and his son al- 
Ma'mun. It was chiefly because of these two luminous caliphs 
that the * Abbasid dynasty acquired a halo in popular imagina- 
tion and became the most celebrated in the history of Islam. The 
dictum quoted by the anthologist al-Tha* alibi 1 (f 1038) that of 
the 'Abbasid caliphs 41 the opener" was al-Mansur, "the middler'* 
was al-Ma*mun and "the closer" was al-Mu*tadid (892-902) 
is therefore not far from the historical truth. After al- Wathiq 
the state starts on its downward course until under the Caliph 
al-Musta*sim, the thirty-seventh of the line, it meets its final 
destruction at the hands of the Mongols in 1258. An idea of the 
degree of power and glory and progress attained by the 'Abbasid 
caliphate at its highest and best may be gained from a scrutiny 
of its foreign relations, a study of court and aristocratic life in 

j ~ 1 Ivttfsf Mfctdnf, ed P. de Jong (Lcjden, 1867), p. 71. 
j 297 

\ 



29B 



THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASI0 EMPIRES PAwrm 



its capital, Baghdad, and a survey of the unparalleled intellectual 
awakening that culminated under the patronage of al-Ma'mun. 

The ninth century opened with two imperial names standing 
supreme in world affairs: Charlemagne in the West and Harun 
al-Rashid in the East. Of the two Harun was undoubtedly the 
more powerful and represented the higher culture. The mutual 
friendly relations into which these two contemporaries entered 
were, of course, prompted by self-interest; Charlemagne culti- 
vated Harun as a possible ally against hostile Byzantium and 
Harun desired to use Charlemagne against his rivals and deadly 
foes, the neighbouring Umayyads of Spain, who had succeeded 
in establishing a mighty and prosperous state. This reciprocity of 
cordial feelings found expression, according to Western writers, 
in the exchange of a number of embassies and presents. A 
Frankish author who knew Charlemagne personally and is some- 
times referred to as his secretary relates that the envoys of the 
great king of the West returned home with rich gifts from "the 
king of Persia, Aaron", which included fabrics, aromatics and 
an elephant. 1 This account is based on the Annates royalest 
which further speaks of an intricate clock as among the gifts from 
Baghdad. But the account of the pipe organ sent to Charlemagne 
by Harun, like many other charming bits of history, is fictitious. 
Its story isapparentlybased on a mistranslation of the termciepsy* 
dra in the sources, which in reality meant a device for measuring 
time by water and referred to the clock presented. Likewise the 
assertion that the keys of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre were 
delivered by Harun's consent to Charlemagne has been dis- 
credited. 3 

The strange thing about this exchange of embassies and gifts, 
said to have taken place between 797 and 806, is the utter silence 
of Moslem authors regarding it. While reference is made to 
various other diplomatic exchanges and courtesies, none is made 
to this. The t Igd t cites several cases of correspondence between 
Umayyad caliphs and Byzantine emperors and speaks of a 
delegation from "the king of India 1 ' which brought Harun 

1 £ginhard, Vie de Charlemagne^ ed. and tr. L. Hnlphen (Paris, 1923). P- 47« 

* "Ann ales regni Franco rum", ed. G. H. Pertzii and F. Kurze in Scnplcres rerum 
Cermamcarum t vol. 43 (Hanover, 1S05), PP* n 4> I2 3*4- 

* See below, pp. 507, 635-6. Cf. Louis Brevier in Chambre de Commerce de 
Marseille. Congres jrangats de Syne. Seances el iravaux, fasc. 2 (1919)* PP* 15*39» 

* Vol. j, pp. 197-8. 



ck xxiv THE GOLDEN PRIME OF THE 'ABBAsms 299 

valuable presents and was received with great pon^p. Another 
source 1 states that Harun's son al-Ma'mun received especially 
rich gift from his contemporary "the king of th* Romans", 
possibly Michael II. 

Thcmore-than-century-old struggle between the cy iphate and 
the Byzantine empire was resumed by the third caliph, al- 
Mahdi (77$-8$)* but engagements were of les s frequency 
and success. The internal conflicts that convulsed th^ Arab state 
and resulted in the transference of the capital to distant Baghdad 
had made it possible for Constantine V (741-75) to push the 
imperial border farther east along the entire boundary Q f Asia 
Minor and Armenia. 2 The Moslem line of frontier Wtifications 
{thtghiir) extending from Syria to Armenia retreated as the 
Byzantine line opposite advanced. 

Al-Mahdi, the first 'Abbasid caliph to resume the "holy war" 
against the Byzantines, initiated a brilliant and successful attack 
against the enemy capital itself. Harun, his young so n future 
successor, commanded the expedition. In 782 3 the Arab forces 
readied 1 the Bosporus/ if not ^Tonstanilnopib n$m¥; anrf frene, 
who held the regency m the name of her son Constantine VI, 
was forced to sue for peace and conclude a singularly humiliating 
treaty involving the payment of a tribute of 70,00*) to 90,000 
dinars in semi-annual instalments. 5 It was in the cc )urse Q f this 
campaign that Harun so distinguished himself that his father 
gave him the honorific title al-Rashfd (follower of the right path) 
and designated him the second heir apparent to the throne, 
after his elder brother Musa al-Hadi. 

This proved the last time that a hostile Arab army stood before 
the walls of the proud capital. In all there were *our distinct 
expeditions which reached Byzantium; the first thr*» e were sent 
under the Umayyads by Mu'Swiyah and by Sulayn^n. 6 Of the 
four only two involved real sieges of the city; or\ e by Yazid 
(49/669) and the other by Maslamah (98/716). Turkish tradition, 

1 Kutufci, J?awd£, vol. i, p. 307, 11. 12-13. 

* A. A. V&jahcv, History of the By tanttnr Empire, fcr. S. Ragozin, vo \ r { (Madison 
t§7&) f p. Charles Djtehl, History of tA* By sen tire Empire t \x Q B Jves 
(Princeton, 5925), p. 55* 
" * * &&t> til-lfyur. t pt 3, p. ^78, dates the expedition 163 {A.E, ^\ y a « q fibi 
(vol, li Y pp. 47$, 4$6) 164 and Taban {vol. iu, pp. 503-4) 165. H 
\* Theopharus, who wrote in Si 3, says (p. 456) that Harun adv anocd ^ ftr ^ 
. Chxysopolw, on the site of modem Scutari. 

> I l>t>a«* vol. Hi, p. 504* » Sec ato\ c, ^ 20o s<$ 



300 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBAS1D EMPIRES part in 



however, makes the sieges seven to nine in number, of which 
two are ascribed to Harun. In the Arabian Nights and other 
Arabic romances of chivalry the Moslem expeditions against 
Constantinople form the subject of themes highly coloured and 
developed during the period of the Crusades. 

Irene (797-802), who had seized the throne and become "the 
first instance in Byzantine history of a woman who ruled with full 
authority of supreme power", 1 was succeeded by Nicephorus P 
(802-1 1 ), who repudiated the terms of the treaty contracted by the 
empress and even demanded from the caliph, now al-Rashld, 
the return of the tribute already paid. Inflamed with rage, al- 
RashTd called for pen and ink and wrote on the back of the 
scornful epistle: 

In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate, 

From Harun, the commander of the believers, to Nicephorus, the 

dog of a Roman. 

V erily I have read thy letter, O son of an infidel mother. As for the 

answer it shall be for thine eye to see, not for thine ear to hear. Salam * 

True to his word, Harun started at once a series of campaigns 
directed from his favourite town of residence, al-Raqqah, situated 
beside the Euphrates and commanding the Syrian frontier. 
These expeditions ravaged Asia Minor and culminated in the 
capture of Heraclea (An Hiraqlah) and Tyana (al-Tuwanah) in 
806 and the imposition, in addition to the tribute, of an igno- 
minious tax on the emperor himself and on each member of his 
household.* This event and date in the reign of Harun al- 
Rashld maybe taken as marking the topmost point ever readied 
by 'Abbasid power. 

After 806 there was only one serious attempt at securing a 
footing beyond the Taurus, and that by al-Mu*tasim in 838. 
Though al-Mu'tasim's huge army, "equipped as no caliph's 
army before had ever been equipped", 5 penetrated into the heart 

1 VasiHcr, vol. i, p. 2S7. 

1 Niqfflr of Arabic sources. He was of Arab origin; possibly a descendant of 
Jabalah the Ghassanid, Tabari, vol. iii, p. 695; Michel le Syricn, Chronicle, ed 
J.«B Chabotj vol. iii (Pans, 1905), p. re. Irene, whom he dethroned, was the lost of 
the Isaurian or S>rhn dynasty (717-502) founded by Leo III (717-41), who xwth his 
successors headed the iconodistic movement which bears traces of Moslem influ- 
ence Iheopnanis, p. 405, calls Leo "the Saracen-minded". 

* Taban, \ol. 111, p 606 

* ftfd. pp. 606, 709 to, Ya'qubi, vol. ii, p. 519, 1. 14, p. 523, 1. 2; DEaawari, 
pp. 3*6-7, Mas'udu vol. ii, pp. 337*52* 

* Tabari, \ol. m, p. 1236. 



CH,XXiv THE ^GOLDEN PRIME OF THE *ABBASIDS ^or 

ofthe land of the Romans" and temporarily occupied Amorium 
(Amoricm, Ar. r Ammuriyah), the birthplace of the founder of the 
then ruling dynasty, 1 the attempt on the whole was unsuccessful. 
The Arab forces expected to march upon Constantinople but 
returned on the receipt of alarming reports of a military con- 
spiracy at home. The reigning emperor, Theophilus (829-42), so 
feared the loss of his capital that he dispatched envoys to Venice, 
to the Frankish king and to the Umayyad court in Spain 
soliciting aid. Theophilus had once before been threatened from 
the east when ai-Ma*mun, son of Harun, took the field in person 
but met his death (833) near Tarsus. After al-Mu*tasim no 
serious offensive on the Arab side was ever undertaken. Those 
of his successors who sent armies across the border aimed at 
plunder rather than conquest. In no case did the collision assume 
significance or occur deep in the land. Yet throughout the ninth 
century the hostile contacts, though of minor importance, 
occurred with almost annualregularity on the eastern border-line. 
One Arab geographer 3 informs us that it was the practice then 
to make tliree raids each year: one in winter covering the end of 
February and the beginning of March, another in spring lasting 
thirty days from May 10, and a third in summer extending over a 
period of sixty days from July 10. Such raids served to keep the 
military forces in good trim and netted profitable spoils. But the 
original Arabian national motive, and to a large extent the re- 
ligious impulse which figured in the early campaigns of Islam, 
had now become far less important factors. The internal weaken- 
ing of the Moslem state was beginning to tell in its foreign rela- 
tions. One of the petty dynasties, the Hamdanid in Aleppo, which 
arose about the middle of the tenth century at the expense of 
the caliphate, did take up the cudgels against Byzantium. But of 
that we shall hear later. 

History and legend unite in placing the most brilliant period Th< 
of Baghdad during the caliphate of Harun al-Rashld (yBS-dog). £ * 
Though less than half a century old, Baghdad had by that 
.time grown from nothingness to a world centre of prodigious 
wealth and international significance, standing alone as the 
rival of Byzantium. Its splendour kept pace with the pros- 
perity of the empire of which it was the capital. It was then 

1 Michel Ic Syricn, vol. iii, p« $T2. 
1 Qudaraah, JCiM al-Kharaj, cd. de Goeje (Leyden, 1889), p. 259. 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PART Hi 



that Baghdad became "a city with no peer throughout the whole 
world". 1 

The royal palace with its many annexes for harems, eunuchs 
and special functionaries occupied one-third of the Round City. 
Particularly impressive was its audience chamber with its rugs, 
curtains and cushions, the best the Orient could produce. The 
caliph's cousin-wife, Zubaydah, who in tradition shares with her 
husband the halo of glory and distinction bestowed by later 
generations, would tolerate at her table no vessels not made of 
gold or silver and studded with gems. She set the fashion for the 
smart set and was the first to ornament her shoes with precious 
stones. 2 In one holy pilgrimage she is reported to have spent 
three million dinars, which included the expense of supplying 
Makkah with water from a spring twenty-five miles away. 8 

Zubaydah had a rival in the beauteous *Ulayyah, daughter 
of al-Mahdi and haif-sister of Harun, who to cover a blemish on 
her forehead devised a fillet set with jewels which, as the fillet 
a la 'Ulayyah, was soon adopted by the world of fashion as the 
ornament of the day.* 

Especially on ceremonial occasions, such as the installation of 
the caliph, weddings, pilgrimages and receptions for foreign 
envoys, did the courtly wealth and magnificence find its fullest 
display. The marriage ceremony of the Caliph al-Ma'mun to 
the eighteen-year-old Buran, 5 daughter of his vizir, al-#asan 
ibn-Sahl, was celebrated in 825 with such fabulous expenditure 
of money that it has lived in Arabic literature as one of the un- 
forgettable extravaganzas of the age. At the nuptials a thousand 
pearls of unique size, we are told, were showered from a gold 
tray upon the couple who sat on a golden mat studded with 
pearls and sapphires. A two-hundred-rotl candle of ambergris 
turned the night into day. Balls of musk, each containing a ticket 
naming an estate or a slave or some such gift, were showered 
on the royal princes and dignitaries. 6 In 917 the Caliph al- 
Muqtadir received in his palace with great ceremony and pomp 
the envoys of the young Constantino VII, whose mission evidently 

1 Khatib, vol. i f p. 119. = Mas'udi, vol viii, pp. 298-9. 

* Cf lbn-Khalhkan, vol. i, p. 337; Burckhardt, Travels, vol. i, p. 196. 

* Ashantt vol. Sx, p. S3. 

* ^he v. as ten years old when betrothed to al*Ma*mun; ibn-Khalhkan, voi. i, p. 166. 
9 Tabari, vol. lit, pp. ioSr-4; Mas'udi, vol. vii, pp. 65*6; ibn-al-AthTr, vol. vi, 

p. 279; Tha'alibi, Lafa'tf, pp. 73-4; ibn-Khaldun, Muqcddamak* pp. 144-5, 



CH.XHY THE GOLDEN PRIME OF THE 'ABBASIDS 



303 



involved the exchange and ransom of prisoners. 1 The caliphal 
array included 160,000 cavalry and footmen, 7000 black and 
white eunuchs and 700 chamberlains. In the parade a hundred 
lions marched, and in the caliphal palace hung 38,000 curtains, 
of which 12,500 were gilded, besides 22,000 rugs. The envoys 
were so struck with awe and admiration that they first mistook 
the chamberlain's office and then the vizir's for the royal audience 
chamber. Especially impressed were they with the Hall of the 
Tree {ddr al-shajarah) which housed an artificial tree of gold 
and silver weighing 500,000 drams, in the branches of which 
were lodged birds of the same precious metals so constructed 
that they chirped by automatic devices. In the garden they 
marvelled at the artificially dwarfed palm trees which by skilled 
cultivation yielded dates of rare varieties. 2 

Like a magnet the princely munificence of Harun, the beau 
idial of Islamic kingship, and of his immediate successors 
attracted to the capital poets, wits, musicians, singers, dancers, 
trainers of fighting dogs and cocks and others who could amuse, 
interest or entertain. 3 Ibrahim al-Mawsili, Siyat and ibn-Jamf 
led the roster of musician-singers. The libertine poet abu-Nuwas, 
the boon companion of al-Rashid and his comrade on many a 
nocturnal adventure, has depicted for us in unforgettable terms 
the colourful court life of this period of glory. The pages of a/- 
Aghani abound with illustrative anecdotes whose nucleus of 
truth is not hard to discern. According to one story the Caliph 
al-Amm (809-13) one evening bestowed on his uncle Ibrahim 
ibn-al-Mahdi, a professional singer, the sum of 300,000 dinars for 
chanting a few verses of abu-Nuwas\ This raised the gratuities 
thus far received by Ibrahim from the caliph to 20,000,000 
dirhams. 4 Al-Amln, of whom ibn-al-Athlr 5 found nothing praise- 
worthy to record, had a number of special barges shaped like 
animals built for his parties on the Tigris. One of these vessels 
looked like a dolphin, another like a lion, a third like an eagle; 
the cost of one was 3,000,000 dirhams. 6 We read in the Aghani 1 
of a picturesque all-night ballet conducted under the Caliph 
al-Amln's personal direction in which a large number of 

1 Mas'Gdi, Tcmblk % p. 193, 

* IChatrb, vol. i, pp. roo-105; abu*aJ-Kda\ vol ii\ p. 73; Yaqut, vol. ii, pp. 520-21. 
^ * Baladhuri, Anttib el'Askr£f t ed* Max Achlocssingcr, \ol. iv B (Jerusalem, 

1 t£35)tP* *• * Agkam, vol. ix t p. 71. See below, p. 321. * Vol. \i, p. 207. 

* ffid. p. 2065 Tabari, vol* iii, pp. 951-3* 7 Vol. xvi % pp. 138-9. 



304 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 



beautiful girl dancers performed in rhythmic unison to the soft 
harmony of music and were joined in their singing by all those 
who attended. Al-Mas'udi 1 relates that on the occasion of a 
dinner given by Ibrahim in honour of his brother al-Rash!d, the 
caliph was served with a dish of fish in which the slices looked 
exceedingly small. In explanation the host remarked that the 
slices were fishes' tongues, and the waiter added that the cost of 
the hundred and fifty tongues in the dish was over a thousand 
dirhams. Even when stripped of the adventitious glow cast by 
Oriental romance and fancy, enough of the splendour of court 
life in Baghdad remains to arouse our astonishment 

Next to the royal master in high and luxurious living came 
the members of the 'Abbasid family, the vizirs, officials, function- 
aries and other satellites of the imperial household. Members of 
the Hashimite tribe, to which the *Abbasids belonged, received 
large regular stipends from the state treasury until the practice 
was discontinued by al-Mu*tasim (833-42).* Al-Rashid's mother, 
al-Khayzuran, is said to have had an income of 160,000,000 
dirhams. 3 A certain Muhammad ibn-Sulayman, whose property 
was confiscated on his death by al-Rashld, left 50,000,000 
dirhams in cash and a daily income of 100,000 dirhams from his 
real estate.* The scale on which the Barmakids lived could not 
have been much lower than that of the caliphal household itself. 
As for the humdrum life of the ordinary citizen in Baghdad and 
the feelings that surged in the breast of the common man, we 
find little in the sources with the possible exception of the 
poetical works of the ascetic abu-al-*Atahiyah. 

When al-Ma'mun in 819, after several years of civil war with 
his elder brother al-Amin (who had been designated to the sue- } 
cess ors hip by their father) and with his uncle Ibrahim ibn-al- 
Mahdi, who also claimed the throne, made his victorious entry 
into Baghdad a large part of the city lay in ruins. We hear no 
more of the Round City, As caliph, al-Ma*mun took up his abode in 
the Ja'fari palace, originally built for Ja'far al-Barmaki ontheeast 
side of the river. But it was not long before the town rose again v 
to eminence as a commercial and intellectual centre. The natural 
successor to a long line of distinguished metropolitan towns 
which flourished in the Tigris-Euphrates valley beginning with 

1 Vol vi, pp 349 50 * Cf. Tha'alibi, La&tf % p. l6. 

* Mas'udi, vol. vi, p 2S9 * Ibid, 



* GR.'xSiV " THE GOLDEN PRIME OF THE 'ABBASIDS 305 

Ur and Babylon and ending with Ctesiphon, the *Abbasid 
capital could not be easily suppressed. Its advantageous position 

-as a shipping centre made all parts of the then charted world 
accessible to it. Along its miles of wharves lay hundreds of 
vessels, including ships of war and pleasure craft and varying 
from Chinese junks to native rafts of inflated sheepskins, not 
unlike those of our present day, which were floated down from 
al-Mawsil. Into the bazaars of the city came porcelain, silk and 
musk from China; spices, minerals and dyes from India and the 

r Malay Archipelago; rubies, lapis lazuli, fabrics and slaves from 
the lands of the Turks in Central Asia; honey, wax, furs and 
white slaves from Scandinavia and Russia; ivory, gold dust and 
black slaves from eastern Africa. Chinese wares had a special 

, bazaar devoted to their sale. The provinces of the empire itself 
sent by caravan or sea their domestic products: rice, grain and 
linen from Egypt; glass, metal ware and fruits from Syria; brocade, 
pearls and weapons from Arabia; silks, perfumes and vegetables 
from Persia. 1 Communication between the east and west sides 
of the city was assured by three main pontoon bridges like the 
Baghdad bridges of today. Al-Khatib* devotes a section of his 
history to the bridges of Baghdad and another to its canals 
(flnhdr). From Baghdad and other export centres Arab merchants 
shipped to the Far East, Europe and Africa fabrics, jewellery, 
metal mirrors, glass beads, spices, etc. 3 The hoards of Arab coins 

- recently found in places as far north as Russia, Finland, 4 Sweden 
and Germany testify to the world-wide commercial activity of 
the Moslems of this and the later period. The adventures of 
Sindbad the Sailor, which form one of the best-known tales in 
The Thousand and One Nights, have long been recognized as 
based upon actual reports of voyages made by Moslem merchants. 

Merchants played a leading part in the Baghdad community* 
Members of each craft and trade had their shops in the same 
market (stlq)? as in the present day. The monotony of street life 
was interrupted from time to time by the occasional passage 
of a t wedding or circumcision procession. Professional men — 
physicians, lawyers, teachers, writers and the like — began to 
occupy a conspicuous place under the patronage of al-Ma'mun. 

1 Consult Lc Strange, Eastern Caliphate, passim See below, pp. 313, 351. 

* Vql. \, pp. in -17. * See below, pp. 345 

* lhe museum at Helsinki contains many such coins. 
4 Ya'qSbi, JBuldan, p. 246. 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PART m 



By the time ai-N adim composed (988) bis monumental al^Fihriz^ 
a sort of catalogue of existing Arabic works, there were abundant 
manuscripts dealing even"" with such subjects as hypnotism, 
jugglery, sword-swallowing and glass-chewing. 1 Ibn-Khallikan* 
has fortunately left us a cross section of the daily routine of a 
member of the learned fraternity, ftunayn ibn-Ishaq, which 
indicates that scholarship had a considerable market value in 
those days. We arc first shown y unayn, after his daily ride, at 
the public bath, where attendants poured water over him. On 
emerging he put on a lounging-robe, sipped a drink, ate a biscuit 
and lay down, sometimes falling asleep. The siesta over, he 
burned perfume to fumigate his person and ordered a dinner 
which generally consisted of soup, fattened chicken and bread. 
Then he resumed his sleep and on waking drank four rotls of 
old wine, to which he added quinces and Syrian apples if he felt 
the desire for fresh fruits. < 
imeJiect- The victory of Moslem arms under ai-Mahdi and al-Rashid 
awakening ovcr tne inveterate Byzantine enemy undoubtedly shed its lustre 
on this period, the luxurious scale of living made this period 
popular in history and in fiction, but what has rendered this age 
especially illustrious in world annals is the fact that it witnessed 
the most momentous intellectual awakening in the history of Islam 
and one of the most significant in the whole history of thought 
and culture. The awakening was due in a large measure to foreign 
influences, partly Indo-Persian and Syrian but mainly Hellenic, 
and was marked by translations into Arabic from Persian, Sans- 
krit, Syriac and Greek. Starting with very little science, philo- 
sophy or literature of his own, the Arabian Moslem, who brought 
with him from the desert a keen sense of intellectual curiosity, a 
voracious appetite for learning and many latent faculties, soon 
became, as we have learned before, the beneficiary and heir of 
the older and more cultured peoples whom he conquered or 
encountered. As in Syria he adopted the already existing 
Aramaic civilization, itself influenced by the later Greek, so did 
he in al-'Iraq adopt the same civilization influenced by the 
Persian. In three-quarters of a century after the establishment of 
Baghdad the Arabic-reading world was in possession of the chief 
philosophical works of Aristotle, of the leading Neo-Platonic com- 
mentators, and of most of the medical writings of Galen, as well 
1 P. 312* • VoLi,p. 29S. 



CH.'xxiV THE GOLDEN PRIME OF THE *ABBASID$ 



307 



as of Persian and Indian scientific works. 1 In only a few decades 
Arab scholars assimilated what had taken the Greeks centuries 
to develop. In absorbing the main features of both Hellenic and 
Persian cultures Islam, to be sure, lost most of its o\vn original 
character, which breathed the spirit of the desert and bore the 
stamp of Arabian nationalism, but it thereby took an important 
place in the medieval cultural unit which linked southern Europe 
with the Near East. This culture, it should be remembered, was 
fed by a single stream, a stream with sources in ancient Egypt, 
Babylonia, Phoenicia and Judaea, all flowing to Greece and 
now returning to the East in the form of Hellenism* We shall 
later see how this same stream was re-diverted into Europe by 
the Arabs in Spain and Sicily, whence it helped create the 
Renaissance of Europe. 

India acted as an early source of inspiration, especially in I 
wisdom literature and mathematics. About A.H. 154 (771) an 
Indian traveller introduced into Baghdad a treatise on astronomy, 
a Siddkdnta (Ar. Sindhind), which by order of al-Mansur was 
translated by Muhammad ibn-Ibrahlm al-Fazari (f between 
796 and 806), who subsequently became the first astronomer in 
Islam. 2 The stars had of course interested the Arabians since 
desert days, but no scientific study of them was undertaken until 
this time. Islam added its impetus to the study of astronomy as a 
means for fixing the direction in which prayer should be con- 
ducted Ka'bah-ward. The famous al-Khwarizmi (f ca. 850) 
based his widely known astronomical tables (sif) on al-FazarPs 
work and syncretized the Indian and Greek systems of astro- 
nomy, at the same time adding his own contribution. Among 
other translations of astronomical works at this period were those 
from Persian into Arabic by al-Fadl ibn-Nawbakht 8 (f ca. 
815), the chief librarian of al-Rashld. 4 

This same Indian traveller had also brought a treatise on 
mathematics by means of which the numerals called in Europe 

^ 1 Since the latter part of the nineteenth century the modern Arab Orient has been 
passing through a similar period of translation, mainly from French and English 

* §a*id ibn-A^mad {al-Q5di al-Andalusi), fchaqdi al-Unam, e<L L. Cheikho 
(BcirOt, 1912), pp. 49-50; Yaout, Udab&\ vol. vi, p. 26S; Mas'tidi/voL viii, on 
290-91. 

* PersL nsKbakht, good luck. Many members of this family distinguished therr- 
selve* in the science of the stars. Tabari, voL iii, pp. 31?, 3x8 (where tl ie na me occur* 
4s IxibaUht or ftaybakht), 1364. 

* Fibril p 274, 



3 o8 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 

Arabic and by the Arabs Indian {Hindi) entered the Moslem 
world. 1 Later, in the ninth century, the Indians made another 
important contribution to Arabic mathematical science, the 
decimal system. 

Except in the arts and belles-lettres Persia did not have much 
that was original to contribute. The esthetic temperament of its 
Iranian population was a sorely needed element in the cultural 
life of the Semitic Arabians. Next to the artistic, the literary — 
rather than the scientific or philosophical — was the influence 
most clearly felt from Persia. The earliest literary work in Arabic 
that has come down to us is Kalilah wa^Dimnah (fables of 
Bidpai), a translation from Pahlawi (Middle Persian) which was 
itself a rendition from Sanskrit. The original work was brought 
to Persia from India, together with the game of chess, in the 
reign of Anusharwan (531-78). What gives the Arabic version 
special significance is the fact that the Persian was lost, as was 
the Sanskrit original, though the material in an expanded form 
can still be found in the Panchatanira* The Arabic version there* 
fore became the basis of ail existing translations into some forty 
languages, including, besides European tongues, Hebrew, 
Turkish, Ethiopic and Malay, Even Icelandic has a translation. 
This book, intended to instruct princes in the laws of polity by 
means of animal fables, was done into Arabic by ibn-al-Muqaffa*, 2 
a Zoroastrian convert to Islam whose suspect orthodoxy brought 
about his death by fire ca, 757. 

Ibn-al-MuqanV's translation was in itself a stylistic work of 
art, and ever since the 'Abbasid age Arabic prose has borne the 
impress of Persian style in its extravagant elegance, colourful 
imagery and flowery expression. The ancient Arabic style with 
its virile, pointed and terse form of expression was replaced to a 
large extent by the polished and affected diction of the Sasanid 
period. Such Arabic literary works as al-Agkani x al-Iqd al- 
Farid and al-Turtushi's Strdj al-Muliik* teem with references 
to earlier Indo-Pcrsian sources, especially when dealing with 
etiquette, wisdom, polity and history. Arabic historiography, as 
we shall see, was modelled after Persian patterns. 

1 See belo<ft , pp 573 seq 

1 For printed editions of Kalilah ua Dimnah see S> Wester de Sac/s (Paris, 1816), 
reprinted in Bulaq, 1249, Khahl aI-Y6«ji's 2nd ed (Beirut, 18SS), L. Cheikho's 
(Beirut, 1905) On ibn al-MuqaftV consult Fthrtst t p 118, lbn-Khalhkan, vol. 1, 
pp. 266-9. * » Published in Cairo, 1289, 1306, etc 



! CH XXlv' THE^GOLDEN PRIME OF THE 'ABBASIDS - 309 

In 765 the Caliph al-Man$ur, afflicted with a stomach disease 
which had baffled his physicians, summoned from JuntJi-Shapur 1 
the dean of its hospital, the Nestorian Jurjis 2 (George) ibn* 
Bakhtlshu* (f ca. 771). Jundi-Shapur was noted for its academy 
of medicine and philosophy founded about 555 by the great 
Anusharwan. The science of the institution was ba S ed on the 
ancient Greek tradition, but the language of instruction was 
Aramaic, Jurjls soon won the confidence of the taliph and 
became the court physician, though he retained his Christian 
faith. Invited by the caliph to embrace Islam his reto r t was that 
he preferred the company of his fathers, be they in heaven ur m 
helL* Ibn-BakhtTshu' became in Baghdad the founder of a 
brilliant family which for six or seven generations, covering a 
period of two centuries and a half, with many ups ^ n d dowiii, 
exercised an almost continuous monopoly over the co^rt medical 
practice. Scientific lore in those days, like jewel lery-making and 
other forms of craftsmanship, was considered an exclusive family 
affair and transmitted from father to son. JurjTs 1 son Bakhtishu* 
(f €bi} was cAief pdysicran of tfte BsgAa'ad Aospjfef under 
al-Rashid. Bakhtishu°s son Jibril (Gabriel), who Successfully 
treated a favourite slave of al-Rashld for hysterical paralysis by 
pretending to disrobe her in public, was appointed the caliph's 
private physician in 805.* 

At the time of the Arab conquest of the Fertile Crescent the a 
intellectual legacy of Greece was unquestionably the most 
precious treasure at hand. Hellenism consequently became the 
most vital of all foreign influences in Arab life. Odessa (al- 
Ruha'), the principal centre of Christian Syrians; ttarran, thfc 
headquarters of the heathen Syrians who in and aftef the ninth 
century claimed to be Sabians (An Sabi'ah or Sabfun); * Antioch, 
one of the many ancient Greek colonies; Alexandria, the meeting- 
place of Occidental and Oriental philosophy; and the Jtumberless 
cloisters of Syria and Mesopotamia where not only ecclesiastical 

1 At JundaysabQr The city, founded by the SasTimd Shapur I, whe nce name 
which may mean M camp of Shapur", stood on the stte of the modern villi™ Shahabad 
In Kh&nstan, south-western Persia 

*.Cf. fthnrt, p 296, ibn al-'Ibri, pp 213-15 "Bakht", which Jbn^bi-Usaybi'ah 
(vol* 1, p 125) tikes for a Syriac word meaning "servant**, is for P a hlawi bdkkt 
"hath delivered", making the family name mean "Jesus hath delivered 

* Ibn-aVtbri, p 2is,eopied b> ibn-tbi U$aybah, \oL i, p. 125* 

* Ihn-aMbn, pp 226-7, Qifti, VP *34 # 5» 

* See bdow, p 357. 



3 io THE UMAYYAD AMD l ABBASID EMPIRES partiii 

but scientific and philosophic studies were cultivated, all served 
as centres radiating Hellenistic stimuli. The various raids into "the 
land of the Romans", particularly under Harun, resulted in the 
introduction, among other objects of booty, of Greek manu- 
scripts, chiefly from Amorium and Ancyra 1 (Ankara). A1- 
Ma'mun is credited with the dispatch of emissaries as far as 
Constantinople, to the Emperor Leo the Armenian himself, in 
quest of Greek works. Even al-Mansur is said to have received 
in response to his request from the Byzantine emperor a number 
of books, including Euclid* 2 But the Arabians knew no Greek 
and had at first to depend upon translations made by their 
subjects, Jewish, heathen and more particularly Nestorian 
Christian. These Syrian Nestorians, who translated first into 
Synac and then from Syriac into Arabic, thus became the 
strongest link between Hellenism and Islam and consequently 
the earliest Oriental purveyors of Greek culture to the world at 
large. Before Hellenism could find access to the Arab mind it 
had to pass through a Syriac version. 

The apogee of Greek influence was reached under al-Ma*mun. 
The rationalistic tendencies of this caliph and his espousal of the 
Mu*tazilite cause, which maintained that religious texts should 
agree with the judgments of reason, led him to seek justification 
for his position m the philosophical works of the Greeks. The 
way the Fthrisi* expresses it is that Aristotle appeared to him in 
a dream and assured him that there was no real difference 
between reason and religious law. In pursuance of his policy 
al-Ma'mun in 830 established in Baghdad his famous Bayt al- 
Hikmah (house of wisdom), a combination library, academy 
and translation bureau which in many respects proved the most 
important educational institution since the foundation of the 
Alexandrian Museum in the first half of the third century B.C. 
Down to this time sporadic translation work had been done 
independently by Christians, Jews and recent converts to Islam. 
Beginning with al-Ma'mun and continuing under his immediate 
successors the work was centred mainly in the newly founded 
academy. The 'Abbastd era of translation lasted about a century 
after 750 Since most of the translators were Aramaic-speakmg 
many of the Greek works were first done into Aramaic (Syriac) 

1 Ar Anqirah, Ya'qubi, vol i, p 4S0 
3 Ibn-Khaldun, Muqaddamahi p 401 * P. 243. 



CH. XXivr Ti1i£ GOLDEN PRIME OF THE 'ABBASIDS 3 u 

befbue their rendition into Arabic. In the case of many difficult 
passages in the original the translation was made word by word, 
and where no Arabic equivalent was found or known the Greek 
term was simply transliterated with some adaptation* 1 

Xho translators into Arabic did not interest themselves in 
Greek productions of the literary type. No close contact was 
therefore established between the Arab mind and Greek drama, 
Greek poetry and Greek history. In that field Persian influence 
remained paramount, Homer's Iliad was partially translated into 
Syriac by Thawafll (Thcophilus) ibn-Tuma of al-Ruha 3 (f 785),* 
the Maronite astrologer of al-Mahdi, but evidently it was not 
carried through the second step into Arabic as in other 
cases. It was first Greek medicine as represented by Galen 
(f ca. AJ>. 200) and Paul of Aegina (fi. ca. A.B. 650), 3 Greek 
mathematics and allied sciences for which Euclid (fl. ca. 300 B.C.) 
and Ptolemy (fi. first half of second Christian century) stood, 
Greek philosophy as originated by Plato and Aristotle and 
expounded by later Neo-PIatonists, that served as the starting- 
point of this voyage of intellectual discovery* 

One of the pioneer translators from Greek was abu-Yahya 
ibn-al-Batrlq (f between 796 and 806), who is credited with 
having translated for al-Mansur the major works of Galen and 
Hippocrates (fl. ca. 436 B.C.) and for another patron Ptolemy's 
Quadtipartitum* The Elements of Euclid and the Atmagest t 
Arabic al-Majzstt or al-Mijisii (originally from Gr. megisti^ 
greatest), the great astronomical work of Ptolemy, 5 may have also 
been translated about the same time if a report in al-Mas'udi* 
is correct. But evidently all these early translations were not 
properly done and had to be revised or remade under al-Rashld 
and al-Ma^mun. Another early translator was the Syrian Christian 
Yulianna (Yafcya) ibn-Masawayh 7 (f 857), a pupil of Jibril 

% Hence sudi Arabic words as aritkma^qt (arithmetic), j&mairfya (geometry)* 
fighrdfijith (geography), musigi (music), fahefak (philosophy), asfuriab (astrolabe), 
aiklr (ether), iksir (elixir), tbrze (pure gold), maghnatis (magnet), urghun (organ). 
Consult abu**AbdulUh al-Khwarizmi, Afafdiifr ai-'UIum, ed. G. van Vlotcn 
(Lcyden, 1S95), index; Fihrisi, passim; JRasati Ikhw&n al-$afd\ed. IChayr-al-Dln 
al-£mkU (Cairo, ig^) t passin. 

4 lbn*al**Xbri> pp. 41^ 1120. * Ibid. p. 176. 

* &hrist t p. 273. * Ya'qubi, vol. i, pp. 150*51. 

* Vol. vlii, p. 291. Cf. below, pp. 3*4*1$. 

**XAtin MesuS (Mesua), or Mesue* Major {the Elder) to distinguish him from 
<Mesue the YoungeT (Musawayh <ii»M5ridini), the Jacobite physician \vho flourished 
«t flic court of the Fatirnid Caliph al-tlaUm in Cairo and died in 1015. 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES parthi 



ibn-Bakhtishu' and a teacher of Hunayn ibn-Ishaq, who is said 
to have translated for al-Rashld certain manuscripts, mainly 
medical, which the caliph had brought back from Ancyra and 
Amorium. 1 Yuhanna served also under the successors of al- 
RashTd. Once when offended by a court favourite his retort was, 
"If the folly wherewith thou art afflicted were converted into 
intelligence and divided amongst a hundred beetles, each would 
then become more intelligent than Aristotle!" 2 
Htmayn The sheikh of the translators, as the Arabs express it, was 
ibn-isb&q y unayn ibn-Ishaq (Joannitius, 809-73), one of the greatest 
scholars and noblest characters of the age. Hunayn was an 
'Ibadi, i.e. a Nestorian Christian from al-Hlrah, and as a youth 
acted as dispenser to the physician ibn-Masawayh. Taking as a 
challenge a chiding remark by the master that the people of 
al-IJirah had no business with medicine and that he had better 
go and change money in the bazaar, 3 the lad left the service of 
ibn -Mas away h in tears, but intent upon the study of Greek. He 
was then sent by the three scholarly sons of Musa ibn-Shakir, 
who were carrying on independent research work, into various 
Greek-speaking lands in quest of manuscripts, and later entered 
the service of Jibril ibn-Bakhtfshu*, physician-in-ordinary to al- 
Ma'mun. Subsequently this caliph appointed rjunayn super- 
intendent of his library-academy, and in this capacity IJunayn 
had charge of all the scientific translation work, in which he 
enjoyed the collaboration of his son Ishaq 4 and his nephew 
tlubaysh tbn-al-rjasan, 6 whom he trained. Of the numerous 
works ascribed to him some should undoubtedly be credited to 
these two assistants and to other students and members of his 
school, such as *Isa ibn-Yahya e and Musa ibn-Khalid 7 In many 
cases rjunayn evidently did the initial translation from Greek 
into Synac and his colleagues took the second step and trans- 
lated from Syriac into Arabic. 8 Aristotle's Hermemuttca, for 
instance, was first done from Greek into Synac by the father 

» Ibn-al-*Ibri, p. 227, ibn-aoi-Usajbi'Ah, \ol 1, pp. 175 seg.; Qifti, p. 380. 

1 FzAnsi, p. 295. 

2 Ibn al-*Ibri, p 250, ibn-abi-U$iybi*ah, vol i, p. 185. 

4 Ibn-Khallikan, vol p. Il6~de Slanc, vol. i, pp 187-8. 

* Nicknamed al«A*sam, because of a lame hand Ibn-abi-Tjf§a>bt*ah, vol i, pp> 
1S7, 203, Hknst, p 297, *ibn, p. 252 

* Ft An si, p 297 

1 He also translated from Persian into Arabic, tbtd p 244 1 28. 

* Ftkrtst p 249 



ck xxJV THE GOLDEN PRtME OF THE 'ABBAStDS 



313 



and then from Syriac into Arabic by the son Ishaq, who was 
the better Arabist 1 and who became the greatest translator of 
Aristotle's works. Among other books in Arabic Hunayn is 
supposed to have prepared translations of Galen, Hippocrates 
and Dioscorides (fl. ca. A.D. 50) as well as of Plato's Republic 
(Siyasah)* and Aristotle's Categories (Afaqill&i)? Physics 
{Tabftydf) and Magna Moralia {Kktilqlyaf)* Among these his 
chief work was the rendition into Syriac and Arabic of almost 
all of Galen's scientific output. 5 Seven books of Galen's anatomy, 
lost in the original Greek, have luckily been preserved in Arabic* 6 
ftunayn's Arabic version of the Old Testament from the Greek 
Septuagint 7 did not survive. 

IJunayn's ability as a translator may be attested by the report 
that when in the service of the sons of ibn~Shakir he and other 
translators received about 500 dinars (about £250) per month 
and that al-Ma'mun paid him in gold the weight of the books he 
translated. But he reached the summit of his glory not only as 
a translator but as a practitioner when he was appointed by 
al-Mutawakkil (847-61) as his private physician. His patron, 
however, once committed him to jail for a year for refusing the 
offer of rich rewards to concoct a poison for an enemy, When 
brought again before the caliph and threatened with death his 
reply was, "I have skill only in what is beneficial, and have studied 
naught else"* 8 Asked by the caliph, who then claimed that he 
was simply testing his physician's integrity, as to what prevented 
him from preparing the deadly poison, yunayn replied: 

Two things; my religion and my profession. My religion decrees that 
we should do good even to our enemies, how much more to our friends. 
And my profession is instituted for the benefit of humanity and limited 
to their relief and cure. Besides, every physician is under oath never to 
give anyone a deadly medicine*® 

IJunayn ibn-Ishaq al-*Ibadi was judged by ibn-al-'Ibri and 
al-Qifti "a source of science and a mine of virtue", and by 

* &Mst t p. 298, copied by Qiffc, p. So. 1 Ibtd. p. 246, 1, 5. 

* Ihtd. p 24S • Qiftf, p p 38, 42 
1 Ibn-abi-Us^bi'ah, vol. i t pp. iSS 0, Qiftt, pp 94-5. 

* For a MS of another work, al gind'ck al*$cghtrah t comprising ten of the sixteen 
Canonical works of Gaicn and dated 572 (a d. I 176), see Hitti, Fans and 'Abd-al* 
Vlitok i Cai6log<cf the Qarrttt Collection of Arahtc Manuscripts (Princeton, 193S}, 

* Jbn abi*TJsa}bi*ah, vol* i, pp. 187-8, ibn-al-'Ibri, p. 251. 
1 * Ibn*al.*lbn, pp 251*2. 



314 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES paktiii ' 



Lcclerc "la plus grande figure du IX e siecle", and even "une des 
plus belles intelligences et un des plus beaux caractercs que Ton 
rencontre dans Phistoire".* 

Just as rjunayn stood at the head of the Ncstorian group of 
translators, so did Thabit ibn-Qurrah 2 (ca. 836-901) lead another 
group, recruited from among the heathen Sabians 3 of rj[arran 
(ancient Carrhae). These Sabians were star-worshippers and as 
such had interested themselves in astronomy and mathematics 
from time immemorial. During the reign of al-Mutawakkil their 
native town became the seat of a school of philosophy and 
medicine which had been previously transferred from Alexandria 
to Antioch. In this milieu Thabit and his disciples flourished. 
They are credited with having translated the bulk of the Greek 
mathematical and astronomical works, including those of 
Archimedes (f 212 B.C.) and of Apollonius of Perga (b. ca. 262 
B.C.). 4 They also improved on earlier translations. The transla- 
tion of Euclid by rlunayn, for example, was revised by Thabit* 
Thabit found a patron in the Caliph al-Mu'tadid (892-902), 
whose personal friend and table companion he soon became,* 

In his great work Thabit was succeeded by his son Sinan 
(t 943)> his two grandsons Thabit (t 973) 7 and Ibrahim (f 046) 8 
and one great-grandson, abu-al-Faraj, 9 all of whom distinguished 
themselves as translators and scientists. But the greatest 
Salian name after Thabit's was that of al-Battani (f 929, the 
Albategnius or Albatenius of Latin authors), whose first name, 
abu-' Abdullah Muhammad (ibn-Jabir lbn-Sinan), indicates his 
conversion to Islam. Al-Battani's fame, however, rests on his 
original work as an astronomer, as he was not a translator. 

The rjarranian school of mathematical and astronomical 
translators had as its forerunner al-Hajjaj ibn-Yusuf ibn-Matar 
(fL between 786 and 833), generally credited with making the 
first translation of Euclid's Elements and one of the first of 
Ptolemy's Almagest. Of the former work he evidently prepared 
two versions, one for al-Rashid and the other for aI-Ma*mun, 10 

1 L Leclcrc, Ihsloire de la mtdectne arch (Paris, 1S76), vol. i, p. 139 

* His al-Dkakhlrak fi */ftrt al-T*bb was edited by G. Sobhy (Cairo, 1928). 

* In reality pseudo-babians. Sec below, p. 358. 

4 Fihrtst> p 267. * Ibn-KhalliLSn, \ol. i, pp 177, 298, 

• Ibn-abi-Uijaybi'ah, vol. i, p. 216. 7 IHd pp 224-6. 

• Ibid, p 226, Qiffi, pp. 57*9; JFthrtst, p. 27a. 

9 Qiffi, p. 428. 10 Fthnst, p. 265. 



CB.XXIV THE GOLDEN i>RlME OF THE ,'ABBASIDS 315 

r f ■<■ w 

before Hunayn prepared his. Al-Hajjaj's version of tlie notable - 
astronomical work Almagest was made in from an earlier 
Syriac version. The first attempt at the Almagest had been made 
as early as the days of Yahya ibn-Khalid ibn-Barmak, 1 al- 
Rashid's vizir, but the result was not satisfactory. A later 
adaptation of this work was undertaken by abu-al-Wafa* 
Muhammad al-Buzjani al-Flasib 3 (94097 or 998), one of the , 
greatest Moslem astronomers and mathematicians. Another late 
translator of mathematical and philosophical works was Qusta n 
ibn-Luqa (f ca. 922), a Christian of Ba*labakk, whose list of 
original works in the Fthrist* numbers thirty-four. 

The latter part of the tenth century saw the rise of Jacobite, or 
Monophysite, translators represented by Yahya ibn-*Adi, who 
was born in Takrlt in 893 and died in Baghdad in 974, and 
abu-*Ali f Isa ibn-Zur'ah of Baghdad (f 1008) * Yahya, who 
became the archbishop of his church, declared once to the author 
of tlie Fthrtst* that he copied in a day and a night an average of 
a hundred leaves. The Jacobite authors busied themselves with 
the revision of existing editions of Aristotelian works or the 
preparation of fresh translations thereof. They were, moreover, 
the chief influence m introducing Neo-PIatonic spec ilations and 
mysticism into the Arabic world. 

Before the age of translation was brought to an end pracucally 
all the extant works of Aristotle, many of which were of course 
spurious, had become accessible to the Arabic reader. Ibn-abi- 
U§aybi'ah, 6 and after him al-QiftV cite no less than a hundred 
works attributed to "the philosopher of the Greeks". All this 
took place while Europe was almost totally ignorant of Greek 
thought and science. For while al-Rashld and al-Ma'mun were 
delving into Greek and Persian philosophy their contempor- 
aries in the West, Charlemagne and his lords, were reportedly 
dabbling in the art of writing their names. Aristotle's logical 
Orgatwn, which in Arabic included Aristotle's Rhetoric and 
Poetics as well as Porphyry's Isagoge, soon took its place side 
by side with Arabic grammar as the basis of humanistic studies 
in Islam. This position it has maintained to the present day. 
t FtAnst, pp. 267-S Cf. above, p 311. 

* Bttq&n in Quhistln was his birthplace, fr&stb means "mathematician'*. 
8 P» 295- Cf. Qifti, pp. 262-3. 

* Fikrtst, p. 26$; ibn-abi-U?aybi*ah, \ol i, pp. 235-6; Qifti, pp. 245*6, 

* V. 204- * Vol. i, pp. 57 ? Pp 34 set* 



3X6 



THE UMAYVAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 



Moslems accepted the idea of Neo-Platonic cortfmentators that 
the teachings of Aristotle and Plato (Afiatun) were substantially 
the same. Especially in Sufism, Moslem mysticism, did the 
influence of Neo-Platonism manifest itself. Through Avicenna 
(ibn-Sma) and Averroes (ibn-Rushd), as we shall later see, 
Platonism and Aristotelianism found their way into Latin and 
exercised a determining influence upon medieval European 
scholasticism. 

This long and fruitful age of translation under the early 
'Abbasids was followed by one of original contribution which 
we shall discuss in a later chapter. By the tenth century Arabic, 
which in pre-Islamic days was only a language of poetry and 
after Muhammad mainly a language of revelation and religion, 
had become metamorphosed in a remarkable and unprecedented 
way into a pliant medium for expressing scientific thought and 
conveying philosophic ideas of the highest order. In the mean- 
time it had established itself as the language of diplomacy and 
polite intercourse from Central Asia, through the whole length 
of Northern Africa, to Spain. Ever since that time the peoples of 
al^Iraq, Syria and Palestine as well as of Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria 
and Morocco have expressed their best thought in the tongue of 
the Arabians. 




Bntish MusP"» 
FrovttI W C Dav\i/ Mtdietval kngl&nf* {ClartndonPrtsi) 

ANGLO SAXON GOLD COIN IMITATING AN ARAB DINAR 
OF THE YEAR 774 

It bears on the obverse the shakddak and on the rc\crsc o*"*a rex inscribed 
upside down 



CHAPTER XXV 
THE 'ABBASID STATE 



&T the head of the state stood the caliph, who was, in theory at The 
f casfr, the fountainhead of all power. He could and did delegate 
the exercise of his civil authority to a vizir (wazir), of his judicial 
power to a judge (qddz), of his military function to a general 
[amtr) % but the caliph himself ever remained the final arbiter of 
all governmental affairs. In their imperial conduct and function 
the early caliphs of Baghdad followed the older Persian pattern. 
Taking advantageof the popular reaction against the ungodliness 
of the later Umayyads, the 'Abbasids made their debut with 
emphasis on the religious character and dignity of their office as 
an imamate, an emphasis which in later years increased in 
inverse proportion to their actual power. With the eighth caliph, 
al-Mu f tasim bi-Allah (833-42), and continuing till the end of the 
dynasty, they began to assume honorific titles compounded with 
Allah. In the period of decline their subjects started to shower on 
them such extravagant titles as khalifat Allah (God's caiiph) 
and later sill Allah t ala al-ard (God's shadow on earth). These 
were evidently first bestowed on al-Mutawakkil (847-61), 1 and 
persisted until the last days of the Ottoman caliphate. 

The ill-defined hereditary principle of succession instituted by 
the Umayyad caliphs was followed throughout the *Abbasid 
regime with the same evil results. The reigning caliph would 
designate as his successor that one of his sons whom he 
favoured or considered competent, or any of his kinsmen whom 
he regarded as best qualified. Al-Saffah nominated his brother 
al-Mansur, who was succeeded by his son aI-Mahdi. s Al-Mahdi 
was succeeded by his eldest son, al-Hadi, who was followed by his 
brother Harun al-Rashid. 3 Harun designated his oldest son, al- 
Amin, as his first successor, and his younger but more talented 

5 Mas'udi, vol. vti, p. 27S. 

* See YVqubi, vol. ri, pp. 437 seq^ 472 seq.; Fa&hri, p. 236. 

* r clhri. pp. 261-2; Tabari, vol. iii, p. 523. 

317 



3 i8 THE UMAYYAD AND \ABBASID EMPIRES partij 



son, al-Mamun, as his second successor. He divided the empire 
between the two, reserving for al-Ma*mun the government of 
Khurasan with Marw (Marv) for his capital. 1 After a bitter 
struggle which ended in the assassination of al-Amln (September 
813), al-Ma'mun usurped the caliphate. Four years later, -when 
he donned the green of the Shfah in preference to the black of 
the 'Abbasids and designated an f AIid, 'Ali al-Rida, as heir 
apparent, the enraged Baghdadis elected (July 817) al-Ma'miUVs 
uncle Ibrahim ibn-al-Mahdi as caliph. Not until 819, six years 
after the death of his predecessor, did aI-Ma*mun succeed in 
effecting an entry into the capital of the empire. Shordy before 
his death al-Ma*mun, ignoring his son al-^Abbas, designated his 
brother al-Mu'tasim as his successor, thus almost precipitating 
a revolt on the part of the army, with whom the son was a special 
favourite, Al-Mu*tasim was followed by his son al-Wathiq 
(f 847), with whom the period of *Abbasid glory ended. Of the 
first twenty-four caliphs, whose reign covered almost two cen- 
turies and a half (750-991), only six were immediately succeeded 
by a son. 

Attached to the person of the caliph was the chamberlain 
(Jiajzb), whose duty consisted in introducing accredited envoys 
and dignitaries into the cahphal presence and whose influence 
naturally became great. There was also the executioner, an 
outstanding figure in the Baghdad court. Vaulted underground 
chambers used for torture appear for the first time m Arab 
history . The court astrologer, like the executioner an importation 
from Persia, became an adjunct of the f Abbasid throne. 
Vtnr Next to the cahph stood the vizir (wazlr\ whose office was 

influenced by the Persian tradition. 2 The vizir acted as the 
caliph's alter ego and grew in power as his chief indulged in- 
creasingly in the pleasures of the harem. In the diploma appoint- 
ing his vizir the Caliph al~Nasir (1 180-1225) has given a perfect 
expression to the theory of 1 'divine right" of kingship working 
by proxy: 

Muhammad ibn-Barz al-Qummi is our representative throughout 
the land and amongst our subjects. Therefore he who obeys him obeys 
us; and he who obeys us obeys God, and God shall cause him who 
obeys Him to enter Paradise. As for one who, on the other hand, 

1 Ya'qubi, \oh 11, pp 500 stq ; Fakhrt ) p. 292, Mns'fidi, Tanhlk^ p. 345. 

3 Cf lbn al 'Abbas, At) ' ar al-Uioa) fi Tarttb aUDuwal (Cairo, 1295), p. 62, S, 0. 
Goitcm m Islan tc Culture, \o\ xvi (1942), pp 255 63, 3S0 92 



orlxxv A THE *ABBA5ID STATE ^3*9' 

disobeys our vizir, he disobeys us; and he who disobeys us disobeys 
God, and God shall cause him who disobeys Him to enter hell-fire. 1 

As in the case of the Barmakids the vizir was often all- 
powerful, appointing and deposing governors and judges, 
theoretically, of course, with the consent of the caliph, and even 
transmitting his own office according to the hereditary principle. 
ItVas customary for the vizir to confiscate the property of the 
governor who fell from grace, as it was customary for the 
governor himself to appropriate the estates of inferior officials 
and private citizens and for the caliph in his turn to mete out the 
same penalty to the deposed vizir. 2 Indeed, the forfeiture of 
possessions was often accompanied by loss of life. Finally a 
special "bureau of confiscation" 3 was instituted as a regular 
governmental department. In the days of the Caliph ai-Mu*tadid 
the vizir received a monthly salary of a thousand dinars. Al- 
Mawardi 4 and other legal theorists distinguish between two 
varieties of vizirate: a iafwid (with full authority, unlimited) 
and a tanftdh (with executive power only, limited). The un- 
limited vizir exercised all the powers of sovereignty with the 
exception of the appointment of his successor; the limited vizir 
took no Initiative but confined his duties to the execution of 
the caliph's orders and the following of his instructions. After 
the time of al-Muqtadir (908-32) the vizir was supplanted by the 
amir al-umar&\ commander of the commanders, an office which 
.was subsequently held by the Buwayhids, 

The vizir, in reality grand vizir, presided over the council, 
whose membership included the various heads of the depart- 
ments of state. Sometimes those heads were also designated 
vizirs, but their rank was always subordinate to that of the real 
vizir. Under the *Abbasids the governmental machinery became 
much more complicated than heretofore, though greater order 
^was brought into state affairs, especially in the system of taxation 
and the administration of justice. Since finances constituted the 
main concern of the government the bureau of taxes {ditvan 
td~kharaj) t or department of finance {bayt al-mat), remained, as 
under the Umayyads, the most important unit; its chief, often 

, * Fstkhn % p. 205, a Ibn-al-Athlr, vol. vi, pp. 19-20, 

* Cf. HiL*ila!-5abi% Tutif&t at-Umeraft Tdrikh aLWuzar£ t ed. H. F. Amedrtu 
t{Bdrat f 1904}, p. 366. r 



320 



THE UMAYYAD AND WBBASID EMPIRES partiu 



referred to as "master of taxes", continued to be an outstanding 
figure in the government of the caliph. 

The sources of revenue for the state included zakah, the only 
legal tax obligatory on every Moslem. Zakah was imposed on 
arable lands, herds, gold and silver, commercial wares and other 
forms of property capable of augmentation through natural 
increase or by investment. Moslems, as we learned before, paid 
no poll tax. The official tax-gatherer looked after lands, herds and 
the like, but personal effects, including gold and silver, were left 
to the individual's private conscience. AH money collected from 
believers was disbursed from the central treasury for the benefit 
of believers: the poor, the orphan, the stranger, volunteers for 
the holy war and slaves and captives to be ransomed. The 
other main sources of public income were tribute from foreign 
enemies, truce money, capitation tax from non-Moslem subjects 
(jtzyak)> land tax (khardf) x and tithes levied upon merchandise 
owned by non-Moslems and imported into Moslem territory. Of 
these items the land tax was always the largest and constituted 
the main source of income from unbelievers. All this revenue was 
at this time referred to as fay (cf. Koran 59 : 7) and applied by 
the caliph to the payment of the troops, the maintenance of 
mosques, roads and bridges and for the general good of the 
Moslem community. 2 

The varying reports of the state revenue that have come dcwa 
to us from the f Abbasid period testify to great prosperity during 
the first century of the regime, which made it possible for the 1 
caliphs to live on the grand scale described above, and to a steady 
decline in revenue during each succeeding century. Three such 
reports have been preserved for us: the oldest, in ibn-Khaldun, 
showing the income under al-Ma*mun; the second, in Qudamah, 
for the revenue a few years later, possibly under al-Mu*ta§im; and 
the third, in ibn-Khurdadhbih, indicating the proceeds in the first 
half of the third Moslem century. According to ibn-Khaldun 3 the 

1 By this time the different! ation between jttyah and kharaj had been clearly made. 
See above, p 171, In later times the jizyah corresponded to albadal al-cskan 
(scutage), T*hich the Ottomans exacted from their non Moslem subjects for exemp- 
tion from military service. 

* Mawardi, pp. 366 seq, * 

* Muqaddamakt pp 150 51. Cf Huart, Htstoirc des Arabes, \ol 1, p. 376, Alfred 
von Kremer, Culturgescktchte des Orients tmter den Chchfen* vol 1 (Vienna, 1875), 
pp. 356 seq. It is obuous that lbn KhaloWs list, like the other t\\0, is neither clear 
nor accurate. 



CH* XXV 



THE 'ABBASID STATE 



321 



annual land taxpaid by al-Sawad (lower 'Iraq, ancient Babylonia) 
in cash, other than what was paid in kind, amounted in the days 
of al-Ma'mun to 27,800,000 dirhams; by Khurasan, 28,000,000; 
by Egypt, 23,040,000; by Syria-Palestine, 1 14,724,000; and by 
all the provinces of the empire, 331,929,008 dirhams exclusive 
of taxes in kind. From Qudamah's 2 balance-sheet it may be 
gathered that the income in both cash and kind from al-Sawad 
was equivalent to 130,200,000 dirhams; 3 from Khurasan, 
37,000,000; from Egypt, including Alexandria, 37,500,000; from 
Syria-Palestine, including Hims, 1 5,860,000; and from the whole 
empire, 388,291,350 dirhams, which includes taxes in kind. 
Ibn-Khurdadhbih 4 lists a number of items from which we may 
calculate that the tax of al-Sawad in cash and kind was the 
equivalent of 78,319,340 dirhams; 6 of Khurasan and depend- 
encies, 44,846,000; of Syria-Palestine, 6 29,850,000; and of the 
whole empire, 299, 26 5, 3 40. 7 As for the expenditures, we have 
no sufficient data in the scattered references to warrant definite 
conclusions. But we are told that when al-Mansur died the central 
treasury contained 600,000,000 dirhams and 14,000,000 dinars; 8 
when al-Rashld died it had over 900,000,0c o, 9 and at the death 
of aUMuktafi (908) the public treasures including jewellery, 
furniture and real estate amounted to 100,000,000 dinars. 10 

Besides the bureau of taxes the 'Abbasid government had an 
audit or accounts office (dixuan al-zimdm) introduced by al- 
Mahdi; a board of correspondence or chancery office {diwdn 
al-iawqf) which handled all official letters, political documents 
and imperial mandates and diplomas; a board for the inspection 
of grievances; a police department and a postal department. 

The board for the inspection of grievances {diwdn al-nazar fi 
al-masdiim) was a kind of court of appeal or supreme court 
intended to set aright cases of miscarriage of justice in the 

1 Qinnasrm, Damascus, the Jordan and Palestine, the taxes of which are given as 
1,227,000 dinars, 

* Kkaraj, pp. 237-52. 

s In cash alone 8,095,800 dirhams; Qudamah, pp. 249, 239. As a matter of fact 
he gives different 6gures in different places and on his lists the totals do not tally 
with the itemized statements. 

* Passim* 

* ,* In cash alone about 8,456,840 dirhams; ibn-Khurdiidhbih, pp. 5 seq. 

* Qinnasrin and other frontier towns, 1 Iim$, Damascus, the Jordan and Palestine. 
Zn>dln, Tamcddur:, voU ii, p. 61. Cf. Huart, vol. i, p. 37G. 

* l Mas'udi, vol. vi, p. 233. 

1 Tabari, vol iii, p. 764. 10 Tha'aiibi, Lata V/, p* ?3, 



t, 

322 THE UMAYYAD AND f ABBASIE> EMPIRES * ?ARTm 



administrative and political departments. Its origin goes back 
to the Umayyad days, for al-Mawardi 1 tells us that *Abd-al-^ 
Malik was the first caliph to devote a special day for the direct 
hearing by himself of appeals and complaints made by his 
subjects. *Umar II zealously followed the precedent. 2 This 
practice uas evidently introduced by al-Mahdi into the 'Abbasid 
regime. His successors al-Hadi, Harun, al-Ma'mun and those 
who followed received such complaints in public audience; al- 
Muhtadi {869-70) was the last to keep up the custom. The 
Norman king Roger II (1130-54) introduced this institution 
into Sicily, where it struck root in European soil. 3 

The police department (diwan al-shurtaK) was headed by a 
high official designated sahib al-shurtah, who acted as chief of 
police and the royal bodyguard and in later times occasionally 
held the rank of vizir. Each large city had its own special police 
who also held military rank and were as a rule well paid. The 
chief of municipal police was called muhtastb % for he acted as 
overseer of markets and morals It was his duty to see that 
proper weights and measures were used in trade, that legitimate 
debts were paid (though he had no judicial power), that approved 
morals were maintained and that acts forbidden by law, such as 
gambling, usury and public sale of wine, were not committed 
Al-Mawardi 4 enumerates, among other interesting duties of this 
prefect of police, the maintenance of the recognized standards 
of public morality between the two sexes and the chastisement of 
those who dyed their grey beards black with a view to gaining 
the favour of the ladies. 

A significant feature of the 'Abbasid government was the 
postal department, 5 of which the chief was called sahib al-barid. 
Among the Umayyads Mu'awiyah, as we have already learned, 
was the first to interest himself in the postal service, *Abd-aI- 
Malik extended it throughout the empire and al-Walid made use 
of it for his building operations. Historians credit Harun with 

* P. 131. Cf. jbn al Athir, \ol j, p, 46. 

1 Mawardi, p 131, Cf Ya'qubi, vol u, p 367. Consult al-Bayhaqi, cl Matann 
to al Afasawi, cd F. Schwally (Giessen, 1902), pp 525 jeq. 

3 M Aman, Storia dtt JBJusuimam di Szci/ta, cd NalUno, \ol. m (Catatua, 
l937-9)» P 45 2 ; von Krcmer, Culturgcschuhic, \ol i, p 420 

* Pp 417.18, 431 , 

6 Ditcdn c! barfd, bureau of post Ar barzdn> probably a Semitic word, not related 
to Latin rer*ifaj,Pcrs a swft horse, Ar inrdkatvn, horse of burden Cf.Esth. 

S i 10; I^fahani, Tartkh t p 39 



'Cmxxv" , THE 'ABBASID STATE 3*3 

having organized the service on a new basis through his Bar- 
makid counsellor Yahya. Though primarily designed to serve 
the interests of the state, the postal institution did in a limited 
way handle private correspondence. 1 Each provincial capital 
tv f as provided with a post office. Routes connected the imperial 
capital with the leading centres of the empire 5 and systems of 
relays covered these routes. In all there must have been hundreds 
of such relay routes, In Persia the relays consisted of mules and 
horses; in Syria and Arabia camels were used, 3 The bartd was 
also employed for the conveyance of newly appointed governors 
to their respective provinces and for the transportation of troops 
with their baggage. 4 The public could make use of it on the 
payment of a substantial sum. 

Pigeons were trained and used as letter-carriers. The first 
recorded instance relates to the news of the capture of the rebel 
Babik (Babak), chief of the Khurrami 5 sect, carried to al- 
Mu*tasim by this method in 83 7. 6 

The postal headquarters in Baghdad had itineraries of the 
whole empire indicating the various stations and the intervening 
distances. These itineraries assisted travellers, merchants and 
pilgrims and laid the basis of later geographical research. Early 
Arab students of geography made use of such postal directories 
in the composition of their works. One of the leaders among 
them, ibn-Khurdadhbih (f ea. 912), whose al-Masalik w-al- 
„ Mamdlik, based on material in the state archives, proved an 
important source for historical topography, was himself sahib 
al-barid for the Caliph al-Mu*tamid in al-Jibal (ancient Media). 
This elaborate road system which radiated from the imperial 
capital was an inheritance from the earlier Persian empire. In it 
the most famous of the trunk roads was the Khurasan highway, 
which stretched north-east through Hamadhan, al-Rayy, Naysa- 
bur, Tus, Marw, Bukhara, Samarqand, and connected Baghdad 
j with the frontier towns of the Jaxartes and the borders of China* 
Fromxheprincipal cities along this highway cross-roads branched 
" fcffjjorth and south. To the present day the Persian post roads 

1 teats'udi, vol. vj, p, 03, H, 56. * Ibn-Khurdadhbih,/or*m. 

y , 8 CL ibn al Athir, vol. vi, p, 40, 11, 1 1 -12. * Jbtd vol. iv, pp 373-4* 

* 00 called from a district in Persia where the sect evidently arose as a result of the 
execution of the famous aWMushm aUKhurasani Some of them denied that abu- 

? Mushm ^ax dead &od foretold Ms return to spread jusUce in the world, Mas'udi, 
4 vol^jp. iSG, Baghdad!, ea,Hitb\ pp. 164 m$s, Fthrist,p. 34s. 

* Mas'ads, vol* vii, pp xa6^ „ 



CH.XXV 



THE 'ABBASID STATE 



32$ 



centring in Tihran (Teheran), near ancient al-Rayy, follow the 
same old tracks. Another main road led from Baghdad down the 
Tigris through Wasit and al-Basrah to al-Ahwaz in Khuzistan 
and thence to Shlraz in Faris. Likewise this road sent off east and 
west branches which connected its towns with other centres of 
population and ultimately with the Khurasan trunk. These roads 
Were frequented by pilgrims, who from Baghdad could take the 
pilgrim route to Makkah through al-Kufah or ai-Basrah. For 
the benefit of pilgrims and travellers caravanserais, hospices and 
cisterns dotted the main roads. Such khans along the Khurasan 
road were built as early as the days of f Umar II. 1 A third high- 
way linked Baghdad with al-Mawsil, Amid (Diyar Bakr) and 
the frontier fortresses. On the north-west Baghdad was connected 
with Damascus and other Syrian towns through al-Anbar and 
al-Raqqah. 

"The postmaster- general had another important function 
besides looking after the imperial mail and supervising the 
various postal establishments; he was the chief of an espionage 
system to which the whole postal service was subordinated. As 
such his full title was sd/jib al-barid w-al-akkbdr? controller of 
the post and intelligence service. In this capacity he acted as an 
inspector-general and direct confidential agent of the central 
government. The provincial postmaster reported to him or to the 
caliph directly on the conduct and activities of the government 
officials in his province, not excluding the governor himself. 
Such a report, submitted to al-Mutawakkil against a governor 
of Baghdad who brought back with him from a pilgrimage to 
Makkah a beautiful slave girl "with whom he amuses himself 
from noon till night to the neglect of the affairs of the state", has 
come down to us in a late source, 3 Al-Mansur employed in his 
espionage system merchants, pedlars and travellers who acted 
as detectives; al-Rashtd and other caliphs did the same. 4 Al- 
Ma'mun is said to have had in his intelligence service in Bagh- 
dad some 1700 aged women. Especially was "the land of the 
Romans" covered with *Abbasid spies of both sexes disguised as 
traders, travellers and physicians. 

1 Ibn-al-Athir, vol. v, p. 44; Naivawi, Tchdhtb, p. 468, I. 16. 
v » QudSmah, p. 1S4, 

* Atliai. riam at-Nas (Cairo, 1297), p. 161. 
* * Cf, AghSni, vol. xv, p. 36, 1. 14; Miskawayh, cd, de Goeje and dc Jong, pp. 234, 
466,498,513,514,567. 



326 



THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES part 



The dispensing of justice, always considered in Moslem com- 
munities a religious duty, was entrusted by the 'Abbasid caliph 
or his vizir to a member of the faqik (theologian) class, who thus 
became a qadi? or if in Baghdad a qddt al-quddk (chief judge). 
The first to receive the title of qadi al-quddk was the famous 
abu-Yusuf (t ca. 798), who served under al-Mahdi and his two 
sons al-Hadi and Harun. 2 The judge, according to the theory of 
Moslem law, had to be male, adult, in full possession of his 
mental faculties, a free citizen, Moslem in faith, irreproachable 
in character, sound of sight and hearing and well versed in the 
prescriptions of law, 3 all of which was of course canon law. Non» 
Moslems, as noted before, were in matters of civil right under 
the jurisdiction of their own ecclesiastical heads or magistrates. 
Al-Mawardi 4 distinguishes between two types of judgeship: one 
in which the authority is general and absolute (^ammah mutlaqah) 
and the other in which the authority is special and limited 
(khdssaft). The chief duties of the qadi of the first class consisted 
in deciding cases, acting as guardian for orphans, lunatics and 
minors, administering pious foundations, imposing punishments 
on violators of the religious law, appointing judicial deputies 
(sing, nd*zb) in the various provinces and presiding under 
certain conditions at the Friday congregational prayers. In the 
early history of the institution the provincial judges held their 
appointment from the governors, but in the fourth Moslem 
century those judges were usually deputies of the chief qadi in 
Baghdad. Under al-Ma'mun the pay of the judge of Egypt is 
said by a late authority 5 to have reached 4000 dirhams a month. 
The judge of the second class, one with special and limited 
authority, had his power restricted in accordance with the 
diploma of appointment from the caliph, vizir or governor. 6 

The Arab caliphate never maintained a large standing army 
in the strict sense of the term, well organized, under strict 
discipline and subject to regular instruction and drill. The 
cahphal bodyguard {haras) were almost the only regular troops 
and formed the nucleus around which clustered bands under 

1 Transliterated in at least thirteen different ways, six of which occur in official 
British documents qadt t qass, katt, cadt, al kalt, katkt* 
1 Ibn-Khalhkan, vol 111, p 334 ~ de Slane, vol iv, p. 273. 
x Muv.ardi, pp 107-11. * Pp 117*25. 

* SuyxHi, ffusn y vol it, p 100, 1 4 

• Consult Richard Gotthed in Jtexme des itudts ethnogrcphiques (1908), pp. 
385 93 



CH.XXV, * THE *ABBASID STATE $2f 

their own chiefs, besides mercenaries and adventurers, and 
general* levies of which the units were tribes or districts. The 
regulars (Jtind) who were permanently on active service were 
referred to as murtaziqah (regularly paid), for they were in the 
pay of the government. Others were designated mutatawtvx x ah x 
(volunteers) and received rations only while on duty. The 
volunteer ranks were recruited from among the Bedouins as 
well as from the peasants and townspeople. Members of the 
bodyguard received higher pay and were equipped with better 
armour and uniforms. In the reign of the first 'Abbasid caliph 
the average pay of the foot soldier was, besides the usual rations 
and allowances, about 960 dirhams a year, 8 the horseman 
receiving double that amount. Under al-Ma'mun, when the 
empire reached its height, the 'Iraq army is said to have num- 
bered 125,000, of whom the infantry received only 240 dirhams 
a year* and the cavalry twice as much. And when it is remem- 
bered that al-Mansur paid his master builder at the founding 
of Baghdad the equivalent of about a dirham a day and the 
ordinary labourer about a third of a dirham, 4 it becomes clear 

* how comparatively well paid the military career was. 

The regulars under the early 'Abbasids were composed of 
infantry (harbiyah)* armed with spears, swords and shields, of 
archers (rdmiyah) and of cavalry (fursdn) wearing helmets and 
breast-plates and equipped with long lances and battle-axes. 

, AKMutawakkil introduced the practice of wearing the sword in 
the Persian fashion round the waist in preference to the old 
Arabian way of carrying it over the shoulder. 6 Each corps of 
archers had attached to it a body of naphtha-throwers (itaffdtun) 
who wore fireproof suits and huried incendiary material at the 
enemy. 7 Engineers in charge of the siege machinery, including 
catapults, mangonels and battering-rams, accompanied the 
army. One such engineer, ibn-Sabir al-Manjanlqi, who flourished 

* Or vtuttawitn^h, Tabari, vol. iii, pp. 1008 se$.\ lbn-Khaldun, vol, iu\ p. 260. 

* Tabari, vol. iii, p. 41, 11. 17-18, copied by ibn-al*Athir, vol. v, p, 322, 11. 14-15. 
* * When al-Ma'mun was fighting his brother he had to restore the standard 960 
dirhams, which sum was likewise paid by his toother. Taban, vol* m, p 830, 11. 

p. £67, 1. 14* 

* IChatib, vol. I, p. 70; Tabari, vol. iii, p. 326. 

1 Mentioned hy Tabari, voL hi, pp. $oS seq.) ibn-Xhaldun, vol. iii, p. 238, 1 17 
J\ 245, 11. 23, 26. 

Ibn-KhaldQn, vol. iii, p. 575. 
1 AgUni t vol. xvil, p. 45; ibn-KhaJdun, vol ai, p. 260, 1. 20. 



328 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES partus 



later under al-Nasir (1180-1225), left an unfinished book which 
treats of the art of warfare in all its details* 1 Field hospitals and 
ambulances in the shape of litters carried by camels accompanied 
the army when in the field. As usual, Harun is the caliph 
credited with introducing these features and pressing science 
into the service of warfare* 

During the 'Abbasid regime, which, as we have seen before, 
owed its rise to Persian rather than Arab arms, the Arabian 
element lost its military, as it did its political, predominance. 
Under the first caliphs the bodyguard, the strong arm of the 
military machine, was largely composed of Khurasani troops. 
The Arab soldiery formed two divisions: one of North Arabians, 
Mudarite, and the other of South Arabians, Yamanite, New 
converts to Islam attached themselves to some Arabian tribe as 
clients and thus formed a part of the military organization of 
that tribe. Al-Mu f tasim added a new division made up of Turks, 
originally his slaves, from Farghanah and other regions of 
Central Asia. 2 This new imperial bodyguard soon became the 
terror of the whole capital, and in 836 the caliph had to build a 
new town, Samarra, to which he transferred his seat of govern- 
ment. After the death of al-Muntasir (861-2) these Turks began 
to play the part of a pnetorian guard and exercise a determining 
influence on affairs of the state. 

In Roman-Byzantine fashion every ten men of the army under 
al-Ma'mun, al-Musta'In and other 'Abbasid caliphs were com- 
manded by an 'arif (corresponding to the decurion), every fifty 
by a khallfah % and every hundred by a qaid (corresponding to 
the centurion). 3 At the head of a corps of 10,000, comprising 
ten battalions, stood the amir (general). A body of a hundred 
men formed a company or squadron and several such companies 
constituted a cohort (kurdiis). Von Kremer 4 has reconstructed 
for us a realistic picture of an Arab army of those days on the 
march. 

Throughout its first century the 'Abbasid caliphate depended 
for its very existence on a strong and contented soldiery, which 
was used not only for suppressing revolts in Syria, Persia and 

1 Ibn-Khallikan, vol, hi, p. 397. 1 Mas'udi, vol. vij, p. 118. 

» Ibn-Khaldiin, vol. p. 299, 1. 7. Cf. Mas'Qdi, vol. vi, p. 452; Tat>ari> vol. hi, 
p. 1799- 

* Cutiurgeschickte, vol. i, pp. 227-9 »S. Khuda Bukhsh, 754* Orient under tht 
Cahphs (Calcutta X920), pp. 333-5* 



CH, XXV 



~ THE *ABBASID STATE 



Central Asia but for waging aggressive war against the Byzan- 
tines- "Two things", in the opinion of a modern scholar, 1 
-'/rendered the Saracens of the tenth century dangerous foes,— 
their numbers and their extraordinary powers of locomotion. 1 * 

, But that was not all. In the treatise on military tactics attributed to 
the Emperor Leo VI the Wise* (886-91 2) we are told: "Of all the 
[barbarous] nations they [the Saracens] are the best advised and 

- most prudent in their military operations". The following pass- 
age from the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogcnitus 3 (913-59) 
describes the impression left by the Arabs on their Byzantine 
foes: "They are powerful and warlike, so that if only a thousand 
of them occupy a camp it is impossible to dislodge them. They 
do not ride horses but camels." From statements in these and 

„* other Byzantine sources such as the work on military tactics 

* composed by the Emperor Nicephorus Phocas (963-9) it is evident 
that cold and rainy weather was distasteful to the Arab warriors, 
that once their line was broken in action they usually lacked the 
necessary discipline to restore it and that their foot was in 
general a mer6 rabble of plunderers ineffective as a fighting 

^machine* Yet it is evident that the Byzantines looked upon the 
Arabs, whom they called infidels and barbarous, as their most 
, formidable enemy. In the course of the tenth century, however, 
this enemy grew less and less dangerous until by its end the 
Byzantines were habitually taking the offensive and threatening 
even Damascus and Baghdad. 

The^ decline of the 'Abbasid military power began with the 
introduction by al-Mutawakkil of the foreign units, which 
" contributed to the destruction of the necessary conditions for 

* the upkeep of the morale and esprit de corps. Later on al- 
Muqtadir (908-32) initiated the policy of farming out provinces 

/to governors or military commanders who were to pay their 
> troops from local state funds and not from the depleted imperial 
" treasury. Under the Buwayhid regime soldiers received grants 
1 in the form of lands instead of pay in cash. This sowed the seeds 
of a feudal military system which was further developed under 
the,Saljuqs. It then became customary for governors and 
generals to receive as grants towns or districts over which they 

1 Oman, Art of Wtsr % 2nd cd. t vol. i, p. 209. 

VTfccrica'\ Consti tutio xviii, \ 123, in Mtgne, Potrahgia Gr<tca, vol. wi, 

* **Ue adfmnt«tran<io imperio*'. caput xr, in Mtgne, Pafrofapta Graca, vol. exui 



330 THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES wutrm 



ruled with absolute power, paying the Saljuq sultan a year!) t 
tribute and, in time of war, marching under his banner with a" 
fixed number of troops equipped and supported by themselves 
The Umayyad partition of the empire into provinces under 
governors (sing, amir or 'dmif), a division based on earlier 
Byzantine and Persian models, was not radically changed under 
the 'Abbasids. The 'Abbasid list of provinces varied from time 
to time and the political classification may not always have 
tallied with the geographical as preserved in ai-Istakhri, ibn- 
Hawqal, ibn-al-Faqlh and similar works; but the following seem 
to have been the chief provinces under the early caliphs of 
Baghdad: (i) Africa west of the Libyan Desert together with 
Sicily; (2) Egypt; (3) Syria and Palestine, which were sometimes 
separated; (4) al-I^ijaz and al-Yamamah (Central Arabia), 
(5) al-Yaman or Southern Arabia; 1 (6) al-Bahrayn and 'Urnan, 
with al-Basrah in al-'Iraq for its capital; (7) al«Sawad, or ai- 
'Iraq (Lower Mesopotamia), whose leading cities after Baghdad 
were al-Kufah and Wash; (8) al-JazTrah (i.e. the island, rather 
the peninsula, ancient Assyria), whose capital was al-Ma\v$il 
(Mosul); (9) Adharbayjan, of which Ardabli, Tibriz and 
Maraghah were the leading towns; (10) al-Jibai (the mountains, 
ancient Media), later called al-'Iraq al-'Ajami (the Persian 
'Iraq),* of which the principal cities were Hamadhan (ancient 
Ecbatana), al-Rayy and I§bahan (Isfahan, Ispahan); (it) Khuzi- 
stan, with al-Ahwaz and Tustar* as chief towns; (12) Fans, of 
which Shlraz was the capital; (13) Karman, whose present 
capital bears the same name; (14) Mukran, which included 
modern Baluchistan and extended to the highlands overlooking 
the Indus valley; (15) Sijistan or Sistan, whose capital was 
Zaranj; (16-20) Quhistan, Qumis, Tabaristan, Jurjan and 
Armenia; (21) Khurasan, which included what has now become 
the north-western part of Afghanistan and whose leading cities 
wercNaysabur, Marw, Harat (Herat) and Balkh; (22) Khwarizm, 
whose early capital was Kath; (23) al-Sughd (ancient Sogdiana) 
between the Oxus and Jaxartes, having two "famous cities, 
Bukhara and Samarqand; (24, etc.) Farghanah, al-Shasb 

1 These five provinces were often referred to as aqalirt a!-moghrib> the oca dental 
provinces, in contradistinction to the rest referred to as cqdUm al mashn^ the 
oriental provinces. 

* Sn contract to al-'Iraq al«*Arabi (the Arabian *Iriiq). i e> Lover Mesopotamia* 

* Called Shustar or Shushtar by the Persian*. 



CH. * THE *ABBAS1D STATE 331 

J (modern Tashkand) and other Turkish lands, 1 The Ottoman 
Turkish vilayets in Western Asia, it may be noticed, correspond 

^ geographically to the old Arab provinces. 

In spite of all efforts on the part of the imperial capital, 
decentralization was the unavoidable consequence of such a 

- far-flung domain with difficult means of intercommunication. 
In all local affairs the governor's authority tended to become 
supreme and his office hereditary. In theory he held his position 
during the pleasure of the vizir, who recommended his appoint- 
ment to the caliph, and went out of office when that vizir was 
removed. As in the case of the vizirate al-Mawardi 2 distinguishes 
between two varieties of governorship: one, imarak x dmmah 
(general amTrate), in which the incumbent held supreme direction 
of military affairs, right of nomination and control of the 
judiciaryi levying of taxes, maintenance of public security, 
safeguarding the state religion against innovation, administra- 

. lion of police and presiding at public prayers on Friday; and the 
other of the more restricted type (khds$ak> special), in which the 
governor had no jurisdiction over judges and taxes. But all this 
classification was largely theoretical, as the authority of the 
provincial governor increased in direct proportion to the personal 
ability of the governor, the weakness of the caliph and the 
distance from the federal capital. The local income from each 
province was in almost every case applied to meet the govern- 
mental expenses of that province. If the expenses were less than 
the local income the governor remitted the balance to the 
caliphal treasury. The administration of justice was in the hands 
of a provincial qadi assisted by a number of deputies stationed in 
the various sub-divisions of the provinces. 

1 Compare list of provinces as given here with lists in Le Strange, Eastern 
Calif hat£ r pp, i-o; Zaydan, Tanaddun, vol. ii, pp. 37 44; von Kremcr, Cultur* 
gttshithttt \o\. \ t p. 184 

* Fp, 47-54. 



CHAPTER XXVI 
•ABBASID SOCIETY 



THE primitive tribal system, the basic pattern of Arabian social 
organization, entirely broke down under the 'Abbasids, who 
owed their throne to foreign elements. Even the caliphs in such 
matters as the choice of wives and mothers for their children set 
no value on Arabian blood. Among the 'Abbasids only three 
caliphs were sons of freemothers: abu-al-* Abbas, al-Mahdi andal- 
Armn, 1 of whom the last enjoyed the unique distinction of having 
both parents from the Prophet's family. 2 Among the Umayyads 
the twelfth caliph, YazTd III, was the first whose mother was a 
non-Arab. But she was at least supposedly a descendant of the 
last Persian emperor, Yazdagird, and was captured byQutaybah 
in Sogdiana and presented by al-FIajjaj to the Caliph al-Walid. 
Among the 'Abbasids al-Mansur's mother was a Berber slave; 
al-Ma'mfin's a Persian slave; al-Wathiq's and al-Muhtadi's were 
Greek; al-Muntasir's was a Greco-Abyssinian; al-Musta'in's 
a Slav {$aqlabiyaK)\ al-Muktafi's as well as al-Muqtadir's were 
Turkish slaves; and al-Mustadi"s Armenian. 3 Harun's mother, 
another foreign slave, was the famous al-Khayzuran — the first 
woman to exercise any appreciable influence in *Abbasid 
caliphal affairs.* 

In bringing about this fusion of the Arabians with their sub- 
ject peoples polygamy, concubinage and the slave trade proved 
effective methods. As the pure Arabian element receded into the 
background non-Arabs, half-breeds and sons of freed women 
began to take their place. Soon the Arabian aristocracy was 
superseded by a hierarchy of officials representing diverse 
nationalities, at first preponderantly Persian and later Turkish. 

1 Tha'ahU, JLafd'tf, p 75* * T*ban, vol. ill, p 937, 11. 12-13. 

* See Tha'ahbi, pp. 75-7, Mas'udi, passim. 

1 For the part she was suspected of having played m the death of her son, the 
Caliph a! -Hadi, and the succession of her other and fa\ounte son, al-Rashid, consult 
rnban, vol in, pp. 569 seq^ copied by ibn-al*AthTr f vol. vi, pp 67 seq. Cf. Mas'Gdi, 
vol vi, pp. 282-3 

333 



'ABBASID SOCIETY 



333 



A bard gave expression to the proud Arabian sentiment when 

<% san §>- Sons of concubines have become 

So numerous amongst us; 
Lead me, O God, to a land 
Where I shall see no bastards. 1 

Unfortunately Arab historians had their interest too much 
centred in the caliph's affairs and political happenings to leave 
us an adequate picture of the social and economic life of the 
common people in those days. But from sporadic, incidental 
passages in their works, from mainly literary sources and from 
ordinary life in the conservative Moslem Orient of today, it is 
not impossible to reconstruct an outline of that picture. 

The early 'Abbasid woman enjoyed the same measure of h< 
liberty as her Umayyad sister; but toward the end of the tenth ** fi 
century, under the Buwayhids, the system of strict seclusion and 
absolute segregation of the sexes had become general. Not only 
do we read of women in the high circles of that early period 
achieving distinction and exercising influence in state affairs — 
such as al-Khayzuran, al-Mahdt's wife and al-Rash!d*s mother; 
'Ulayyah, daughter of al-Mahdi; Zubaydah, al-Rashid's wife 
and al-Armn's mother; and Burin, al-Ma'mun's wife — but of 
Arab maidens going to war and commanding troops, composing 
poetry and competing with men in literary pursuits or en- 
livening society with their wit, musical talent and vocal ac- 
complishments. Such was 'Ubaydah al-Tunburlyah (i.e. the 
pandore-lady), who won national fame in the days of a!-Mu r tasim 
as a beauty, a singer and a musician. 4 

In the period of decline, characterized by excessive concubinage, 
laxity of sex morality and indulgence in luxury, the position of 
woman sank to the low level we find in the A rabian Nights. There 
woman is represented as the personification of cunning and 
intrigue and as the repository of all base sentiments and un- 
worthy thoughts. In an extraordinary letter of condolence to a 
friend who had lost his daughter, abu-Bakr al-Khwarizmi 
(t «*.*993 or 1002), the first author to leave a collection of 
literary correspondence, asserts: "We are in an age in which if 
.one of us „ , < should marry his daughter to a grave he would 
acquire thereby the best of sons-in-law"/ 

1 Mubarrad. p 304. * Aj?k*iti % vol. xix, pp« 134-7* 

i * Kasaftl (Constantinople, 1297), p. 20. 



334 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASIO EMPIRES part 



Marriage has been regarded almost universally in Islam as a 
positive duty, the neglect of which is subject to severe reproach, 
and the gift of children, especially if sons, a boon from God. A * 
wife's first duty consisted in the service of her husband, the care 
of the children and the management of household affairs; any 
spare time would be occupied with spinning and weaving. The 
fashionable head-dress for women, introduced by * Ulayyah, half* 
sister of al-Rashld, was evidently a dome-shaped cap, round 
the bottom of which was a circlet that could be adorned with 
jewels. Among other objects of feminine adornment were anklets 
(sing, khalkhat) and bracelets (asdwtr), s 

Men's clothing has varied but little since those days, The 
common head-gear was the black high-peaked hat, qalansu- 
wait, made of felt or wool and introduced by al-Man^ur. 1 
Wide trousers (sardzvil) of Persian origin, 3 shirt, vest and jacket 
(quftdn)? with outer mantle £aba or jxibbah 4 ), completed the 
wardrobe of a gentleman. 5 The theologians, following the in- 
structions of abu-Yusuf, al-Rashid's distinguished judge, wore 
distinctive black turbans and mantles (sing, taylasdn). 6 

Judging by the erotic expressions of the poets of the age the 
early Arabian ideals of feminine beauty seem not to have 
suffered much change. Al-Nuwayri devotes a goodly portion of 
a volume 7 to quotations descriptive of such physical charms. The 
woman's stature should be like the bamboo (kkayzurdti) among 
plants, her face as round as the full moon, her hair darker than 
the night, her cheeks white and rosy with a mole not unlike a 
drop of ambergris upon a plate of alabaster, her eyes intensely 
black without any adventitious antimony {kuht) and large like 
those of a wild deer, her eyelids drowsy or languid (saqtnt), her 

1 Above, p. 294* The red fez, tarbush^ still uorn in Moslem lands, is a modem 
article. 

1 Jahr?, Bayan^ vol. iii> p 9; R. P. A. Dozy, Dtcfwnnatre detailli des turns des 
vlttmtnts (Amsterdam, J845), pp 203-4. 

* Do7y, pp. 162-3 

4 This Arabic ^ord has worlccd its way from Spanish, where we find it in a late 
tentfi.century dictionary, into the rest of the Romance languages and thence into 
English and the other Germanic languages as -a ell as the Slavonic. In English it has 
left an interesting survival in the word "gibbet", meaning "gallows". 

* Tliis style of dress is still followed b) the older generation in Lebanon and Syria, 

* Ibn-Khallikun, \ol iu, p. 334^ de Slane, vol iv, p 273; Agkant % vol. v, p. 109, 
13. 23*4, vol vi, p« 69, 1 23; lbn-abi-UsaybTah, vol 11, p 4, 1. 23. 

7 Nthayak, vol ii, pp. 1 8 seg. For an illustration of the wealth of the Arabic 
language in terms describing women see ibn-Qayyim al-jawzlyah, Akkbar at-Nis& 
(Cairo, 1319), pp. 119/^. 



CHfXXVr ^ - ' *ABBA5ID SOCIETY 335 

^ < •* *» 

mouth small with teeth like pearls set in coral, her bosom pome- 
granate-like, her hips wide and her fingers tapering, with the 
.extranjties dyed with vermilion henna {hinna). 
r The most conspicuous piece of furniture now came to be the 
diwdn, a sofa extending along three sides of the room. Raised 
seats in the form of chairs were introduced under the earlier 
'dynasty,. but cushions laid on small square mattresses (from 
Ar. matrah) on the floor where one could comfortably squat 
remained popular. Hand-woven carpets covered the floor. Food 
was served on large round trays of brass set on a low table in 
front of the dtzvdn or the floor cushions. In the homes of the well- 
to-do the trays were of silver and the table of wood inlaid with 
ebony, mother-of-pearl or tortoise-shell — not unlike those still 
manufactured in Damascus. Those same people who had once 
enjoyed scorpions, beetles and weasels as a luxury, 1 who thought 
rice a venomous food 2 and used flattened bread for writing 
material,* by this time had their gastronomic tastes whetted for 
the delicacies of the civilized world, including such Persian 
'dishes as the greatly desired stew, sikbaf, and the rich sweets, 
fdludkaj. Their chickens were now fed on shelled nuts, almonds 
and milk. In summer, houses were cooled by ice.* Non-alcoholic 
drinks in the form of sherbet, 5 consisting of water sweetened with 
sugar and flavoured with extracts of violets, bananas, roses or 
mulberries, were served, but of course not exclusively. Coffee did 
not attain vogue until the fifteenth century and tobacco was un- 
known before the discovery of the New World. 6 A ninth- to tenth- 
century author 7 has left us a work intended to give an exposition 
of the sentiments and manners of a man or culture {sanf), a 
gentleman, in that period. He is one in possession of polite 
behaviour £ada8) t manly virtue (murttah) and elegant manners 
1 , 

- I Ihn-Khaldun, Muqadjatnak, p 170 * Ibn-al-Faqih, pp. 187-8, 

* Ibn^Khaldun^p. 144. Cf. above, p. 156, 

* ib^kbi*Usaybi*ah> vol 1, pp 139-40. Pp. 82-3 quote from on earlier source a 
prescription which * r can solidify water even in June or July". 

" * Frtom Ar. shcrbah t drink. Eng. "sjrap" comes from a cognate word shardb. 
4 % * Introduced into South Arabia in the fourteenth century, coffee became domesti- 
cated in Makkah early in the fifteenth, and in the first decade of the sixteenth century 
*ras first known in Cairo through Sufis from al-Yaman, who used it at the Azhar 
Mosque to produce the necessary wakefulness for nightly devotions* See above, p. 19, 

'Inhaling of smoke from burning herbs for medical purposes or perhaps for pleasure 

*)iaa been practised before America's discovery. 

* AlAVashsia*, Kttab chMuxvaskiha, ed. Brunnow (Lcyden, 1886), pp. t, is, 
f 33* 37# **4> «5> *i 29-31 > 



CH^xxvi 'ABBASID SOCIETY 337 

\sarf) f who abstains from joking, holds fellowship with thfe right 
comrades, has high standards of veracity, is scrupulous in the 
fulfilment of his promises, keeps a secret, wears unsoiled and 
unpatched clothes, and at the table takes small mouthfuls, 
converses or laughs but little, chews his food slowly, licks not his 
fingers* avoids garlic and onions and refrains from using the tooth- 
pick in toilet rooms, baths, public meetings and on the streets. 

Alcoholic drinks were often indulged in both in company and 
in "private, judging by the countless stories of revelry in such 
works as the Aghani and the Arabian Nights and by the 
numerous songs and poems in praise of wine (khamrtyat) by the 
debauched abu-Nuwas (f ea* 810), the one-day caliph, ibn-al- 
Mu'tazz (f 908), and similar bards, prohibition, one of the 
distinctive features of Moslem religion, did no more prohibit 
then than did the eighteenth amendment to the Constitution of 
the^United States. Even caliphs, vizirs, princes and judges paid 
no heed to the religious injunction, 1 Scholars, poets, singers and 
musicians were especially desired as boon companions. This 
practice, which was of Persian origin, 2 became an established 
institution under the early 'Abbasids and developed professionals 
under^al-Rashid. Other than this caliph, al-Hadi, al-Amin, 
sd-Mi&ntin, al-MuHasim, al-Wathiq and al-Mutawakkil were 
given to drink; al-MansGr and al~Muhtadi were opposed to it. 
Indeed al-Nawaji 3 despairs of finding room in his book for ail 
the caliphs,, vizirs and secretaries addicted to the use of the 
forbiddert^beverage. Khatnr % made of dates, was the favourite. 
Ibn-Khaldun argues that such personages as al-Rashld and 
&l~Ma*mun used only nabidh? prepared by soaking grapes, raisins 
or dates in water and allowing the juice to ferment slightly. Such 
drink was judged legal under certain conditions by at least one 
school of .Moslem jurisprudence, the Hanafite. Muhammad 
himself drank it, especially before it was three days old. 5 

r \ 
» * -» , 

** ' v 

x See Kuttrayrij ifth£y*k) vol, iv t pp, 92 scq* 
JaK?> Tdj % pp. ty, 7s; Kaw5p, ffalboh, p. 26. * P. 99, 1L 24.7. 

* Sfuqaddiimdht 16. yChajtir is the term used in the Koran {5^92-3) for the 
prohibited drink. VYhat^prpvides opportunity for the exercise of ingenuity on the 
part of interpreters is firstly tie, fad that at the time of the Prophet there was not in 
■al-Matfinah any^fcA<ji?rr of grapes, the beverage of its inhabitants being: prepared 
from dates? and second!^ that these juices do not ferment until a certain time lapses 
unless they are treated hy special methods* Consult *I$d y vol. in, pp. 405*14, 
< * MisUS^ vol. h\ pp, 172-3; ibn-rjanhal, Musrstsd (Cairo, 1313), yoL I, pp. 

«4G* 2$7. *WO* BnthlrL v^l vl.r* " * 



< 



338 THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES pakt in 

s 

Convivial parties featuring "the daughter of the vine" and 
song were not uncommon. At these drinking-bouts (sing, majhs 
al-sfurdS*) the host and guests perfumed their beards with civet 
or rose-water and wore special garments of bright colours 
(thiydb al -viunadamafi). The room was made fragrant by 
ambergris or aloes-wood burning in a censer. The songstresses 
who par tit i paled in such gatherings were mostly slaves of loose 
character, as illustrated by many stories,* who constituted the 
gravest menace to the morals of the youth of the age. 3 The 
description of a certain home in al-Kufah during the reign of 
al-Mansur sounds more like that of a cafe chantant, with 
Sail amah al-Zarqa* (the blue-eyed) as its prima donna.* The 
laity had access to wine in the Christian monasteries and the 
special bars conducted mainly by Jews. Christians and Jews 
were the " bootleggers' 1 of the time. 
Baths "Cleanliness is a part of faith" — so runs a Prophetic tradition 

that is still on every lip in Moslem lands. Arabia had no baths 
that we hear of before Muhammad. He himself is represented as 
prejudiced against them and as havirig permitted men to enter 
them for purposes of cleanliness only, each wearing a cloth. In 
the time w e are studying, however, public baths (sing, fiammam) 
had become popular not only for ceremonial ablutions and for 
their salutary effects, but also as resorts of amusement and mere 
luxury. Women were allowed their use on specially reserved 
days Baghdad, according to al-Khat!b, fi boasted in the days of 
al-Muqtadir (908-32) some 27,000 public baths, and in other 
times even 6o,ooo, 6 all of which — like most figures in Arabic 
sources — seem highly exaggerated. Al-Ya*qubi 7 makes the 
number 10,000 not long after the foundation of Baghdad. The 
Moorish traveller ibn-Battutah f 8 who visited Baghdad in 1327, 
found in each of the thirteen quarters composing its west side 
two or three baths of the most elaborate kind, each supplied with 
hot and cold running water. 

Then as now the bath-house comprised several chambers with 
mosaic pavements and marble-lined inner walls clustering round 
a large central chamber. This innermost chamber, crowned by 

* Nawaji, p 38, * Agkanii ioI. xi, pp 98 9, vol. xvui, pp 182-9. 

* Wflshsha', pp 92 seq 

* Aghaniy vol xm, pp 128 scq. Cf. Nuwayn, vol. v, pp 72 scq. 

* Tarikh t \o\ 1, pp 118 19 ■ Ibid p. u^r, 

* Buldan > p. 250, 11 9 10, cf. p. 254, 11. 8-9, • Vol. u, pp 105-7, 



aCxKXf *ABBASID SOCIETY 339 

avdome studded with small round glazed apertures for the ad- 
mission of light, was heated by steam rising from a central jet 
of water in the middle of a basin. The outer rooms were used for 
lounging and for enjoying drinks and refreshments. 

Sports, like the fine arts, have throughout history been an P 
appendage more of Indo-European than Semitic civilization. 
Engaging in them involves physical exertion for its own sake, 
which could not very well become a desideratum for the son of 
Arabia with his utilitarian temperament and the warmness of 
the climate. 

Under the caliphate certain indoor games became popular. 
Reference has already been made to a sort of club-house in 
Makkah under the Umayyads provided with facilities for 
playing chess, backgammon and dice. As with several other 
innovations, al-Rashld is credited with being the first 'Abbasid 
caliph to have played and encouraged chess* 1 Chess (An 
shiiranjy ultimately from Sanskrit), originally an Indian game,* 
soon became the favourite indoor pastime of the aristocracy, 
displacing dice. This caliph is supposed to have included among 
his presents to Charlemagne a chess-board, just as in the Crusad- 
ing period the Old Man of the Mountain presented another to 
St, Louis* Among other games played with a board was back- 
gammon (nard) trick-track), also of Indian origin. 3 

Notable in the list of outdoor sports were archery, polo (Jukdn i 
from Pers. chawgan* bent stick), ball and mallets {saxvlajdn^ 
pall-mall, a sort of croquet or hockey), fencing, javelin-throwing 
(jarid), horse-racing and above ail hunting. Among the qualifica- 
tions of a prospective boon companion al-Jaluz s lists ability in 
archery, hunting, playing ball and chess — in all of which the 
Companion may equal his royal master with no fear of affronting 
him. Among the caliphs particularly fond of polo was al- 
Mu'tasim, whose Turkish general, al-Afshln, once refused to play 
against him because he did not want to be against the commander 
of the believers even in a game. 6 References are made to a ball 
.game in which a broad piece of wood (tabtdb) was used. 7 Could 

1 Mas'Qdi, vol. viii, p. 296. * /hid. vol. t, pp. 159-61. * Ibid. pp. 157-8. 
* Cf. ''chicane'*, name given to an old game in Langutdoc and elsewhere pla>cd 
en Joot with a mallet and a ball of hard wood. 

* TzjtV For other qualifications consult Nauap, pp. 25 

* Mlm-al.*Abbas, Athar c?-&waL p. 1 30 

v * Mas'CUli* vol. via, p. 296, 1, 3. Cf. Atkir t p. 159, U. 3-4. 



340 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES > partto 



this be tennis in its rudimentary form? 1 Al-Mas'udi 2 has pre- 
served for us the description of a horse-race at al-Raqqah in 
which a courser of al-RashTd's won first place, to the enthusiastic 
delight of the caliph, who witnessed the event. In the *i^tf 3 we 
find a number of poems in description and honour of prize- 
winning horses. Betting, as we learn from this same source, 
enlivened such races. 

In the 1 Abbasid period, as in the earlier one, hunting was the 
favourite outdoor pastime of caliphs and princes. Al-Amln was 
particularly fond of hunting lions,* and a brother of his met his 
death pursuing wild boars. 5 Both abu-Muslim al-Khurasani and 
al-Mu'tasim were fond of hunting with the cheetah. The 
number of early Arabic books dealing with hunting, trapping 
and falconry testify to the keen interest in these sports. 

Falconry and hawking were introduced into Arabia from 
Persia, as the Arabic vocabulary relating to these sports in- 
dicates. They became particularly favoured in the later period 
of the caliphate 6 and in that of the Crusades. 7 Hunting with 
the falcon (bdz) or sparrow-hawk (bashiq) is still practised in 
Persia, al-' Iraq, Dayr al-Zur and the *Alawite region of Syria in 
practically the same manner as described in the Arabian Nighis. 
For gazelles or antelopes, hares, partridges, wild geese, ducks 
and qaia (a species of grouse), hawks and falcons were employed 
and assisted in the case of big game by dogs. The first thing for 
a Moslem hunter to do after seizing his prey would be to cut its 
throat; otherwise its flesh would be unlawful. 8 Under certain 
conditions the hunting-party would form a circuit Qtaiqah) 
surrounding and closing in on the spot in which the game 
happened to abound. Al-Mu r tasim built a horseshoe-shaped 
wall touching the Tigris at its two extremities and used his 

1 The word "tennis", generally supposed to have come from the French verb 
tenez *= take heed, is probably from "TmnTs", the Arabic name of an Egyptian city 
in the Delta noted in the Middle Ages for its hnen fabrics, which may have been used 
for making tennis balls. Sec Malcolm D. Whitman, Tennis: Origins end Mysteries 
(New York, 1932), pp. 24-32. 

3 Vol. vi, pp. 348*9. 1 Vol. i, pp. 63.5. 

4 Mas'udi, \oh vi, pp. 432-3. * AghSm, vol. ix, p. 97, 1L 27-9. 

* Fthnstyp. 3x5, and ibn-Khalhkan, vol. ii, p. 172, vol. ui, p. 209, mention a 
number of Arabic books on muring and falconry* 

7 For one of the easiest treatments of this subject in Arabic see Usamah ibn- 
Munqidh, Kttdb al-f'tib&r, ed. Hitti (Princeton, 1930), pp. 191-226; tr. Hitti, An 
Arab-Syrian GentUrian and IVamcr (New York, 1929, repnnt Beirut, 1964 
pp 221-54 1 Koran 2 - 16$, 5:4, 16 : 116 



/CH.XXVI 'ABBASID SOCIETY 341 

circuit of men to drive the game inside, thus shutting it in 
between the wall and the river. 1 Al-Musta'sim also used the 
circuit technique in his chase, as did the Saljuqs. 2 Among other 
late caliphs al-Mustanjid (1160-70) organized a number of 
regular hunting-parties. Certain caliphs and rulers kept wild 
beasts such as Hons and tigers for striking awe into the hearts of 
\ their subjects and visitors; 3 others had dogs and monkeys for 
pets. A son of al-Muqtadir's vizir, who resided in Cairo and held 
a high position in its government, had for a hobby the collecting 
of serpents, scorpions and other venomous animals, which he 
kept under good care in a special building near his palace.* 

At the head of the social register stood the caliph and his s 
family* the government officials, the scions of the Hashimite 
clan and the satellites of all these groups. In this last class we 
may include the soldiers and bodyguards, the favoured friends 
and boon companions, as well as the clients and servants. 

* The servants were almost all slaves recruited from non- 
- Moslem peoples and captured by force, taken prisoner in time of 

war or purchased in time of peace. Some were negroes, others 
were Turks and still others were white. The white slaves (tnama- 
iffy were mainly Greeks and Slavs, Armenians and Berbers. 
Certain slaves were eunuchs (kkisydn) attached to the service of 
the harem. Others, termed ghtlmdn, who might also be eunuchs, 
were the recipients of special favours from their masters, wore 
rich and attractive uniforms and often beautified and perfumed 
their bodies in effeminate fashion. We read of ghtlman in the 
^reign of al-Rashld; 6 but it was evidently al-Amin who, following 

* Persian precedent, established in the Arabic world the gkilman 
institutionfor the practice of unnatural sexual relations.* A judge 
under al-Ma*mun used four hundred such youths. 7 Poets like 

J abu-Nuwas did not disdain to give public expression to their 
perverted passions and to address amorous pieces of their com- 
position to "beardless young boys". 

The maidens (Jawari) among slaves were also used as singers, 
dancers and concubines, and some of them exerted appreciable 
influence over their caliph masters. Such was dhat-al-Khal (she 

* Fokhri t pp. 73.4. * Atk&r al-Uwal, p. 135. 

* Fckhn t p. 30; *fqd> vol i, p 19S, 11 4 4 Kutubi, vol. i, pp, X34»5* 
^ * Tabari, vol. iii, p. 669, same in ibn-al-Athir, vol. vi, p. 120 

* Tabari, vol. iii, p. 950, copied by ibn-al-Athlr, vol. vi, p. 205. 
T Mas*adi, vol vii, p. 47. 



342 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES partiii 



of the mole), whom al-Rashid had bought for 70,000 dirhams 
and in a fit of jealousy bestowed on one of his male servants. 
Having taken an oath to grant her request on a certain day, no 
matter what the request might be, al-Rashid is said to have 
appointed her husband governor over Faris for seven years. 3 
In order to wean him from another singing-girl to whom he 
became attached, al-RashTd's wife Zubaydah presented her 
husband with ten maidens, one of whom became the mother of 
al-Ma'mun and another of al-Mu'tasim. 2 The legendary story 
of Tawaddud, the beautiful and talented slave girl in Tht 
Thousand and One Nights (nights 437-62) whom al-Rashid 
was willing to purchase for 100,000 dinars after she had passed 
with flying colours a searching test before his savants in medi- 
cine, law, astronomy, philosophy, music and mathematics — to 
say nothing of rhetoric, grammar, poetry, history and the 
Koran — illustrates how highly cultured some of these maids 
must have been. Al-AmhVs contribution consisted in promoting 
a corps of female pages, the members of which bobbed their 
hair, dressed like boys and wore silk turbans. The innovation 
soon became popular with both the higher and the lower classes 
of society. 3 An eye-witness reports that when on a Palm Sunday 
he called on al-Ma*mun he found in his presence twenty Greek 
maidens, all bedecked and adorned, dancing with gold crosses 
on their necks and olive branches and palm leaves in their hands. 
The distribution of 3000 dinars among the dancers brought the 
affair to a grand finale. 4 

An idea of the prevalence of slavery may be obtained from the 
high figures used in enumerating those in the caliphal household. 
The palace of al-Muqtadir (908-32), we are told, housed 11,000 
Greek and Sudanese eunuchs. 6 Al-Mutawakkil, according to 
a report, had 4000 concubines, all of whom shared his nuptial 
bed. 6 On one occasion this caliph received as a present two 
hundred slaves from one of his generals. 7 It was customary for 
governors and generals to send presents, including girls received 
or exacted from among their subjects, to the caliph or vizir, 8 

1 Agh&nu vol xv, p. 80, quoted by Nima>ri, vol. v, pp SS9. 
1 Aghanu \ol. xvx, p 137. 8 Mas'Cdi, vol vui, p 299 

4 Agh&nt, \ol xix, pp 138-9. * Fakhrtt p 352. 

* Mas*udi, vol. vu, p 276. 7 Jbtd \ol vu, p 281. 

1 Ibn-al-Ath!r, vol. vii, pp, 211-12, Taban, vol. ui, p 627, cop ed by lbn al- 
Athlr, vol. vi, p. 86. 



CH.xxyi r ^ *ABBASID SOCIETY 343 

failure to do so was interpreted as a sign of rebellion. Al- 
Ma'mun devised the scheme of sending some of his trusted slaves 
as presents, expecting them to act as spies on the suspect re- 
cipients or to do away with them in case of necessity, 1 

The r commonalty was composed of an upper class bordering 1 
on the aristocracy and comprised litterateurs and belletrists, J 
learned men, artists, merchants, craftsmen and professionals, 
and of a lower class forming the majority of the nation and made 
up of fanners, herdsmen and country folk who represented the 
native population and now enjoyed the status of dhimmis. In 
the following chapter we shall treat of the intellectual class at 
some length. Suffice it to note here that the general stage of 
culture in the period of *Abbasid primacy was by no means low. 

The wide extent of the empire and the high level which 
civilization attained involved extensive international trade. The 
early merchants were Christians, Jews 2 and Zoroastrians, but 
these were later largely superseded by Moslems and Arabs, who 
did not disdain trade as they did agriculture* Such ports as 
Baghdad, al-Basrah, Slraf,* Cairo and Alexandria soon de- 
veloped into centres of active land and maritime commerce. 

Eastward, Moslem traders ventured as far as China, which 
according to Arab tradition was reached from al-Basrah as early 
as the days of the second f Abbasid caliph, al-Mansur.* The 
earliest Arabic source treating of the subject of Arab and Persian 
maritime communication with India and China is a report of 
yoyages by Sulayman al-Tajir (the merchant) and other Moslem 
traders in the third Moslem century. 6 This trade was based on 
silk, the earliest of China's magnificent gifts to the West, and 
usually followed what has been styled "the great silk way"* 
going through Samarqand and Chinese Turkestan, a region less 
; traversed today by civilized man than almost any other part of 
the habitable world. Goods were generally transported by relays; 
few caravans went the whole distance- But diplomatic relations 
were certainly established before the time of Arab traders. 

v ; KVffd, vol. i, p. 196. * Consult ibn-Khurdadhbih, pp. 153-4. 

A town in Persia on the Persian Gulf. The people of Siruf and 'Uman (Mas'udi, 
tou f, pp, 23 1- 2) were among the best- known manners of the early 'Abbasid period. 

, Cf. Marshall Broomhall, Islam tn Chtna (London, J9io)> pp. 5-36. 
* * Sthtki ahTcwarJkh l«V], ed, Langles (Paris, l8u); tr. G. Ferrstnd, Vcyage da 
* ^k**** Sulfymfa en Inde ct en Ckine (Paris, 1922). 
£ 1 n Thomas }? fc Carter* T&* Invention of Printing in Cktna and tts Spread Westward 

^tN^Ywi; 1925)^85^ 



THE XJMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 



Legend makes Sa'd ibn-abi-Waqqas, the conqueror of Persia, 
the envoy sent by the Prophet to China. Sa'd's "grave* 1 is still 
revered in Canton. Certain inscriptions on the old Chinese monu- 
ments relating to Islam in China are clearly forgeries prompted 
by religious pride. 1 By the mid-eighth century several embassies 
had been exchanged. In the Chinese records of that century the 
aviir al-mt£mimn is called kanmi-mo-mo-ni\ abu-al- f Abbas, the 
first 'Abbasid caliph, A-bo4o-ba\ and Harun, A-lun. In the time 
of these caliphs a number of Moslems settled in China. At first 
such Moslems appear under the name Ta-shth 2 and later under 
the title Hut-Hut (Muhammadans). 3 The first European mention 
of Saracens in China appears to be that of Marco Polo. 4 It was 
also Moslem traders who carried Islam into the islands that in 
1949 formed the United States of Indonesia. 

Westward, Moslem merchants reached Morocco and Spain. 
A thousand years before de Lesseps an Arab caliph, Harun, 
entertained the idea of digging a canal through the Isthmus of 
Suez. 5 Arab Mediterranean trade, however, never rose to great 
prominence. The Black Sea was likewise inhospitable to it, 
though in the tenth century brisk land trade is noticed with the 
peoples of the Volga regions to the north. But the Caspian Sea, 
because of its proximity to the Persian centres and the pros- 
perous cities of Samarqand and Bukhara with their hinterland, 
was the scene of some commercial intercourse, Moslem mer- 
chants carried with them dates, sugar, cotton and woollen 
fabrics, steel tools and glassware; they imported, among other 
commodities, spices, camphor and silk from farther Asia, and 
ivory, ebony and negro slaves from Africa. 

An idea of the fortunes amassed by the Rothschilds and 
Rockefellers of the age may be gained from the case of the 
Baghdad jeweller ibn-al-Ja^as, who remained wealthy after 
al-Muqtadir had confiscated 16,000,000 dinars of his property, 
and became the first of a family of distinguished jewel mer- 
chants.* Certain Basrah merchants whose ships carried goods to 
distant parts of the world had an annual income of more than a 

1 See Paul Pclhot in Journal anattque (191 3), vol n, pp. 177-91. 

* Prom Pahlawi Tajik % modem Tdzt t Arab. The term is evidently a Fersianited 
form of T&yyi\ an Arab tnbe. 

8 Consult Isaac Mason in Journal of the North-Chtna Branch of the Royal 
Asiatic Society, vol Ix (1929), pp. 42*78 

* For Moslem settlements in Korea (al-Shila) see ibn Khurdadhbih, pp 70, 1?0« 

* Mos'Odi, \ol iv, pp. 98-9. * Kutubi. vol. i, p. 177. 



d. XSVU^^; 1 f ABBASID ^SOCIETY , 345 

million jdirhams each/An uneducated miller of al~Ba§rah and 
.Baghdad could afford to distribute as daily alms among the poor 
a hundred dinars^ and was later appointed by al-MuHasim as his 
vizir} In Slraf the home of the average merchant cost over ten 
'thousand dinars, some over thirty thousand dinars; and many 
maritime traders were worth 4,000^00 dinars each. 2 Some of 
these Siraf merchants "spent their lives on the water", and al- 
IstakhrF heard of one who had spent forty years on board ship. 

No commercial activity could have reached such dimensions 
had it not rested on extensive home industry and agriculture. 
Hand Industry flourished in various parts of the empire. In 
Western Asia it centred chiefly in the manufacture of rugs, 
tapestry, silk, cotton and woollen fabrics, satin, brocade (dfbdf), 
sofa (from Ar. fuffah) and cushion covers, as well as other 
articles of furniture and kitchen utensils. The many looms of 
Persia ^and al-*Iraq turned out carpets and textiles maintained 
at a high standard by distinctive marks, Ai-Musta'in's mother 
had a" rug specially ordered for her at a cost of 130,000,000 
,dirhams, bearing figures of all sorts of birds in gold which had 
ruhies and other precious stones for eyes. 4 A quarter in Baghdad 
named after *Attab t an Umayyad prince who was its most 
distinguished resident, gave its name to a striped fabric, *attabi? 
first manufactured there in the twelfth century. The fabric was 
imitated by the Arabs in Spain and under the trade name tabi 
became popular in France, Italy and other lands of Europe. 
The term survives in "tabby", applied to streaked or marked 
;cafs. Al~Kufah produced the silk and partly silk kerchiefs for 
the head that are still worn under the name kufiyak. Tawwaj, 
Fasa and other towns of Faris boasted a number of high-class 
'factories where carpets, embroideries, brocades and robes of 
iionour — a mark of distinction in the East — were manufactured 
&st ? for the use of the royalty. 6 Such products were known as 
ffrdz (from Pers.) and bore the name or cipher of the sultan or 
! caliph embroidered on them. In Tustar and al-Sus in Khuzistan 7 
"(ancient 'Susiana) were a number of factories famous for the 

I ^J?aUr?\ pp. 32* -2, 
r * ? !?takhrt, pp/127, 139; ibn^awqal, p. 198; Maqdisx, p. 426. 

. " * « Ibshihi, vol. i, p. 144. 

* " 4 .Mentioned in Maqdisi, p. 323, 1. 20; ibn^awqal, p. 261, 1. 13; Yaqut, ButeHn. 
vol.M k p. 822, J. 22 (where it h misspelt). 

Ftftldin, p, 153 Cf. JMaqdisi, pp. 442-3. T Maqdisi, pp. 402, 40?* 9. 



346 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES partiu 



embroidery of damask 1 figured with gold and for curtains made 
of spun silk (khazz)* Their camel- and goat-hair fabrics as well as 
their spun-silk cloaks were widely known. Shlraz yielded striped 
woollen cloaks, also gauzes and brocades. Under the name of «• 
"taffeta" European ladies of the Middle Ages bought m their 
native shops the Persian silken cloth tdftah. Khurasan and 
Armenia were famous for their spreads, hangings and sofa and 
cushion covers. In Central Asia, that great emporium of the 
early Middle Ages, Bukhara was especially noted for its prayer- 
rugs. A complete conception of the development of industry and 
trade in Transoxiana may be gained from the list of exports 
from the various towns given by al-Maqdisr. 2 soap, carpets, 
copper lamps, pewter ware, felt cloaks, furs, amber, honey, 
falcons, scissors, needles, knives, swords, bows, meats, Slavonic 
and Turkish slaves, etc. Tables, sofas, lamps, chandeliers, vases, 
earthenware and kitchen utensils were also made in Syria and 
Egypt* The Egyptian fabrics termed dtmydtt (after Dimyat), 
dabiqi (after Dabiq) and ttnntsi (after Tinnls) 3 were world- 
renowned and imitated in Persia. The ancient industrial arts of 
Pharaonic days survived in an attenuated form in the manu- 
factures of the Copts. 

The glass of Sidon, Tyre and other Syrian towns, a survival of 
the ancient Phoenician industry which after the Egyptian was the 
oldest glass industry in history, was proverbial for its clarity and 
thinness * In its enamelled and variegated varieties Syrian glass as 
a result of the Crusades became the forerunner of the stained glass 
in the cathedrals of Europe. Glass and metal vases of Syrian 
workmanship were in great demand as articles of utility and 
luxury. Sconces of glass bearing enamelled inscriptions in 
various colours hung in mosques and palaces. Damascus was the 
centre of an extensive mosaic and qasham industry, Qdshdni* 
(colloquial qishdm, qdshi) % a name derived from ICashan 8 in 
Media, was given to square or hexagonal glazed tiles, sometimes 
figured with conventional flowers and used in exterior and 

1 This fabric was originally made in Damascus, whence the name. 

* Pp 323 6 

5 YaqGt, vol ii, pp 603, 548, vol. i, p 882, Maqdisi, pp 201, 433, II 16-17, 443, 
1. 5 Sec below, p 631. 
4 Tha'ahbi, Lata* if, p 95 

* Mentioned in ibn BaUGtah, vol. i, p. 415, vol. u, pp 46, 130, 225, 297, vol. m, 
P 79 

* Ar« Qashanj Yaqut, Bulddn> vol iv, p 15. 



inferior decoration of buildings. The predominant colours were 
indigo blue, turquoise blue, green and less often red and yellow* 
The ar^ as ancient as the Elamites and Assyrians, survived in 
Damascus until the latter part of the eighteenth century. 
* " Worthy of special note is the manufacture of writing-paper, 
introduced in the middle of the eighth century into Samarqand 
from China. 1 The paper of Samarqand, which was captured by 
ihe Moslems in 704, was considered matchless. 3 Before the close 
of that century Baghdad saw its first paper-mill. Gradually others 
for making paper followed: Egypt had its factory about 900 or 
earlier, Morocco about 1100, Spain about 11 50; and various 
kinds of paper, white and coloured, were produced. Al-Mu* tasim, 
credited with opening new soap and glass factories in Baghdad, 
Samarra and other towns, is said to have encouraged the paper 
industry. The oldest Arabic paper manuscript that has come 
down to us is one on tradition entitled Gliarib al-Hadith y by 
abu-'Ubayd al-Qasim ibn-Sallam (f 837), dated dhu-al-Qa'dah, 
A.H. 252 (November 13-December 12, 866) and preserved in the 
teyden University Library. 3 The oldest by a Christian author 
is a theological treatise by abu-Qurrah 4 (f ca. 820) dated Rabf I, 
*A.H. 264 (Nov. n -Dec. io, 877) and preserved in the British 
Museum. From Moslem Spain and from Italy, in the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries, the manufacture of paper finally worked its 
way into Christian Europe, where with the later discovery of 
printingfromrnovabletype (1450-5 5) it made possible the measure 
of popular education which Europe and America now enjoy. 
; -The jewellers art also had its day. Pearls, sapphires, rubies, 
emeralds and diamonds were favourites with the royalty; 
turquoise, carneliari and onyx with the lower classes. One of 
the best-known gems in Arab history is the big ruby, once owned 
by several "Persian monarchs, on which Harun inscribed his 
name after acquiring it for 40,000 dinars. 5 The ruby was so large 
and brilliant that 11 if it were put in the night-time in a dark 
room it would shine like a lamp", Harun*s sister, as we learned 

\" \ConsultTriedrich Hfrth, Chine sis eke Studicn (Munich and Leipzig, 1890), vol i, 
JPP- See below, p. 474. Paper money, also of Chinese origin, was printed 
ia Chinese and Arabic at Tibriz, one of the earliest places in the Moslem uorld 
with a record of block printing. * Thal'ahbi, p. 126; Maqdisi, p. 326, II 3-4. 

I * William Wright, The Pct&ographieat Society, Oriental Series (London, 

* * Theodoras abu Kurra,i?e Cultu Imaginum, ed.and tr.I« Arendzcn (Bonn, 1S97). 

* MasMdt. vol vn n CF PAhh+t rm it<x-f TnKari, Vol. ill, p. 602, 1. 12, 



348 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES. 'PART Hi 

before, wore jewels on her head-dress and his wife had them ' 
on her shoes. Yahya ibn-Khalid the Barmakid once offered-' 
7,000,000 dirhams to a Baghdad merchant for a jewel-box made 
of precious stones, but the offer was refused. 1 Al-Muktafi is said 
to have left 20,000,000 dinars 1 worth of jewels and perfumes. 5 - 
At a gorgeous royal banquet given by al-Mutawakkil, and 
considered together with al-Ma'miin's wedding "two occasions' 
that have no third in Islam", 3 tables and trays of gold studded 
with gems were used. Even ibn-Khaldun, who claims that the 
'Abbasids could not have indulged in luxurious modes of living, 
accepts the extraordinary display of gold and jewellery at aU 
Mamun's marriage ceremony.* According to al-Mas'udi,* « 
al-Mu'tazz (866-9), tne thirteenth 'Abbasid caliph, was the first 
to appear on horseback in gilded armour on a golden saddle, all 
caliphs before him having used silver decorations. One of the 
last caliphs to possess much jewellery was ai-Muqtadir (908-32), 
who confiscated the property of the founder of the richest ' 
jewellery house in Baghdad 6 and came into possession of the 
famous red ruby of Harun, as well as the equally famous "unique, 
pearl" weighing three mithqals (miskal) and other gems, all of" 
which he squandered. 7 

The leading mineral resources of the empire which made the ^ 
jeweller's industry possible included gold and silver from 
Khurasan, which also yielded marble and mercury; 8 rubies, 
lapis lazuli and azurite from Transoxiana; 5 lead and silver from 
Karman; 10 pearls from al-Bahrayn; u turquoise from Naysabur, 
whose mine in the latter half of the tenth century was farmed, 
out for 758,720 dirhams a year; 12 carnelian from San'a*; 13 and iron 
from Mt. Lebanon. 14 Other mineral resources included kaolin 
and marble from Tibrlz, antimony from the vicinity of Isbahan, 16 
bitumen and naphtha from Georgia, marble and sulphur from 

1 Tabari, vol. iii, p. 703. * Tha'alibi, p. 72. * Ibid. pp. 7a»3. 

* Muqaddcmah, p. t$, 11. 20*^., pp. 144*5. 

* Vol. vii, pp. 401-2, quoted by ibn-KhaldOn, Muqaddamch, p. 15. 

* Above, p. 344. 

7 Fakhri, p. 353. The "unique pearl*' is also mentioned by ibn-^awqal, p. 3$, 
1. 7. Cf. Maqdisi, p. 101, 1. 16. « Maqdisi, p. 326. 

* Ibid, p. 303. "Lazuli", as vreli as "a2ure", comes through Latin from Ar. 
ideaward and ultimately from Pers. tacfiuzuard. 

10 Ibn-al-Faqlh, p. 206. 11 Maqdisi, p. 101. 14 Ibid. p. 341, n. 

» Ibid. p. lot. 11 Ibid. p. 184, 1, 3, 

1S T^takhri, p. 203; Tha'alibi, Lafcfif, p. no.Ar.&^Z, perhaps "galena'*, consult 
H . E. Stapleton tt al. in Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. viii ( 1927), P« 35 2 ' 



&t> Xrfvi 4 *ABBASID SOCIETY 349 

Syria-Palestine, 1 asbestos from Transoxiana 2 and mercury, pitch 
and tar from Farghanah. 3 

: , Agriculture received great impetus under the early f Abbasids a&i 
because their capital itself lay in a most favoured spot, the lure 
alluvial plain commonly known under the name of al-Sawad; 
because they realized that farming was the chief source of the 
state income; and because the tilling of the land was almost 
wholly in the hands of the native inhabitants, whose status was 
somewhat improved under the new regime. Deserted farms and 
ruined villages in different parts of the empire were gradually 
rehabilitated and restored. The lower region of the Tigris* 
Euphrates valley, the richest in the whole empire after Egypt 
and the traditional site of the garden of Eden, was the object of 
special attention on the part of the central government. Canals 
from the Euphrates, either old and now re-opened or else entirely 
new, formed a "veritable network"* 4 The first great canal, 
called Nahr 'Isa after a relative of al-Mansur who had re- 
excavated it, connected the Euphrates at al-Anbar in the north- 
west with the Tigris at Baghdad. One of the main branches of 
the Nahr *Isa was the Sarah. The second great transverse canal 
was the Nahr Sarsar, which entered the Tigris above al-Mada'in. 
The third was the Nahr al-Malik ("river of the king"), which 
flowed into the Tigris below al-Mada in. 5 Lower down the two 
rivers came the Nahr Kutha and the Great Sarah, 6 which threw 
off a number of irrigation channels. Another canal, the Dujayl 
(diminutive of Dijlah, the Tigris), which originally connected 
the Tigris with the Euphrates, had become silted up by the tenth 
century, and the name was given to a new channel, a loop canal, 
which started from the Tigris below al-QadisIyah and rejoined 
it farther south after sending off a number of branches. 7 Other 
less important canals included the Nahr al-Silah dug in Wasit 
by al-lffahdi. s Arab geographers speak of caliphs "digging" or 
"opening" "rivers"* when in most cases the process involved 
was one of rt-digging or re-opening canals that had existed since 

c , 1 Maqdfct, p. 1 84. * Ibid. p. 303, 11. 13-15. * Ibn-Hawqal, p. 362. 
s « ItfaJ&n; p. S5, 1 3; ibn-Hawqai, p. 166, 1.2. 

f * For these canals sec I$takhri, pp. S4-5; same m ibnOJa?vqal, pp. 165-6; Maqdist, 
1» %Ui Khatfb, ?<tfikk t vol i, pp. 91, jij $£?.} Gvty JLc Strange, "Description of 
Mcsopotarah and Baghdad, written about the year 900 a.d. by Ibn-Serapion* 1 
{S\xht&h)J<^rficI t ^alAstorjc Society (1895), pp. 255-315. 
* Uqut, voh in, pp. 377-$. * lstalchn, pp. 77-8; Yaqut, vol. ii, p. 555. 

Bidadhuri, p. 2$t«HittL p. 4*1: Oud&raah. P. 241. 



35 o THE UMAYYAB AND *ABBASID EMPIRES partiq 

Babylonian days. In aVIraq as well as Egypt the task consisted 
mainly in keeping the ancient systems in order. Even before the 
first World War, when the Ottoman government commissioned 
Sir William Willcocks to study the irrigation problem of al-'Irgq, 
his report stressed the necessity of clearing the old watercourses 
rather than constructing new ones. x It should be noted, however 
that the face of the alluvial Sawad has greatly changed since 
'Abbasid days and that both the Tigris and the Euphrates have 
considerably shifted their courses in historical times. 

The staple crops of al-'Iraq consisted of barley and wheat, 
rice, dates, sesame, cotton and flax. Especially fertile was the 
alluvial plain to the south, al -Sawad, where quantities of fruit 
and vegetables, both of the cold and the hot regions, were 
grown. Nuts, oranges, egg-plants, sugar-cane, lupines and such 
flowers as roses and violets were produced in abundance, 

Khurasan vied with al-'Iraq and Egypt as a rich agricultural 
country. A review of the revenue sheets discussed above 8 would 
indicate that it yielded one of the largest kharajs of the empire 
Politically it embraced, at least for some time, Transoxiana and 
Sijistan, and was therefore a great source of man-power as well 
No wonder, then, that we hear it referred to in the presence of 
al-Ma*mun as "the whole empire'*. 3 

The land round Bukhara, in the judgment of Arab geo-* 
graphers, was, especially under the Samanids in the 900*5, a * 
veritable garden. 4 Here, between Samarqand and Bukhara, lay 
the Wadi al-Sughd (the valley of Sogdiana), one of the "four 
earthly paradises", the other three being the Shi'b Bawwan (gap 
of Bawan in Fans), the gardens of the Ubullah Canal, extending 
from al-Basrah to the south-east, 5 and the orchards (gMfak) of 
Damascus. 6 In these gardens flourished several varieties of 
fruits, vegetables and flowers, such as dates, apples, apricots,' 
peaches, plums, lemons, oranges, figs, grapes, olives, almonds, 
pomegranates, egg-plants, radishes, cucumbers, roses and basil < 
(rayfjan). Water-melons were exported from Khwarizm to the 



1 William Willcocks, Irrigation of Mesopotamia (London, 1917), pp. xvu sco y 
II Stq* 

* P. 3«. * YaV>K vol ri, p. 555, L 4. 
4 l?takhn, pp. 305 sco. t copied by ibn-Hawqal, pp 355 sea. 

* I$taWhn, p 81; same in ibn-IJawqal, p 160, Maqdtsi, pp. 1x7-18. 

* Yaqut, vol. i, p. 751, vol. w, p 394; cf* vol j, p 97, II 15-J6 

* for U>mo1ogy sec below, p. 528, n 6 The plant itself was a mine of CHns*„ 



cn. xxvi ' " , k 'ABBASI0 SOCIETY r 351 

courts of al-Ma v murt and al-Wathiq in lead moulds packed with 
ice, such fruit would sell in Baghdad for seven hundred dirhams 
each. 1 In fact most of the fruit trees and vegetables grown at 
present in Western Asia were known at the time, with the 
exception of mangoes, potatoes, tomatoes and similar plants 
introduced in recent times from the New World and distant 
European colonies. The orange tree, allied to the citron and 
lemon, had its native habitat in India or Malay, whence it spread 
at this time into Western Asia, the adjoining lands of the 
Mediterranean basin and eventually through the Arabs in Spain 
into Europe. 2 The sugar-cane plantations of Fans and al- 
Ahwaz, 3 with their noted refineries, were about this time 
followed by similar ones on the Syrian coast, from which place 
the Crusaders later introduced the cane and the sugar 4 into 
Europe. Thus did this sweet commodity, probably of Bengaiese 
origin, which has since become an indispensable ingredient in 
the daily food of civilized man, work its way westward. 

Horticulture was not limited to fruits and vegetables. The 
cultivation of flowers was also promoted, not only in small home 
gardens round fountains musical with jetting, splashing water, 
but on a large scale for commercial purposes. The preparation 
of perfumes or essences from roses, water-lilies, oranges, violets 
and the like flourished in Damascus, Shlraz, Jur and other 
towns. The whole district of Jur, or Flruzabad, in Fans was 
noted for its attar (Ar. t ttr) of red roses. 5 Rose-water from 
Jur. was exported as far as China eastward and al-Maghrib 
westward. 6 Paris included in its kharaj 30,000 bottles of the 
essence of red roses, which were sent annually to the caliph in 
Baghdad. 7 Sabur (Pers» Shapur) and its valley produced ten 
world-famous varieties of perfumed oils, or unguents, extracted 
from the violet, water-lily, narcissus, palm flower, iris, white lily, 
^myrtle, sweet marjoram, lemon and orange flowers. 8 Among 
^ J Tha'ahta.p. 129. 

- * This h the hitter variety, Ar. ahu fu/ayr Eng. "orange" comes through Sp, 
from. Ar ftarcxj, from Pers. nor eng. "Lemon" is Ar. iaymun> Pers ilmun (see 
' below, p 665). 
v * Tha'abbi, p. 107. 
~ k Au su&ar} **candy*' comes from Ar. qandah, qandt, which is Pers. qand 
"Cane** is also of Semitic origin corresponding to Ar. qandk, reed, but was sepa- 
rately introduced into European languages. 

* In Syria red roses arc still called werdjun. 

- 5*;^?^* P' a, 3i I?takhri > pp. 152-3. 

^ Thaahbi. pp jo^id. Mnqdisi, p 443. 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASLD EMPIRES PART m 



these the violet extract was the most popular in the Moslem 
world, as the following words put in the mouth of the Prophet 
would indicate! "The excellence of the extract of violets above 
all other extracts is as the excellence of me above all the rest of 
creation". 1 

Among flowers the rose seems to have been the favourite. 
In the opinion of the cultured slave girl Tawaddud, whose ideas 
may be taken as an index of popular opinion between the tenth 
and twelfth centuries, roses and violets are the best scents; 
pomegranate and citron the best fruits; and endive the best 
vegetable. 2 The popular esteem in which the rose is held found 
expression in a tradition ascribed to Muhammad: "The white 
rose was created from my sweat on the night of the nocturnal 
journey [infra;], the red rose from the sweat of Gabriel and the 
yellow rose from that of al-Buraq". 3 With the words "I am the 
king of sultans and the rose is the king of the sweet-scented 
flowers; each of us therefore is worthy of the other", al-Muta- 
wakkil is said to have so monopolized the cultivation of roses for 
his own enjoyment that in his time that flower could be seen 
nowhere except in his palace. 4 

The rose and the violet had a rival in the myrtle. "Adam 
was hurled down from Paradise with three things", claims a 
Prophetic tradition: "a myrtle tree, which is the chief of sweet- 
scented plants in the world; an ear of wheat, which is the chief 
food of the world; and a date, which is the chief of the fruits of 
this world.'" 5 Other highly desired flowers were the narcissus, 
gillyflower, jasmine, poppy and safflower. 

As an index of interest in agriculture mention might be made 
of the several books on plants, including translations from Greek, 
listed in the Fthrtst? the few books on attar 7 and the spurious 
work of ibn-Wahshiyah entitled al-Ftldhah al-Nabaiiyah. 
[>himm»s The agricultural class, who constituted the bulk of the popu- 
^hnstiam j at j on Q f empire and its chief source of revenue, were the 
original inhabitants of the land, now reduced to the position of 

1 Suyuti, &usn t vol, it, p. 242. 

* Alj Laylah wa Laylah {Thousand and One Ntghis) t no. 453. CL nos 864, S65. 

* Suyuti, tfusn, vol. u, p. 236, 

* Nawaji, p 235, Suyutx, \ol. n, p. 236. 

* Suyu^j, vol. ii, p 245. Consult Edward W. Lane, The Thousand and Ont 
Nights, vol. 1 (London, 1839), pp 219 sf$> (in n 22 to ch ut). 

* P. 78, 11. 12, 23, p 79, L 3, P S3, 1. 16, p 252, U 9 10. 

* fthrtst, p 317. 



cn, xxvi 



•ABBASID SOCIETY 



353 



dhimmis. The Arab considered it below his dignity to engage 
in agricultural pursuits. Originally Scripruraries, viz. Christians, 
Jews and Sabians, the dhimmis had their status widened, as we 
learned before, to include Zoroastrians, Manichaeans, yarran 
Sabians and others — all of whom were now treated on a par 
with those with whom a compact for religious tolerance had been 
made. In country places and on their farms these dhimmis clung 
to their ancient cultural patterns and preserved their native 
languages: Aramaic and Syriac in Syria and al- c Iraq, Iranian in 
Persia and Coptic in Egypt. Many of those who embraced Islam 
moved to the cities. 

Even in cities Christians and Jews often held important 
financial, clerical and professional positions. This often led to 
open jealousy on the part of the Moslem populace and found 
expression in official enactments. But most of this discriminating 
legislation remained "ink on paper" and was not consistently 
enforced. 

The first caliph, as we have seen, to order Christians and Jews 
to don distinctive dress and to exclude them from public offices 
was the pious Umayyad, 'Umar II, whose pact has often been 
erroneously ascribed to *Umar I, Among the 'Abbasids Harun 
was evidently the first to re-enact some of the old measures. In 
807 he ordered all churches in border-lands, together with those 
erected subsequent to the Moslem conquest, demolished and 
commanded members of the tolerated sects to wear the prescribed 
garb. 1 The stringent regulations against dhimmis culminated in 
the time of al-Mutawakkil, who m 850 and 854 decreed that 
Christians and Jews should affix wooden images of devils to 
their houses, level their graves even with the ground, wear 
outer garments of honey-colour, i.e. yellow, put two honey- 
coloured patches on the wear of their slaves, one sewn on the 
back and the other on the front, and ride only on mules and 
asses with ivooden saddles marked by two pomegranate-like 
balls on the cantle* It was on account of this distinctive dress 
that the dhimmi acquired the epithet "spotted". 3 One other 
grave disability under which the dhimmis laboured was a ruling 
of the Moslem jurists of the period that the testimony of a 

1 TabAn, vol m, pp 712-13; lbn-al Athir, \ol vx, p. 141. 
{ 1 fabari, vol iii, pp 1389 93, 14 iq. 

* Cf J&ta, Bajatt, vol. i. p, 79, 31. 27-8. 



354 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 



Christian or a Jew could not be accepted against a Moslem; for 
the Jews and Christians had once corrupted the text of their 
scripture, as the Koran charges, 1 and therefore could no more be 
trusted. The last cahph to renew in an aggravated form the hostile 
measures against dhimmis was the Fatimid al-ft akim (996-1021), 
That in spite of these restrictions the Christians under the 
caliphs enjoyed on the whole a large measure of toleration may 
be inferred from several episodes A number of religious debates 
similar to those staged in the presence of Mu'awiyah and 
*Abd-al-Mahk were held in the presence of the 'Abbasids. The 
text of an apology for Christianity delivered in 781 by Timothy, 
patriarch of the Nestorians, before al-Mahdi has come down to 
us, 2 as has also the famous treatise by al-Kindi 3 professing to be 
a contemporary account of a controversy held about 819 before 
al-Ma'mun on the comparative merits of Islam and Christianity. 
The religious discussions of 'Ali al-Tabari (f ca. 854) in his 
Kttdb al-Din %o~aUDawlah t * a semi-official defence and exposi- 
tion of Islam written at the court with the assistance of ai- 
Mutawakkil, is temperate, singularly free from heat and passion 
and abounds in references to the Bible, evidently the Syriac 
version or its early Arabic translation. At the time ai-Nadlm 
wrote his Fthrist (988) both the Old and New Testaments were 
already in existence in Arabic in more than one version. 5 In fact 
we are told that a certain Ahmad ibn-' Abdullah ibn-Salam had 
translated the Bible into Arabic as early as the days of Harun. 6 
There is evidence to show that even in the latter part of the 
seventh century parts of the Bible had been rendered into 
Arabic either from Syriac or from the Greek Septuagint. Al- 
Tabari 7 notes under A.H. 61 that 'Abdullah, son of the con- 
queror of Egypt, had read the Book of Daniel. But the first 
important Arabic translation of the Old Testament was that of 
Sa'id al-Fayyumi (Saadia Gaon, 882-942) of Egypt, which has 
remained to this day the version for all Arabic-speaking Jews. 
These translations aroused the interest of Moslems in the contro- 
versial points, and we find al-Jahiz (t 869) among the many 
1 Surs 2 70, 5 16-18. 

* A. Mingana in Bulletin of the John R} lands Library, vol 12 (Manchester, 
1928}, pp 137 29S 

3 Risalat *Abd al-MasIfi (London, 1870), 2nd cd (London, 1885) 

* Ed. A. Mmguna (Cairo, 1923), tr. Mmgana, The Book of Religion and Empire 
(Manchester, 1922) * Fthnst, p 23, 

* IM* p 22 This may have been a partial translation 7 Vol u» p. 399 



CH,KXV^ \^ "ABBASID SOCIETY 355" 



who penned answers to Christians. We even read of Christian 
vizirs in the latter half of the ninth century, such as 'Abdun ibn- 
Sa'id, in whose honour a judge in Baghdad rose up in public, 
thus receiving the disapproval of the spectators. 1 AJ-Muttaqi 
(940-44) had a Christian vizir * as did one of the Buwayhids. 5 
Al-Mu'tadid (892-902) had a Christian as head of the war 
office. 4 Such Christian high officials received the usual marks of 
honour, for we find certain Moslems objecting to kissing their 
hands. Most of the personal physicians of the caliphs, as will be 
remembered, were members of the Nestorian church. A recently 
published charter of protection granted to the Ncstorians in 1138 
byal-Muktafi 5 throws fresh light on thecordial relations between 
official Islam and official Christianity in that period. 

The Christian subjects of the 'Abbasid caliphs belonged fori 
the most part to the two Syrian churches considered heterodox 1 
and commonly called Jacobite and Nestorian, with the Nes- 
torians predominant in al-*Iraq> The Nestorian patriarch or 
catholicos (corrupted into An jdthiltq ) jdthaizq) had the right 
of residence in Baghdad, a privilege which the Jacobites had 
always sought in vain* Round the patriarchate styled Dayr al- 
lium 6 (the monastery of the Romans, i.e. Christians) there grew 
in Baghdad a Christian quarter called Dar (abode of) al-Rum. 
Under the catholicos* jurisdiction there flourished seven metro- 
politans, including those of al-Basrah, al-Maw§il and Naslbln 
(Nisibis), each with two or three bishops under him. The patriarch- 
elect received his investiture from the caliph, by whom he was 
recognized as the official head of all Christians in the empire. 
In 912-13 the catholicos succeeded in making the caliph prevent 
the Jacobite patriarch, whose seat was Antioch, from transferring 
his residence to Baghdad. 7 The main political charge against 
the Jacobites was that they sympathized with the Byzantines. 
But the Jacobites had a monastery in Baghdad 8 and a metro- 

* Vaqut, Udcba\ vol. ii, p, 259. 

* Al-Tanukhi, al-Faraj b<?d al-Shiddah (Cairo, 1904), vol. ii, p. 149. 

* Na$t ibn-Hlr&n was the Buwayhid vttir. See MisUwnyh, Tajanb cU Umarn, 
*d> Margoiiouth, vol. ii (Cairo afld Oxford, 1915), pp. 40$, 412. 

* $abi\ Wusar&\ p. 95^ 

* A. Mingana in Bulletin John. Rylands Library^ vol. 10 (1926), pp. 127*33. 

* Yaqut, Bulddn t vol. ii, p. 662. 

* On the Monophysite and Jacobite patriarchs see Assemani (al-Sam'Sni), 
Bibticthtcc OntniAlis, vol, it (Rome, 1721), s * 

* Y&qfct, vol. «, p. 662* L 18, 



356 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PART Hi 



politan seat in Takrit, not far from the capital. In all, Yaqut 1 
lists half a dozen monasteries in east Baghdad, apart from those 
on the west side. 

The Copts of Egypt, as we have noted before, belonged to the 
Jacobite communion. The Nubian church was likewise Jacobite 
and acknowledged the primacy of the patriarch of Alexandria. 
Along the narrow coast west of Egypt, Christianity had a 
following among the Berbers, but the majority of the inland 
population had their local cults corresponding to their tribal 
divisions. 

One of the most remarkable features of Christianity under the 
caliphs was its possession of enough vitality to make it an 
aggressive church, sending its missionaries as far as India and 
China. Al-NadTm 2 reports an interesting interview which he 
himself held with one such missionary returned from China, 
whom he met in the Christian quarter 3 of Baghdad. The famous 
stela at Sian Fu, China, erected in 78 r to commemorate the 
names and labours of sixty-seven Nestorian missionaries, 4 
together with the affiliation of the Christian church in India, 
that of the "Christians of St. Thomas" in Malabar on the south- 
west coast, with the patriarchate in Baghdad, bear witness to 
the evangelistic zeal of the East Syrian Church under the Mos- 
lems. It is also recognized that the existing characters of Mongol 
and Manchu are lineal descendants of the original Uighurian 
forms, which were certainly derived from the Syriac alphabet as 
used by the Nestorians. 

As one of the "protected" peoples the Jews fared on the whole 
even better than the Christians, and that in spite of several 
unfavourable references in the Koran. 5 They were fewer and did 
not therefore present such a problem. In 985 al-Maqdisi 6 found 
most of the money-changers and bankers in Syria to be Jews, 
and most of the clerks and physicians Christians. Under several 
caliphs, particularly al-Mu c tadid (892-902), we read of more 
than one Jew in the capital and the provinces assuming respon- 
sible state positions. In Baghdad itself the Jews maintained a 

1 Under dayr. 1 P. 349. 

* Var a! R 'urn , which Flugel, the editor, la his notes erroneously mikes Con- 
stantinople. 

4 Consult P. V. Sacki, The Nestorian Documents and Rchcs tn Chtna (Tokyo, 
1937). PP 10 

* Surs 2 1 70-73; 5 : 16, 66-9. * P. 1S3. 



cir.xxvz - 'ABBASID SOCIETY 357 

good-sized colony 1 which continued to flourish until the fall of the 
city. Benjamin of Tudela, 2 who visited the colony about I i6g t 
found it in possession of ten rabbinical schools and twenty-three* 
synagogues; the principal one, adorned with variegated marble, 
was richly ornamented with gold and silver* Benjamin depicts 
in glowing colours the high esteem in which the head of the 
Babylonian Jews was held as a descendant of David and 
head of the community (Aram, resh galutha t prince of cap- 
tivity 4 or exilarch), in fact as chief of ail Jews owing allegiance 
to the Baghdad caliphate. Just as the catholicos exercised a 
certain measure of jurisdiction over all Christians in the empire, 
so did the exilarch over his co-religionists. The "prince of cap- 
tivity" seems to have lived in affluence and owned gardens, 
houses and rich plantations. On his way to an audience with 
the caliph he appeared dressed in embroidered silk, wore a 
white turban gleaming with gems and was accompanied by 
a retinue of horsemen. Ahead of him marched a herald 
calling out: "Make way before our lord the son of David! " 

The Mandeans, 5 the genuine Sabians 6 of Arabic writers, were , 
a Judaeo-Christian sect who also called themselves Nasoraie 
d y Yahya> the Nasoreans 7 (i.e. the observants) of St. John, and 
therefore became erroneously known to the modern world as the 
Christians of St. John (the Baptist). The Mandeans practised 
the rite of baptism after birth, before marriage and on various 
other occasions. They inhabited the lower plains of Babylonia, and 
as a sect they go back to the first century after Christ. Palestine 
was perhaps the original home of this and other baptist com- 
munities. Their language, Mandaic, is a dialect of Aramaic 
and its script bears close resemblance to the Nabataean and 
Palmyrene. Mentioned thrice in the Koran, these Babylonian 
§abians acquired a dhimmi status and were classified by 

1 Yaqut, vol. iv, p. 1045. 

* The Itinerary o/JRabbi Benjamin of Tudeta, tr. and ed, A. Asher, vol. i (London 
and Berlin, 1S40), pp. 100-105. 

* Other contemporaneous travellers make the number only three, which is more 
credible. 

* Some of the Baghdad Jews might v. ell have been the descendants of those 
carried into exile by Nebuchadnezzar in 507 and 586 B.C. 

* This word is derived from Aramaic yada\ to know; the sect was Gnostic. 

* Ar. $6bCck t or $ab?un t sing. Sch* from Mandau (Aram ) Sdbt\ immerser; 
no etymological connection uuh Sa&a\ the name of the great people in south- 
western Arabia, 

1 Wrongly rendered Nazarenes, i.e. Christians, 



358 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES paktih 



Moslems as a "protected" sect* According to the Fihrist 1 they 
included the mughtasilah (those who wash themselves), who 
occupied the marshes of lower al-*Iraq. The community still 
survives to the number of five thousand in the swampy lands 
near al-Basrah. Living in the neighbourhood of rivers is necessi- 
tated by the fact that immersion in flowing water is an essential, 
and certainly the most characteristic, feature of their religious 
practice. In modern Baghdad the Sabians are represented by 
the so-called 'Amarah silversmiths, makers of the mtna 2 work. 

Quite distinct from these Babylonian Sabians were the 
pseudo-Sabians of rlarran. 3 Arab writers confuse the two. The 
rjarran Sabians were in reality star-worshippers who under the 
Moslems adopted the name "Sabians" to secure the advantages 
of toleration accorded by the Koran. This name has stuck to 
them ever since, and the curious sect continued to flourish close 
to the headquarters of the caliphate until the middle of the 
thirteenth century, when the Mongols destroyed their last 
temple. Undoubtedly the intellectual merits and scientific 
services of some of its illustrious men helped to gain Moslem 
protection/ Reference has already been made to Thabit ibn- 
Qurrah and other great Harranian astronomers. Thabit's son 
Sinan was forced by the Caliph al-Qahir to embrace Islam. 5 
Among other Sabian luminaries were abu-Ishaq ibn-Hilal al- 
Sabt\ secretary of both al-Muti f (946-74) and al-TaY (974-91); 
al-Battani, the astronomer; ibn-Wahshjyah (fl. ta* 900), pseudo- 
author of the book on Nabataean agriculture; and possibly Jabir 
ibn-rjayyan, the alchemist. The last three professed Islam. 6 
Magians The Zoroastrians (Majus) f mentioned only once in the Koran 
duaJwtt*' (22 : x 7), could not have been included among the Scripturaries 
in Muhammad's mind. But in the hadith and by Moslem legists 
they are treated as such; the term "Sabians" was interpreted to 
cover them. Practical politics and expediency, as we learned 
before, made it necessary that the dhimmi status be accorded 
such a large body of population as that which occupied Iran. 
After the conquest Zoroastrianism, which was the state religion, 

1 P 340, 1. 26, Mas'udi, vol. 11, p 1 12. * From Pers mine, heavenly. 
' Mas'udi, vol iv, pp 61-71, devotes a section to them 

* Fthrtst, p 272, I. n. 

* Ibid. p. 302, quoted by ibn abi-U^aybi'ah, vol. i, pp 220-2 s. 

- For more on the Sabians consult D. Chwolsohn, bit Ssabter und der Ssa&tsmttt, 
3 vols. (St Petersburg, 1856). 



c£xxW- " ' *ABBASID SOCIETY 359 

continued to exist and its fire-templcs remained standing not 
only in all the Iranian provinces but in al-'Iraq, India and places 
<sastof Persia. 1 The Zoroastrians in India are still represented by 
the Parsis, 3 whose ancestors emigrated from Persia early in the 
eighth century. Zoroastrianism yielded a number of distinguished 
converts to Islam, the earliest among whom was ibn-al-Muqaffa** 
Certain phases of early Islamic theology were either a reaction 
against dualism or an imitation of its attitudes. 

The Manichaeans, at first mistaken by the Moslems for Chris- 
tians or Zoroastrians, obtained later the status of a tolerated com- 
munity. The Persian Mani (f A.D. 273 or 274) and his teaching 
seem to have held a special fascination for the followers of 
Muhammad, for we see that both al-Mahdi and al-Hadi issued 
strict measures against the tendency in that direction. Even the 
last Urnayyad caliph, whose tutor was put to death as a zi?idtq, 
was suspected of Manichaeism, 3 In 780 al-Mahdi crucified a 
number of crypto-Manichaeans in Aleppo, 4 and during the last 
two years of his reign instituted an inquisition against them in 
Baghdad, 5 Al-Hadi continued the persecution begun by his 
predecessor.* Al-Rashld likewise appointed a special officer to 
conduct an inquisition against such dualists. 7 But many Mani- 
chaeans and even communistic Mazdakites 8 seem to have sur- 
vived. And although the Koran* entitles idol worshippers to no 
Consideration, practical Islam connived at minor communities 
in Northern Africa and Central Asia which were too insignifi- 
cant to attract public attention, and found it impossible to 
exterminate paganism in India, 

The so-called ''Moslem conquests" which were effected 
mainly under the orthodox caliphs were in reality, as noted 

1 Mas*fidi,^ol iv, p. 86 

1 Name derived from P&rs (Firs)* modem Fans. See above, p. 157, n. 2. 

* Fihnst, pp. 337-8. Early Arab writers applied the term ztndiq (from Pahlawj 
sardlk) to any Moslem whose religious ideas partook of the dogmatic conceptions of 
the Persians in general and the Manichaeans in particular. In later usage tnndiq 
came to mean any person with liberal Mews, a frec-thmker, Cf E. G, Browne, A 
Ltitraty ittstcry cf Pcrsta t vol.i (New York, 1902), pp. r 59 6b. Cf. above, p. 84, 

m 2. 

* Tftbari, vol. m» p. 499 * PP* 5*9 2»» 558- * pp. 548 51. 

* Arabic sources including Ftktut % pp. 327 se$. t Shahrastani, pp 188 seg., and 
Ya'qubi, Vol. i t pp. jSo-82, are among the oldest and best we have on Manichaeism. 

* Tor a modern treatment consult A. V. Williams Jackson, Researches in Manichaeism 
, t (NewYoti, 1932). 

* Sec Tabarn vol. \ % pp 8Ss*o, $97, Shahrastani, pp. 192 seq ; Browne, vol. i t 
pp 166-73. * Surs 4 : 1 16-20, 2! : gH too, 66 : 9. 



360 



THE UMAVYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PARTm 



before, the conquest of Arab arms and Arab nationals. They 
netted the military and political subjugation of Persia, the 
Fertile Crescent and north-eastern Africa. During the first 
century of 'Abbasid rule the conquests entered upon their 
second stage, the victory of Islam as a religion. It was in the 
course of this stage that the bulk of the population of the empire 
was converted to the new religion. Many conversions were, to be 
sure, concurrent with the early military conquests, but such a 
country as Syria continued to present the aspect of a Christian 
land throughout the whole Umayyad period. The situation now, 
however, began perceptibly to change. The intolerant legislation 
of al-Rashld and al-Mutawakkil undoubtedly contributed its 
quota of fresh converts Cases of individual and collective 
forcible conversion added to their numbers; five thousand of 
the Christian banu-Tanukh whom al-Mahdi saw near Aleppo 
responded to his orders and embraced Islam. 1 But the process of 
conversion in its normal working was more gradual and peace- 
ful, though also inescapable. Self-interest dictated it. To escape 
the payment of the humiliating tribute and other disabilities, to 
secure social prestige or political influence, to enjoy a larger 
measure of freedom and security, these were the strong motives 
in operation. 

Persia remained unconverted to Islam until well into the third 
century after its inclusion in the Arab empire. It counts among 
its population today some 9000 Zoroastrians. The population of 
northern al- r lraq early in the tenth century was still, in the 
opinion of ibn-al-Faq!h, s "Moslem in name but Christian in 
character". Mt. Lebanon has maintained until the present day 
a Christian majority. Egypt, which had embraced Christianity 
but very lightly in the fourth century, proved one of the easiest 
countries to Islamize. Its Copts today form but a small minority. 
The Nubian kingdom, which had been Christianized in the 
middle of the sixth century, was still Christian in the twelfth 
century 3 and even in the latter part of the fourteenth. 4 The 
conversion to Islam of the Berbers and North Africans, whose 

1 Ibn al *Ibn, Chromcon Striatum, ed and tr. P. J. Bruns and G. G. Kirsch 
(Leipzig, 1789), vol ti (text), p 133= vol 1, pp 134-5 
3 Butdan, p 315, 1 9 

* Al Idnsi, St/at al Magkrtb i ed and tr. R. Dozy and M. J. de Goeje (Leyden, 
1864-66), p. 27 (text)«p 32 (tr.). 

* Ibn Batfutah, voLi v, pp. 396. 



Ch.'£cyi> - ^ * f ABBASID SOCIETY 361 

church,' as vpehave before noted, had produced several illustrious 
champions of Christian orthodoxy, was begun with no marked 
success by !Uqbah after the founding of al-Oayrawan in 670 as 
a permanent base of military operation and centre of Islamic 
influence. It was carried out in the following century according 
to a new plan of enlisting the Berbers in the Moslem army and 
thus winning them over by the new prospects of booty. The 
Berbers formed the nucleus of the armed forces which completed 
the conquest of West Africa and effected the subjugation of 
Spain, But even in their case we find three centuries after the 
Arab conquest some forty bishoprics left 1 of the church which 
once comprised five hundred. Here the final triumph of Islam 
was not achieved till the twelfth century, though certain Kabyls 
(fronrAr. qahail> tribes) of Algeria had the Andalusian Moors, 
driven out after the fall of Granada in 1492, to thank for their 
conversion. 

The v third stage in the series of conquests was the linguistic 
one:, the victory of the Arabic tongue over the native languages 
of the subjugated peoples. This was the latest and slowest. It 
was in this field of struggle that the subject races presented the 
greatest measure of resistance* They proved, as is often the case, 
more ready to give up their political and even religious loyalties 
than their linguistic ones. The complete victory of Arabic as the 
language of common usage was not assured until the latter part 
of the 'Abbasid period. In Persia Arabic became for some time 
after the military conquest the language of learning and society, 
but it never succeeded in displacing permanently the Iranian 
speech* Jn al-*Iraq and Syria the transition from one Semitic 
tongue, the Aramaic, to another, the Arabic, was of course 
easier. In the out-of-the-way places, however, such as the 
Lebanons with their preponderant Christian population, the 
native Syriac put up a desperate fight and has lingered until 
modern times. Indeed Syriac is still spoken in Ma'lula and two 
other villages in Anti-Lebanon. With its disappearance Aramaic 
has left in the colloquial Arabic unmistakable traces noticeable 
in vocabulary, accent and grammatical structure. 11 

Arabic <as the language of learning, it should be noted, won 

fc * De Mas Latrie, RtUiions tt commerce dt VAfriqnt stptcntrionate {Paris, i8S6), 
VP- *7;$; "Arnoltl, Prtachingi pp. 126 se?* 
t Hilti/«AZ«£to al -Sanity ah (Beirut. 1922), pp. 30-46, 



36* THE UMAYYAD AND "ABBASID EMPIRES partih 

its day before Arabic as the vernacular* In the preceding chapter 
we have seen how fresh streams of thought from Byzantium, 
Persia and India resulted in a new concentration of culture in 
the Soo's in Baghdad, al-Basrah and al-Kufah, comparable 
only to that of Alexandria in earlier times, and rendered Arabic, 
never used before for scientific purposes, the vehicle of the 
Moslem civilization. We shall now proceed to trace that cultural 
movement. 



CHAPTER XXVII 
SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY PROGRESS 



THE epoch of translation (ca. 750-850), discussed in a previous 
chapter (XXIV), was followed by one of creative activity; for 
the Arabs not only assimilated the ancient lore of Persia and the 
classical heritage of Greece but adapted both to their own 
peculiar needs and ways of thinking. In medicine and philosophy 
their independent work was less conspicuous than in alchemy, 
astronomy, mathematics and geography. In law, theology, 
philology and linguistics as Arabs and Moslems they carried on 
original thinking and research. Their translations, transmuted 
in no small degree by the Arab mind during the course of several 
centuries, were transmitted, together with many new contribu- 
tions, to Europe through Syria, Spain and Sicily and laid the 
basis of that canon of knowledge which dominated medieval 
European thought. And transmission, from the standpoint of 
the history of culture, is no less essential than origination, for 
had the researches of Aristotle, Galen and Ptolemy been lost to 
« posterity the world would have been as poor as if they had never 
been produced. 

The line of demarcation between translated and original work iv 
is not always clearly drawn. Many of the translators were also 
contributors. Such was the case with Yuhanna ibn-Masawayh 
(777-857) and rj[unayn ibn-Ishaq (809-73). The former, a 
Christian physician and pupil of Jibrll ibn-Bakhtishu\ failing 
to obtain human subjects for dissection, a practice which was 
never encouraged by Islam, had recourse to apes, one of which 
came from Nubia in 836 as a present to al-Mu'tasim. 1 Under 

- these conditions little progress was made in the science of 
anatomy, except possibly in studying the anatomical structure 

" of the eye. The prevalence of eye diseases in the sunny climate 
of al-'Iraq and other Moslem lands concentrated early medical 
attention on this subject. From the pen of ibn-Masawayh ive 
* Ibn-abi-Usaybi'ah, vol. i, p, 17S. 
363 



364 THE UMAYYAD AND f ABBASID EMPIRES PART in 

have the oldest systematic treatise on ophthalmology extant in 
Arabic, 1 A book entitled al-Ashr Maqalat fi al-Ayn (the ten 
treatises on the eye) and ascribed to his pupil rlunayn ibn-Isfcaq 
has recently been published with an English translation 2 as the 
earliest existing text-book of ophthalmology. 

Arab interest in the curative science found expression in the 
Prophetic tradition that made science twofold: theology and 
medicine The physician was at the same time metaphysician, 
philosopher and sage, and the title Imkim was indifferently 
applied to him m all these capacities. The case of the Nestorian 
Jibrll ibn-Bakhtishu* (| ca. 830), who was court physician of 
al-Rashid, ai-Ma'mun and the Barmakids and is said to have 
amassed a fortune of 88,800,000 dirhams, 3 shows that the medical 
profession was a paying one. As private physician of al-Rash!d 
Jibrfl received, we are told, 100,000 dirhams for bleeding the 
caliph twice a year and an equal sum for administering a semi* 
annual purgative draught. The Bakhtlshu* family produced six 
or seven generations of distinguished physicians, the last of 
whom flourished in the second half of the eleventh century. 

In the curative use of drugs some remarkable advances were 
made at this time by the Arabs. It was they who established the 
first apothecary shops, founded the earliest school of pharmacy 
and produced the first pharmacopoeia. Several pharmacological 
treatises were composed, beginning with those of the world- 
famed Jabir lbn-Hayyan, the father of Arabic alchemy, who 
flourished about 776. As early as the days of al-Ma'mun and 
al-Mu f tasim pharmacists had to pass some kind of examina- 
tion. 4 Like druggists, physicians also were required to submit to 
a test. Following a case of malpractice Sman lbn-Thabit ibn- 
Qurrah was ordered by al-Muqtadir in 931 to examine all 
practising physicians and grant certificates (sing, ijdzaft) only to 
those who satisfied him. Over eight hundred and sixty such men 
in Baghdad passed the test and the capital rid itself of its quacks. 5 
On the orders of al-Muqtadir's virtuous vizir f Ali ibn-'Isa, 
Sinan organized a staff of physicians who would go from place to 

1 Degkal al-'Ayn (the disorder of the c}e), MS , one copy is in Taymur Pasha's 
bbrarv, Cmro, another in Leningrad 
5 Bv Max Mevcrhof (Cairo, 192S). 
3 gift, p 143 
1 Ibid pp iSS 9 

* Ibn-abi-LUivbi'ah, \ol t,p. 222; Qif& p. 191. 



CH. xxvii "SCIENTIFIC AND 'LITERARY PROGRESS 3<$S 

place carrying drugs and administering relief to ailing people. 
Other physicians made daily visits to jails. 1 Such facts show an 
intelligent interest in public hygiene unknown to the rest of the 
world at that time. In his efforts to raise the scientific standard 
of the medical profession and in his efficient administration of 
the Baghdad hospital lay Sinan's chief title to fame. This 
hospital, the first in Islam, was created by Harun al-Rashld at 
the beginning of the ninth century, following the Persian model, 
as the Arabic name bzmdristan* indicates. Not long afterwards 
other hospitals to the number of thirty-four grew up throughout 
the Moslem world. Cairo saw its first hospital under ibn- 
Tulun 5 about 872, an institution which survived until the 
fifteenth century. Travelling clinics made their appearance in 
the eleventh century. Moslem hospitals had special wards for 
women and each had its own dispensary. Some were equipped 
with medical libraries and offered courses in medicine. 

The most notable medical authors who followed the epoch of 4 
the great translators were Persian in nationality but Arab in " 
language: *Aft al-Tabari, al-Razj, *AVt ibn-al-* Abbas al-Majusi 
and ibn-Sma. The portraits of two of these, al-Razi and ibn-STna, 
adorn the great hall of the School of Medicine at the University 
of Paris. 

f Ali ibn-Sahl Rabban al-Tabari, who flourished in the middle 
of the ninth century, was originally a Christian from fabaristan, 
as he tells us in his Kiiab al-Din and as his father's name 
indicates. 4 In the reign of al-Mutawakkil he turned Moslem and 
became a physician to the caliph himself, under whom he 
produced in 850 his Firdaws al-Rikmah (paradise of wisdom), 
One of the oldest Arabic compendiums of medicine. This work 
includesto some extent philosophy and astronomy and is based 
on^ Greek and Hindu sources. After *Ali the distinguished 
theologian-philosopher and physician al-Razi flourished. 

Abu-Bakr Muhammad ibn-Zakariya* al-Razi (Rhazes, 86$- ' 
925), so called after the place of his birth, al-Rayy, not far from 
Tihran, the capital of modern Persia, was probably "the greatest 

* Ilm-abi-Usaybrah, vol. i> p. ztv t Qiftf, pp. 193-4. 

» Pers. hi mar, sick-f ;tdn t place of. ~ a Ibo-Duqmaq;, pt. iv, p. 99. 

1 '* Pp t iz^s^Soektf I?£?igicn t p. 147. Sec also Fihrist, p. 296; cf. ibn-KhalHkan, 
vol. u, p. 50^ L 25. "Rahban" in his father's name, which made scholars think that 
he was of Jewish origin, is obviously Syriac for "otir master**, as 'AU explains in his 
introduction to Ftrda&s chflihmak fi al*T&b % ed. Muhammad Z. $iddfqi (Berlin, 



366 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 



and most original of all the Muslim physicians, and one of the 
most prolific as an author". 1 In selecting a new site for the great 
hospital 2 at Baghdad, of which he was chief physician, he is said 
to have hung up shreds of meat in different places, choosing the 
spot where they showed the least signs of putrefaction. 3 He is 
also considered the inventor of the seton in surgery. The Fihrist 1 
lists one hundred and thirteen major and twenty-eight minor 
works by al-Razi, of which twelve deal with alchemy. One of his 
principal works on alchemy, the Kitab al-Asrdr (the book of 
secrets), after having passed through numerous editorial hands 
was rendered into Latin by the eminent translator Gerard of 
Cremona (f 1 187) and became a chief source of chemical know- 
ledge until superseded in the fourteenth century by Jabir's 
(Geber's) works. Under the title De sptritibus et corponbus it 
was quoted by Roger Bacon. While still in Persia al-Razi wrote 
for Mansur ibn-Ishaq al-Samani of Snistan a monumental work in 
ten volumes, named after his patron Kiiab al-Ttbb aUMansuri y 
of which a Latin translation {Liber Almansoris) was first pub- 
lished in Milan in the eighties of the fifteenth century. Parts of it 
have been recently done into French and German. Of his mono- 
graphs one of the best known is a treatise on smallpox and 
measles {al-Judari w-al-Hasbah), the earliest of its kind and 
rightly considered an ornament to the medical literature of the 
Arabs. In it we find the first clinical account of smallpox. 5 

Translated into Latin in Venice (1565) and later into several 
modern languages, this treatise served to establish al-Razi's 
reputation as one of the keenest original thinkers and greatest 
clinicians not only of Islam but of the Middle Ages. His most 
important work, however, was al-Hawi (the comprehensive 
book), first translated into Latin under the auspices of Charles I 
of Anjou by the Sicilian Jewish physician Faraj bcn-Salim in 
1279. Under the title Continens it was repeatedly printed from 
i486 onwards, a fifth edition appearing in Venice in 1542. As 
the name indicates, this book was meant to be encyclopaedic in 
its range of medical information. It sums up the knowledge the 

1 Edward G. Browne, Arabian Medicine (Cambridge, 1921), p. 44 

a Wrongly referred to by later writers as 1 ol 'AduaY*, after the Buwayhid ruler 
'Atfud al-Dawlah, who established on its site his own hospital. 

3 Ibn abi-U$a>bi'ah, vol. i, pp. 309-10. * Pp. 299 302. 

* Ed. Cornelius Van Dyck (London, 1866, and Beirut, 1872); tr. W. A. GrccnhiB, 
A Treatise on the Small Pox and Measles (London, 184S). 



CH.xXvn* SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY PROGRESS 3& 

Arabs possessed at that time of Greek, Persian and Hfndu ntedi* 
cine and adds some fresh contributions. Printed whtfn printing 
was still in its infancy, these medical works of al-Razi exercised 
for centuries a remarkable influence over the minds of the Latin 

West. . 

'All ibn-al-' Abbas (Haly Abbas, f 994), originally a Zoroas- 1 
trian as his last name, al-Majusi (the Magian), indicates, dis- 
tinguished himself as the author of al-Kiiab al-Mahki (the royal 
book, Liber regitis), which he composed for the great Buwayhid 
f Adud-al-Dawlah Fanna Khusraw, who reigned 949-&3- 1 This 
work, also called Kamil al-Stntfah al-Tibfcyah x a tf noble the- 
saurus comprehending the science and practice of Medicine", 5 
was more concise than al-IJawi and was diligently studied until 
superseded by ibn-Slna's al-Qdnun. The best parts oi&l-Maliki 
are devoted to dietetics and materia medica. Among its original 
contributions are a rudimentary conception of the capillary 
system and a proof that in the act of parturition the child does 
not come out by Itself but is pushed out by the muscular con- 
tractions of the womb. 

The most illustrious name in Arabic medical aflnah after] 
al-Razi's is that of ibn-Sma (Latin Avicenna, through Heb, 
Aven Slna, 980-1037), called by the Arabs al-shaybk al-rats, 
"the sheikh" (of the learned) and * 'prince" (of the courtiers)* 3 Al- 
Raai was more of a physician than ibn-Slna, but ibr*-Slna was 
more of a philosopher* In this physician, philosopher and poet 
Arab science culminates and is, one might say, incarnated. 

Abu^Ali al-^usayn, to use his first name, was the son of an 
,Isma*ili, 'Abdullah. Born near Bukhara, he spent all his life in 
the eastern part of the Moslem world and was burieci hi Hama- 
dhan, where his grave is still shown. As a young man he had the 
„ good fortune to cure the Samanid sultan of Bukhara, Null 
. ibn-Mansur (reigned 976-97), and was therefore givefl the privi- 
■> lege of using the ruler's remarkable library. Endowed with 
* extraordinary powers of absorbing and retaining Jaiowledge, 
this Moslem Persian scholar devoured the contents c?f the royal 
^ library and at the early age of twenty-one was in a position to 
embark on his career of writing. This included the systematizing 

1 Ibn-abt-t^bi'ah, \ol. i t pp 236-7; Qif& p. 232. 
t * Qif&p*332.ForacomplcteMS «opy dated s86(a.d. 1190) see^tti, Fomand 
Abd ftUMftltlh, Catalog of Arabic Afanuscrjp£s t supp no I 
* * Abo called cl-nu'^Iltm ahtham, the second teacher (after Aristae), 



3&8 



THE UMAYYAD AND ^BBASID EMPIRES pakt w 



of the knowledge of his time. AKQifti 1 lists only forty-live works 
of ibn-Sina; but a modern bibliographer lists under his name 
over two hundred titles, dealing with philosophy, medicine, 
geometry, astronomy, theology, philology and art. Of these his 
best-known poetical production is a lengthy ode describing "the 
descent of the soul into the body from the higher sphere'* and is 
still memorized by young students in the Arabic East. Among 
his scientific works the leading two are the Kitdb al-Shifa 
(book of healing), a philosophical encyclopaedia based upon the 
Aristotelian tradition as modified by Neo-Pl atonic influences 
and Moslem theology, and al-Qdniin fi al-Ttdd, which represents 
the final codification of Greco-Arabic medical thought. The 
Arabic text of the Qaniin was published in Rome in 1 593 and 
was therefore one of the earliest Arabic books to see print. 2 
Translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in the twelfth 
century, this Canon, with its encyclopaedic contents, its system- 
atic arrangement and philosophic plan, soon worked its way 
into a position of pre-eminence in the medical literature of the 
age, displacing the works of Galen, al-Razi and al-Majusi and 
becoming the text-book for medical education in the schools of 
Europe. In the last thirty years of the fifteenth century it passed 
through fifteen Latin editions and one Hebrew. In recent years 
a partial translation into English was made. 3 The book dis- 
tinguishes mediastinitis from pleurisy and recognizes the 
contagious nature of phthisis and the spreading of diseases by 
water and soil. It gives a scientific diagnosis of ankylostomiasis 
and attributes it to an intestinal worm. Its materia medica 
considers some seven hundred and sixty drugs. From the 
twelfth to the seventeenth centuries this work served as the chief 
guide to medical science in the West and it is still in occasional 
use in the Moslem East. In the words of Dr. Osier 4 it has re- 
mained "amedical bible for a longer period than any other work". 

Among the lesser lights in the medical firmament mention 
may be made of *Ali ibn-'Isa (Jesu Haly), the most famous 

1 P. 418. Cf. ibn-abi-TJsaybi*ah, vol. ii, pp 18-20, ibn-KhalhkSn, vol. i, pp. 273-4; 
Carl Brockclmann, Geschtchte der erabtschen Litter atur s \oL i (Weimar, 1S0S), 
pp. 453-8. 

* The first edition of a compendium of ahShtfa* appeared as a supplement to this 
work. 

3 O Cameron Gruner, A Treatise on ihe Canon cj Medicine cf Avicenna (London, 
1930). 

* V> ilium Osier, The Cvvlution cf Modern Medicine (New Haven, 1922), p. 98. 



CH.XXVll* SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY PROGRESS 309 

oculist (kahhal) of the Arabs. *Ali, a Christian, flourished in 
Baghdad in the first half of the eleventh century, a century and 
a half after the court physician of al-Mu*tamid, whose name, 
f isa ibn-'Ali, 1 is often confused with his. Of the thirty-two 
medieval Arabic works on ophthalmology his Tadhkirat aU 
Kah\ialin~ (a note for oculists), which has survived in its com* 
plete and original form, is one of the oldest and worthiest. Only 
the two treatises by ibn-Masawayh and yunayn ibn-Ishaq 
antedate it. The Tadhkirah carefully describes one hundred and 
thirty eye diseases. It was done once into Hebrew and twice into 
Latin and is still m use in the East. 

Another physician of the second class was ibn-Jazlah (Ben- 
gesia, Byngezla, f 1 100), originally a Christian, 3 who wrote a 
medical synopsis entitled Taqwim al-Abdan fi Tadbtr al-Insan 
(tables of the body with ijegard to the physical management of 
man) modelled on the Taqwim al-Sihhah by another Christian 
physician, ibn-Butlan,* who died in Antioch about 1063. In a 
Taqwim diseases are arranged as are the stars in astronomical 
tables. Ibn-Jazlah^ work was translated into Latin at Strassburg 
in 1532. The last physician to be mentioned in this series is 
Ya'qub ibn-akhi-yizam, the stable- master of al-Mu*tadid 
(892-902), who composed a treatise on horsemanship (al~ 
Puriistyah wa-Shiydt al-Khayl) which is the first Arabic work of 
its kind. It contains some rudiments of the veterinary art and has 
survived in a manuscript now preserved in the British Museum, 5 
> To the Arabs philosophy (Jalsafah) was a knowledge of the 1 
true cause of things as they really are, in so far as it is possible 
to ascertain them by human faculties. In essence their philosophy 
was Greek, modified by the thought of the conquered peoples and 
by other Eastern influences, adapted to the mental proclivities 
of Islam and expressed through the medium of Arabic. These 
Arabs believed Aristotle's works to have represented a complete 
codification of Greek philosophical lore, as Galen's represented 
Greek medical lore* Greek philosophy and medicine meant then, 

1 fohrist, p 207; ibn-abMJ^aybi'ah, vol. t, p. 203. 
* * Ibn-abi-U$ayU r ah,\ol. i, p. 247. Translated, not from the original Arabic, by 
' Ca<ey A. Wood, The Tadhktrat ofjlh thn /so (Chicago, 1036). 

* Ibid, vol.i, p 255; Qifb, p 365; tbn-KhalhUn, \ol m, p. 25s- 
Httd, Arcb+Synan GentUnan^ pp. 214-16, ibn-abi UsAybi'oh, \oI. 1, pp. 24s 

*<7 * Qifti, pp 294 

* * Fihnsf) p. 315, mentions an ibn-aUti-FIttdm, pcrb^ps a son of YVqub. 



370 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES partiii 



of course, all that the West possessed. As Moslems the Arabs 
believed that the Koran and Islamic theology were the summa- 
tion of religious law and experience. Their original contribution, 
therefore, was made in the borderland between philosophy and 
religion on one hand and philosophy and medicine on the other. 
In course of time Arab authors came to apply the viov&falasifah 
or huka?na (philosophers or sages) to those philosophers among 
them whose speculations were not limited by religion, reserv- 
ing the term mutakalltmun or ahl al-kalam (speech-makers, 
dialecticians) for those whose system was conditioned by sub- 
ordination to revealed religion. The mutakallimun % who corre- 
sponded to the scholastic writers of Christian Europe, set forth 
their theories in the form of propositions and were therefore 
called by that title. Kaldm came slowly to mean theology and 
mutakallim became a synonym for theologian. Al-Ghazzali was 
primarily a theologian and will be dealt with later. The greatest 
names in the field of early Arab philosophy were those of al- 
Kindi, al-Farabi and ibn-Sina. 

Al-Kmdi, abu-Yusuf Ya'qub ibn-Ishaq, was born probably in 
ai-Kufah about 801 and flourished m Baghdad, where he died 
about 873 His pure Arabian descent earned him the title "the 
philosopher of the Arabs* \ and indeed he was the first and last 
example of an Aristotelian student in the Eastern caliphate who 
sprang from Arabian stock Eclectic in his system, al-Kindi en- 
deavoured in Neo-Platonic fashion to combine the views of Plato 
and Aristotle and regarded the Neo-Pythagorean mathematics 
as the basis of all science. Al-Kindi was more than a philosopher. 
He was astrologer, alchemist, optician and music theorist No 
less than three hundred and sixty-one works are ascribed to him, 
but most of them unhappily have been lost. His principal work 
on geometrical and physiological optics, based on the Optics of 
Euclid in Theon's recension, was widely used in both East and 
West until superseded by the greater work of ibn-al-Haytham. 
In its Latin translation, De aspecitbtis, it influenced Roger Bacon. 
Al-Kindi's three or four treatises on the theory of music are the 
earliest extant works in Arabic showing the influence of Greek 
writers on that subject. In one of these treatises al-Kindi describes 
rhythm (Jqa) as a constituent part of Arabic music. Measured 
song, or mensural music, must therefore have been known to 
the Moslems centuries before it was introduced into Christian 



CH.XXVII SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY PROGRESS **" 371 * 



-Europe. 1 Of al-Kindi's writings more have survived in Latin 
translations, including those of Gerard of Cremona, than in the 
Arabic original. 

The harmonization of Greek philosophy with Islam begun by i 
al-Kindi, an Arab, was continued by al-Farabi, a Turk, and com- 
pleted in the East by ibn-Sma, a Persian 

Muhammad ibn~Muhammad ibn-Tarkhan abu-Nasr al- 
Farabi 2 (Alpharabius) was born in Transoxiana, educated under 
a Christian physician and a Christian translator in Baghdad and 
flourished as a Sufi at Aleppo in the brilliant court of Sayf-al- 
Dawlah al-Hamdam He died at Damascus in 950 at the age of 
about eighty- His system of philosophy, as revealed by his several 
treatises on Plato and Aristotle, was a syncretism of Platonism, 
Aristotelianism and Sufism and won him the enviable title of 
"the second teacher" {al-mt£allt7n al-thdm) t after the great 
Stagirite. Besides a number of commentaries on Aristotle and 
other Greek philosophers, al-Farabi composed various psycho- 
logical, political and metaphysical works, of which the best-known 
are the Risdlat Fusils al-Htkam* (epistle containing bezels of 
wisdom) and the Rtsdlah fi Ara Ahl al-Madinah al-Fddilah 
(epistle on the opinions of the people of the superior city). 4 In 
the latter and in his al-Siydsah {Stydsdt) al-Madaniyak (political 
regime), al-Farabi, inspired by Plato's Republic and Aristotle*s 
Politics, presents his conception of a model city, which he 
conceives as a hierarchical organism analogous to the human 
body. The sovereign, who corresponds to the heart, is served 
by functionaries who are themselves served by others still 
lower. In his ideal city the object of association is the happi- 
ness of its citizens, and the sovereign is perfect morally and 
intellectually. 

^Al-Farabi*s other writings reveal him as a fair physician and 
mathematician, an occult scientist and an excellent musician. 
In fact he is considered the greatest of all Arabic music theorists. 
Besides his treatment of music in two of his compendiums of the 
sciences, he devotes three major works to the subject, of which 

1 See below, p. 600. 

* From laiabin Turkestan, Ibn-abi-U$aybrah, vol. H, p. 134; Qiftf, p. 277. 
1 Published by Friednch Djeterici in his Die Pktlosopkie dor Arcbcr tm IX* 
y ttnd X.Jahrhundtri w. Chr. } vol. xiv (Leyden, 1890), pp. 66 S3. 
{ * Published at Cairo, 1323, and also by Dietcnci, Phtlosophte der Arab<rr t \ol xn 
{Leyden, 1595), v.ho also translated it as Der MusUrstaat von Alf&rdbi (Leyden, 



372 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES pakt in 



the leading is the Kitab al-Musiqi al-Kabir (the great book of 
music), 1 In the presence of his patron Sayf-al-Dawlah he is said 
to have been able to play his lute so as to cast his hearers into a 
fit of laughter, draw tears from their eyes or set them all asleep, 
including even the doorkeepers. 3 Ancient chants attributed to 
him are still sung by the Mawlawi dervishes. 

After al-Farabi it was ibn-Slna (f 1037) who contributed the 
most important works in Arabic on the theory of music. Ibn- 
Sina, already treated with the medical men, was indebted to 
al-Farabi in his philosophical views. In the judgment of ibn- 
Khallikan 3 "no Moslem ever reached in the philosophical 
sciences the same rank as al-Farabi; and it was by the study of 
his writings and by the imitation of his style that ibn-Slna 
attained proficiency and rendered his own work so useful". It 
was ibn-Sma, however, who placed the sum-total of Greek 
wisdom, codified by his own ingenuity, at the disposal of the 
educated Moslem world in an intelligible form. Through him 
the Greek system, particularly that of Philo, was rendered 
capable of incorporation with Islam. 
The About the middle of the fourth Moslem century (ca. 970) 

5HccrUy° f tnere flourished in al-Basrah an interesting eclectic school of 
popular philosophy, with leanings toward Pythagorean specula- 
tions, known as Ikhwan al-Safa' (the brethren of sincerity). The 
appellation is presumably taken from the story of the ringdove 
in Kaltlah wa-Dimnah in which it is related that a group of 
animals by acting as faithful friends {ikhwan al-sofa*) to one 
another escaped the snares of the hunter. 6 

The Ikhwan, who had a branch in Baghdad, formed not only 
a philosophical but also a religio-political association with ultra- 
Shf ite, probably Isma'ilite, views and were opposed to the exist- 
ing political order, which they evidently aimed to overthrow by 
undermining the popular intellectual system and religious be- 
liefs. Hence arises the obscurity surrounding their activities and 

1 Extracts by J. P. N. Land appeared in Ades du sixieme eengrte international 
des orientalistes, pt 2, sec. I (Leyden, lSSs), pp. I CO- 1 68. Fr. tr. by Rodolphe 
dTrlanger, La musigue arabe, vols, i, ii, al-Farabt (Paris, 1930-35). Hitti, Fans and 
*Abd-al-Mahk, Catalog of Arabic Manuscripts, no. 19S4. 

* Ibn-Khalhkan, vol. Si, p. 501. 

1 Vol. U, p. 499s.de Slane, \ol. Hi, p. 307. 

4 From this it would appear that the usual rendition, "the brethren of purity", 
"les freres de la pureti", "die lauteren Bruder", is not exact. 

* I. Goldzihcr in Der hlam, vol. i (1910), pp. 22*6. 



<kww»'' 'scimrmc and literary progress 375 

membership. A collection of their epistles, Rasail, 1 arranged in 
encyclopaedic fashion survives, bearing some obscure names as 
collaborators. The epistles number fifty-two and treat of mathe- 
matics, astronomy, geography, music, ethics, philosophy, em- 
bodying the sum-total of knowledge that a cultured man of that 
age was supposed to acquire. The first fifty-one epistles lead up 
to the last, which is a summation of all sciences. The language 
of the epistles shows that Arabic had by that time become an 
adequate instrument for expressing scientific thought in all its 
various aspects. Al-Ghazzali was influenced by the Ikhwan's 
writings/ and Rashid-al-Din Sinan ibn-Sulayman, the chief of 
the Assassins in Syria, used them diligently. 3 When in Baghdad 
abu-al-*Ala' al~Ma*arri, the great Syrian poet-philosopher, 
attended the association's Friday meetings.* Abu-fjayyan al- 
TawhTdi (f 1023 the famous Mu'taziiite who with al-Rawandi 
(t9 x S) an ^ al-Ma c arri (f 1057) formed the trinity of arch- 
heretics in Islam, 6 was a pupil if not an active member of the 
fraternity. 

The scientific study of astronomy in Islam was begun, as we , 
have already learned, under the influence of an Indian work, the j 
Siddhayita (Ar. Sindhind), brought to Baghdad (771), translated 1 
by Muhammad ibn-Ibrahlm al-Fazari and used as a model 
by later scholars. Pahiawi tables (sik) compiled in the Sasanid 
period were soon added in translated form iplf). Greek ele- 
ments, last in order of time, were first in importance. An early 
translation of Ptolemy's Almagest was followed by two superior 
ones: the one by ai-yajjaj ibn-Matar completed in A.H. 212 
(827-8) and the other by rlunayn ibn-Ishaq revised by Thabit 
ibn-Qurrah (f 901). Early in the ninth century the first regular 
observations (rafd) with fairly accurate instruments were made 
in Jundaysabur (south-west Persia). In connection with his Bayt 
al-Hikinah, al-Mamun erected at Baghdad near the Sham- 
masiyah gate an astronomical observatory under the directorship 

* Bieterici issued and translated a great part of the text m his Die Philosophic dtr 
Arahr, 16 \ols. (Leiprig and Lcyden, 185S-JS95). The last Oriental edition is that 
of Khayr-al-DJn al-Zinkli, 4 vols, (Cairo, 1928). 

* Cf. fkyd\ vol. ii t p. 254, 11. S-12, p. 262, 11 j8-2o, with jRas&il t vol. i, p. 180, 

* M. C. Defternery in Journal a$icttquc> scr. 5, vol v (1S55), pp. 5-6. 

* * Consult his JZfusdn; Sigt ai-Zaxd, ed. Shakir Shuqayr (Beirut, 1S84), p. I IS, 
L15. p. 104, 1!.4*S. 

* C£ tbn*KhVfo*an, \oh it, p t 470; Yaqut, CMd\ \oh v, p. 381. 

* Al*SuUi t falaqdt oI*Sha/i*hoJt cl Kxtbra (Cairo, 1906), vol iv, p # 3, 



-CH.XXVir SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY PROGRESS 37$ 

* * * 

of a converted Jew, Sind ibn-'AH, and Yahya ibn-abi-Mansur 
(|83o or Here the caliph's astronomers "not only made 

systematic observation of the celestial movements, but also 
yerified with remarkably precise results all the fundamental 
elements of the Almagest, the obliquity of the ecliptic, the 
precession of the equinoxes, the length of the solar year, etc/ 1 * 
To this observatory al-Ma'mun soon added another on Mt* 
QastySn outside of Damascus. 3 The equipment in those days 
consisted of quadrant, astrolabe, dial and globes. Ibrahim al- 
Fazari (f ca. 777) was the first Moslem to construct an astrolabe, 4 
Undoubtedly on the Greek model, as the Arabic name (asturlab) 
indicates, One of the earliest Arabic treatises on this instrument 
was -written by *Ali ibn-*Isa al-Asturlabi (maker of astrolabes), 
who flourished in Baghdad and Damascus before 830. 

- -Al-Ma mun's astronomers performed one of the most delicate 
geodetic operations — the measuring of the length of a terrestrial 
degree. The object was to determine the size of the earth and its 
circumference on the assumption that the earth was round. The 
measurement, carried out on the plain of Sinjar north of the 
Euphrates and also near Palmyra, yielded 563 Arabic miles as 
the length of a degree of the meridian — a remarkably accurate 
result, Exceeding the real length of the degree at that place by 

^about 2877 feet. 5 This would make the circumference of the earth 
26,400 miles and its diameter 6500. Among those who took part- 
in this operation were the sons of Musa ibn-Shakir and perhaps 
al-Khwarkmi, whose tables (zij)> revised a century and a half 
Jater by the Spanish astronomer Maslamah al-Majriti (f ca. 1007) 
and translated into Latin in 11 26 by Adelard of Bath, became 
the bases for other works both in the East and the West. Such 
Arab .astronomical tables replaced all their Greek and Indian 
predecessors and came to be used even in China, 
Another eminent astronomer of the period was abu-al-'Abbas 

t Ahmad * al-Farghani (Alfraganus), of Farghanah inTransoxiana, 

* Who' in 861 superintended for al-Mutawakkii the erection of a 
Milometer at al-Fustaf, 7 Al-Farghani's principal work, aUMud- 

* FthriSt t p 275. 

"* * C„ A^aUino, art. ^Astronomy* 1 , kixychpadux of Is/dm. Ct $a*id, J\sbeqSt t 
PP»5<>*5t* * Ibn-aVIbri, p. 237. * Fthrist, p 273, 

* JMalhno, *Ifet at-Falak (Cairo, 1911), pp. 28 r $tq. Kx.falak (celestial sphere) 
may be Bi%loni3n, pp. 105-6. 

* "Mtibamixud" m Infnst y p 279, follow td by Qiftf, p 2S6. 

* Ibn-abi-Us&ybrah, vol i, p. 207, 



376 



THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBA$ID EMPIRES part nr 



khtl ila *Ilnt Hayat al-Afidk? was done into Latin in 1135 by 
John of Seville and Gerard of Cremona, and also into Hebrew. 
In Arabic it has survived under different titles. 2 

Besides the Ma'rmini observatory, one was operated by the 
three sons of Musa ibn-Shakir (850-70) in their house at Bagh- 
dad The Buwayhid Sultan Sharaf-al-Dawlah (982-9) instituted 
another in his Baghdad palace, where 'Abd-al-Rahman al-Sufi 
(f 986), whose al-Kawakib al-Thdbttah (fixed stars) is a master- 
piece of observational astronomy, Ahmad al-Saghani (t99o) 
and abu-al-Wafa' (f 997) 3 worked. In the court of another 
Buwayhid, Rukn-al-Dawlah (932-76) of al-Rayy, flourished 
abu«Ja r far al-Khazin of Khurasan, 4 who ascertained the obli- 
quity of the eclipitic and solved a problem in Archimedes which 
leads to a cubic equation. Other astronomers made a systematic 
study of the heavens in Shiraz, Naysabur and Samarqand. 

AiBattaoi Between 877 and 918 abu-'AbdulIah Muhammad ibn-Jabir 
al-Battam 1 (Aibategmus), originally a Sabian from rjarran and 
unquestionably the greatest astronomer of his nationality and 
time and one of the greatest in Islam, made his observations 
and studies in al-Raqqah. Al-Battam was an original research 
worker. He made several emendations to Ptolemy and rectified 
the calculations for the orbits of the moon and certain planets. 
He proved the possibility of annular eclipses of the sun, deter- 
mined with greater accuracy the obliquity of the ecliptic and 
presented original theories on the determination of the visibility 
of the new moon, 0 

Ai-Birflni At Ghaznah, Afghanistan, lived abu-al-Rayhan Muhammad 
ibn-Ahmad al-BTruni 7 (973-1050), considered the most original 
and profound scholar Islam produced in the domain of natural 
science. Here this Arabic author of Persian origin, who spoke 
Turkish and knew besides Persian Sanskrit, Hebrew and Syriac, 
produced in 1030 for his patron Mas'ud, son of the famous 
Mahmud, an account of the science of astronomy entitled al- 

* Ibn-al-"Ibri, p 236, Qifp, p. 78 

s Sec Hitti, Fans and f Abd al- Malik, Catalog cf Arabic Manuscripts ; no 967. 

* Fshnst, p 283; ibn-al-Athir, vol tx, p 97; lbn-Khaihkan, vol n, pp. 508 9 

* Qi/fo, p 396, Fthrtst t pp. 266, 2S2. 5 Fthrtst i p. 279 

* His astronomical work al-Ztj ah$abi v* as edited by C. A. Nalhno (Kome, 1899). 
7 Ibn abi-Usaybi*ah, vol. U, pp. 20-21; ibn-al-*Ibn, pp 324*5. His surname is 

derived from Birun (Pers for outside}, a suburb of K5th, capital of Khwanzmi 
though an autograph on a manuscript title pige reproduced m Islamic Culture* 
vol n (1932) faring p 534, spells "al Ba\runi" 



CH. XXVII SCIENTIFIC AND LTTERARV PROGRESS 377 



Qanfm ahMastldi ft al-Hay % ak w-al-Nujum* In the same year 
he composed a short catechism of geometry, arithmetic, astro- 
nomy and astrology entitled al-Tafktm li-Awail Sinaat aU 
Tattjim* His first work was al-Atkar al-Baqiyah 9 an al-Qurun 
aUKh&liyah? dealing chiefly with the calendars and eras of 
ancient peoples. In these works al-BIruni discusses intelligently 
the then debatable theory of the earth's rotation on its axis and 
makes accurate determination of latitudes and longitudes. Al- 
Btruni, who was a Shi'ite with agnostic leanings, sojourned in 
India 5 and was charmed by Hindu philosophy. Among his 
scientific contributions are an explanation of the working of 
natural springs by the hydrostatic principle, the suggestion that 
the Indus valley must have been an ancient sea basin filled up 
with alluvium, and the description of several monstrosities, in- 
cluding what we call Siamese twins. 8 

Of the Saljuq sultans, Jalal-al-Dln Malikshah patronized 
astronomical studies. He established in 467 (1074-5) at al-Rayy 
or at Naysabur an observatory where there was introduced into 
the civil calendar an important reform based on an accurate 
determination of the length of the tropical year. To this task of 
reforming the old Persian calendar he called to his new observa- 
tory the celebrated 'Umar al~Khayyam. 4 Born between 1038 
and 1048 at Naysabur, where he died in 1 123-4, *Umar is known 
to the world primarily as a Persian poet 5 and free-thinker; very 
few realize that he was a first-class mathematician and astronomer 
as well. The researches of al-Khayyam and his collaborators 
resulted in the production of the calendar named after his patron 
al-Tdrikh al-Jalali % which is even more accurate than the 
Gregorian calendar. The latter leads to an error of one day in 
3330 years, whereas al-Khayyam 's apparently leads to an error 
of one day in about 5000 years. 

One year after he had destroyed Baghdad, Hulagu com- 
menced (1259) the construction near Lake Urmiyah of the great 

1 Ed E. Sachau (Leipzig, 1878); tr. Sachau (London, 1879). 
1 See his account Tc^qtq Ma lucl-IItnd, ed. E. Sachau (London, 1887); tr. 
S^chiis (London, *SSS), 2 vols, (reprinted London, 1910). 
t * In a still unpublished work of his the first reference to tea in other than Chinese 

*?orks occurs, F. Krenkow in Majallat al*Mojma% vol. mji (1935), p. 38S. 
^ 4 Full Arabic name nbu-al-Fatfr *Umar ibn-Ibrihlm al-Khayyarm (the tent- 
ttnker). On his life see Qifti, pp 243-4? Qazwtni. Alhdr, p, 318. 
k His Kuh&htit (quatram*), done first into English by FitzGerald (London, 1S59), 
( havt smce appeared m Trench, German, Italian,. Danish and Arabic translations. 



3?8 THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES PART ill 



Maraghah observatory, whose first director was the illustrious 
NasTr-al-Din al-Tusi 1 (f 1274), the last of 'Abbasid astronomer- 
philosophers. The instruments at this observatory were much 
admired and included an armillary sphere, a mural quadrant 
and a solstitial armil. In this observatory NasTr-al-Din compiled 
new astronomical tables called al-Zij al-Il-Khdni in honour of 
Hulagu, the first Il-Khan. 2 The tables became popular through- 
out Asia, even in China. The foundations of this short-lived 
observatory are still extant. Close by it stood a library, also built 
by Hulagu, and said to have contained 400,000 volumes (?). 
Most of these books were pillaged by the Mongol armies from 
Syria, al-'Iraq and Persia. 

In astrology, a handmaid of astronomy, abu-Ma'shar (f 886), 
a native of Balkh in Khurasan who flourished at Baghdad, was 
the most distinguished figure. 3 He is the one most frequently 
cited as an authority in the Christian Middle Ages and under the 
name Albumasar figured as a prophet in the iconography. Four 
of his works were translated into Latin in the twelfth century by 
John of Seville and Adelard of Bath. Apart from his fantastic 
belief in astral influence as the cause of the birth, events of life 
and death of everything, abu^Ma'shar communicated to Europe 
the laws of the tides, which in a treatise he explained on the 
basis of the relation to the moon's rising and setting. 

Several of the Moslem works on astronomy were translated 
in course of time into Latin, especially in Spain, and exercised 
a determining influence on the development of the science in 
Christian Europe. 

The same Hindu scholar who brought to the court of al- 
Mansur the astronomical work Sindhind is credited with having 
also introduced Hindu arithmetical lore with its numeral system 
(called in Arabic Hindi) and the zero. 4 Al-FazarFs translation of 

J Ibn al-'Ibri, p 500, Rashid al-Din Fa# Allah, j£mi* aUTawdrikk, ed and tr. 
by Quatrcrncre as Htstatre des Mongols de la Pcrsc t vol. 1 (Pans, 1836), pp. 324 seq. 
(where the name occurs as Nasir al*Din)» 

1 See below, p 488, n I. * Fzhrist t p 277; ibn-Khalhkan, vol t, pp. 198*9 
* G Cocdcsin Bulletin School of Oriental Studies, \ol. vi (1931), pp. 323-8, notes 
the appearance of the Arabic figures and the zero early m the seventh Christian 
century in Indo-Chma, long before Us appearance in India proper. Both "zero", 
\\mch came to English from an Italian form, and "cipher", which appeared m 
English about 200 )ears earlier, come from Ar. sifr t which is a translation of a 
Sanskrit *ord meming "cmpV. According to a Syriac source cited by F. Nau 
in Journal anattoue, ser. 10, vol. xw (19 10), pp. 225 the numerals were known 
to a Syrian at the monastery of Qmnisnn in 662. 



au XXVU SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY PROGRESS ' m 

the Hindu works was therefore responsible for making the 
numerals known to Islam. The tables of al-Khwarizrni and 
yabash al-IJasib (f between 867 and 874) probably spread the 
use of them throughout the Arabic world. But the Arab mathe- 
maticians and astronomers were slow to adopt the ingenious 
Hindu invention. As late as the eleventh century we find abu- 
Bakr Muhammad al-Karaji (wrongly Karkhi, f between 1019 
and 1029) still writing out in his al-K&fi fi al-ffisdS (the sufficient 
in arithmetic) all numbers in words. Others, following the old 
Semitic and Greek practice, used the letters of the alphabet, 
hisab al-jummaL Ahmad al-Nasawi 1 (f ca. 1040), whose aU 
Mitgni* fi at~Hisdb al-Hindi (the convincer on Hindu calcula- 
tion) explains the division of fractions and the extraction of the 
square and cubic roots in an almost modern manner, used the 
Indian numerals as had al-Khwarizmi before him. 

This al - Khwarizmi, 2 Muhammad ibn-Musa (780-^. 850), 
was the principal figure in the early history of Arabic mathe- 
matics. One of the greatest scientific minds of Islam, he influ- 
enced mathematical thought to a greater extent than any other 
medieval writer. Apart from compiling the oldest astronomical 
tables, 3 al-Khwarizmi composed the oldest work on arithmetic, 
known only in a translation, and the oldest work on algebra. 
The last, Hisab aUJabr w-al-Muq&balah (the calculation of 
integration and equation), presented through over eight hundred 
examples, some of which were anticipated by Neo-Babylonians, 
was his chief work, still surviving in Arabic. Translated in the 
twelfth century into Latin by Gerard of Cremona, this work of al- 
Khwarizmi was used until the sixteenth century as the principal 
mathematical text-book of European universities and served to 
introduce into Europe the science of algebra, and with it the 
name. Al-Khwarizmi's works were also responsible for the intro- 
duction into the West of the Arabic numerals called algorisms 
after him.* Among later mathematicians influenced by al- 
Khwarizmi are 'Umar al-Khayyam, Leonardo Fibonacci of Pisa 
(f after 1240) and Master Jacob of Florence, whose Italian treatise 

4 * From Nasa In Khurasan. 

K.hvvurizttv whose name he bears, is modern KhTwa, a country on the lower 
C0U !! e . °f tlic ^ mu ^ arva (ancient Oxus). Tahari, vol- Hi, p 1364, calls him al- 
Majfisi, i.e. the descendant of a Magi an. 

* * Consult Fihrist, p. 274, copied by Qifti, p. 2S6. Cf. ibn-al-*lbn, p. 237. 
4 1 * "Alignm 11 , "nugrym", in Chaucer, A Treatise on the A$trolabe % pt, i, § 7 and § & 



380 THE UMAYYAD AND f ABBASID EMPIRES PART in 



on mathematics, dated 1307, contains, as does one of Leonardo's 
works, the six types of quadratic equations given by the Moslem 
mathematician. Al-Khayyam's algebra, 1 which marks a con- 
siderable advance on that of al-Khwarizmi, contains geometric 
and algebraic solutions of equations of the second degree and an 
admirable classification of equations. 
Wchemy After materia medica, astronomy and mathematics the Arabs 
made their greatest scientific contribution in chemistry. In the 
study of chemistry and other physical sciences the Arabs intro- 
duced the objective experiment, a decided improvement over 
the hazy speculation of the Greeks. Accurate in the observation 
of phenomena and diligent in the accumulation of facts, the 
Arabs nevertheless found it difficult to project proper hypo- 
theses. To draw truly scientific conclusions and elaborate a 
final system was the weakest point in their intellectual armour. 

The father of Arabic alchemy 2 was Jabir ibn-Fj[ ayyan 3 (Geber), 
who flourished in al-Kufah about 776. His name, after that of 
al-Razi (f 925), is the greatest in the field of medieval chemical 
science. Legend makes the Umayyad prince Khaiid ibn-Yazid 
ibn-Mu*awiyah (f 704) and the sixth imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq of 
al-Madinah (f 765), his teachers. Like his Egyptian and Greek 
forerunners Jabir acted on the assumption that base metals such 
as tin, lead, iron and copper could be transmuted into gold or 
silver by means of a mysterious substance, to the search for 
which he devoted his energy. He more clearly recognized and 
stated the importance of experimentation than any other early 
alchemist and made noteworthy advance in both the theory and 
practice of chemistry. Some two centuries after his death, as a 
street was being rebuilt in al-Kufah, his laboratory was found 
and in it a mortar and a large piece of gold were unearthed. 
Western tradition credits him with the discovery of several 
chemical compounds not mentioned in the twenty-two surviving 
Arabic works that bear his name. 4 Five of these works ascribed 
to Jabir, including Kitab al-Rah-mah (the book of mercy), 
Kitdb aUTq/mz (of concentration) and al-Ztbaq al-Sharqi (of 

1 Tr. Daoud S. Kasir, The Algebra of Omar Khayyam (New York, 1932). 

9 This word is Ar. al-kimty d% which goes hack through Gr, to an ancient Egyptian 
word meaning "black* . 

s Said to have been a Sabian converted to Shfah; according to others, descended 
from the South Arabian tribe al-Azd. Fthrist, pp, 354-5? Q lftl » PP- 160 61. 

* Jlaju Khalfah, passim, cites twenty-seven works. See Paul Kraus Jabir tin 
Ifay^an, vol, 1 (Cairo, 1943), pp« 3**70- 



CH.xW SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY PROGRESS 



3*i 



Eastern mercury) have been published. It is evident that the 
vast majority of the hundred extant alchemical Avorks in Arabic 
and in Latin which pass under his name are spurious. Neverthe- 
less, the works to which his name was attached were after the 
fourteenth century the most influential chemical treatises in both 
Europe and Asia. Of a few contributions we are certain. Jabir 
described scientifically the two principal operations of chemistry: 
calcination and reduction. He improved on the methods for 
evaporation, sublimation, melting and crystallization. But the 
claim that he knew how to prepare crude sulphuric and nitric 
acids and mix them supposedly with salt so as to produce aqua 
regia is unsubstantiated. In general Jabir modified the Aristo- 
telian theory of the constituents of metal in a way that survived, 
with slight alterations, until the beginning of modem chemistry 
in the eighteenth century. 

Later Moslem chemists acclaim ibn-I^ayyan as their master. 
Even the best among them, e.g. the Arabic-writing Persian 
poet-statesman al-Tughra'i 1 (f m. 1121) and abu-al-Qasirn 
al-'Jraqi, who flourished in the second half of the thirteenth 
century, 2 made very little improvement on his methods. They 
continued the quest for the two alchemical will-o'-the-wisps: 
the philosopher's stone 3 and the elixir* of life. In fact in no branch 
of pure or physical science was any appreciable advance made 
after 'Abbasid days. The Moslems of today, if dependent on 
their own books, would have even less than their distant ancestors 
in the eleventh century. In medicine, philosophy, mathematics, 
botany and other disciplines a certain point was reached, and 
then followed a standstill. Reverence for the past with its tradi- 
tions, both religious and scientific, has bound the Arab intellect 
w ith fetters which it is only now beginning to shake off. It should, 
however, be noted to the eternal glory of medieval Islam that 
it succeeded for the first time in the history of human thought in 
harmonizing and reconciling monotheism, the greatest contri- 

1 Famous for his La ml) at al»Ajam % the ode rh\mxng in /for the non-Arabs. 
7* ugkr&'i means "chancellor", the one who writes at the top of state papers the elegant 
flourish containing: name and title of the ruler issuing the document Ibn Khalhkan, 
\ol. if pp. 2S4 se$. 

* See Hajji Khalfah, vol. m, p 218, vol. v, p. 47, vol. vi, p. 304. His aVIlm aU 
Muhtescb ft Ztr&at al~l>kcthab (knowledge acquired concerning the cultivation of 
gold) was edited and Englished by E J. Holn\>ard (Paris, 1923). 

* AUhbrU at ahmar, literally "the red sulphur" 

* From Ar. &l tfolr> originally Gr. 



382 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part m 



bution of the ancient Semitic world, with Greek philosophy, 
the greatest contribution of the ancient Indo-European world, 
thus leading Christian Europe towards the modern point of 
view. 1 

In the field of natural history the Arabs' least striking success 
was in zoology, whereas the Spanish Moslems made a distinct 
contribution in botany, as we shall later see. Arabic writers on 
the animal kingdom were primarily literary men whose works 
consisted of collections of names and epithets given by the Arabs 
to animals and illustrated by quotations from the poets. The 
study of the horse formed one conspicuous exception and was 
developed almost to the rank of a science. A number of special 
monographs were composed on this animal, enumerating its 
varieties, naming the parts of its body, describing its colours and 
designating its desirable and undesirable qualities. 2 

An early representative of the zoological and anthropological 
sciences was abu-*Uthman c Amr ibn-Bahr al-Jahiz (the goggle- 
eyed, f 868-9), who flourished in al-Basrah and whose Kitab 
al-Hayawan (book of animals) is more theological and folkloric 
than biological. This work, in which the author quotes Aristotle, 
contains germs of later theories of evolution, adaptation and 
animal psychology. Al-Jaliiz knew how to obtain ammonia from 
animal offal by dry distillation. His influence over later zoolo- 
gists, e.g. the Arabic-writing Persian cosmographer al-Qazwmi s 
(f 1283) and the Egyptian al-Damiri (f 1405) — both of whom 
treated zoology as a branch of philology and literature — is mani- 
fest. AI-Damiri is the greatest Arab zoologist. 4 But the influence 
of al-Jahiz as a radical theologian and man of letters is greater. 
He founded a Mu'tazilite sect bearing his name 5 and was one of 
the most productive and frequently quoted scholars in Arabic 
literature. 8 His originality, wit, satire and learning made him 
widely known, but his repulsive ugliness made the Caliph al- 

1 Sic below, p 580. 

2 Consult al-A§ma*i, Kttdb al~Khayl % cd. August Hafiher (Vienna, 1895), lbn- 
Durayd in William Wright, Opuscula Arabica (Leydcn, 1S59); al-Kalbi, Naiab 
aUKhayl fi aUJdhxliyah w-al-Isldm and al-A'rabi, As ma Khayl a/'' Arab ua- 
Fursdmha, td. G. Levi della Vida (Lc>dcn, 1928). 

1 His leading work is *Ajaib aUMakhluqat wa-Ghara'tb aUAlauyuddt {the 
w onders of creation and the oddities of existence), ed. WOstenfeld (Gottmgen, 1849). 

* His ffaydt ol-Hayawdn (animal life) was printed in Cairo several times; tr, into 
English by A. S. G. Jayakar (London, 1906, 1908), voL i and vol. 11, pt. I. 

1 Baghdad!, cd. Hitti, pp. 117*18. 

* Yucjut, vol. vi, pp 75-8, lists over 120 books from his pen. 



" CH>xxvn SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY PROGRESS * 3$3 



Mutawakkil change his mind about appointing him tutor to his 
sons. 1 

In mineralogy, which stood in close relation to alchemy, the 
Arabs made little progress. Their fondness for precious stones 
and their interest in the occult qualities of minerals explains the 
many lapidaries, over fifty, composed by Arabic authors. Of 
these the oldest extant is that of 'Utarid ibn-Muhammad al- 
ii asib (possibly al-Katib s ) of the ninth century, but the best 
known is Azhar al-Afkdr fi Jaw&kir ai-Ahjdr (the flowers of 
thought on precious stones) by Shihab-al-Dln al-Tlfashi, a who 
died in Cairo, 1253* Al-Tlfashi discusses twenty-four precious 
stones: their origin > geography, purity, price, medicinal and 
magical values and, except for PJiny and the spurious Aristo- 
telian lapidary, quotes only Arabic sources. The famous al- 
Blruni with almost complete accuracy determined the specific 
gravity of eighteen precious stones and metals. 

The institution of the holy pilgrimage, the orientation of the 
mosques towards Makkah and the need for determining the 
direction of the Ka'bah at the time of prayer gave religious 
impetus to the Moslem study of geography. Astrology, which 
necessitated the determining of the latitudes and longitudes of 
all places throughout the world, added its scientific influence. 
Moslem traders between the seventh and ninth centuries reached 
China on the east both by sea and by land, attained the island 
of Zanzibar and the farthest coasts of Africa on the south, 
penetrated Russia on the north and were checked in their 
advance westward only by the dreaded waters of the "Sea of 
Darkness" (Atlantic). The reports of returning merchants 
naturally aroused popular interest in distant lands and alien 
peoples. Sulayman aKTajir (the merchant) of Siraf on the 
Persian Gulf, the account of whose journeys mto the Far East 
was written by an anonymous author in 851, gives us the 
first Arabic description of China and the coast-lands of India. 
Sulayman reports the use of finger-prints as signatures by the 
Chinese* 4 From this and similar narratives there gradually 

* Ibn*Kttalhl»an, vol. u\ pp, *oS*o, 

* Fikrisi, p, 278, ttis work Afanafi* al-Akj3r (the uses of precious stones) is 
preserved in manuscript form m the BibHotheque Nanonale, Paris; de Slane, 
C&fafrpitr da mmruscrtis crates (Pans, lSq,V5) f «0 2?/5 3 , 

* «L and tr, (UUian) Antonio ftaitim i&scu) {Florence, iSiS). 

4 Silstfat ttf'TaivirU&t ed. JLaitgic^p. 44 Cf. tr. by E. Renaudot {London* 1733), 
p» 26; Af&Sr &f*$in uw-^/fotct, «5L and tr. J* Sauvaget {Paris, 194b), p 19. 



384 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part til 



evolved the stories that have clustered round the name of 
Sindbad the Sailor. The earliest reliable account of Russia is 
that of Ahmad ibn-Fadian ibn-rjammad, sent in 921 by ai- 
Muqtadir to the king of the Bulgars, who resided along the 
Vo)ga. Most of his account is reproduced in Yaqut's monumental 
geographical dictionary, Mujam aUBuldan. Al-Mas'udi 1 refers 
to Moslem traders among al-Dir, Slavic tribes perhaps near the 
Pripet, a tributary of the Dnieper. 
Greek Ptolemy's Geography \ which had a list of places located by 
cedents latitude and longitude, was translated into Arabic either directly 
or through Syriac several times, notably by Thabit ibn-Qurrah 
(f 901). With this as a model the celebrated Khwarizmi had com- 
posed his Surat al-A rd z (image of the earth), which served as a 
basis for later works and stimulated geographical studies and the 
composition of original treatises. Al-Khwarizmi's work was ac- 
companied by an " image of the earth", a map executed by him 
and sixty-nine other scholars at the instigation of al-Ma'mun — 
the first map of the heavens and the world in Islam. Al-Mas*udi, 3 
who flourished in the f.rst half of the tenth century, consulted 
this map. Al-Khwarizmi's geography continued to influence 
Moslem authors oown to the fourteenth century, as is illustrated 
by abu-al-Fida\ 

"World In the meantime the early Arab geographers had gained from 
cupola" j ncl j a the not j on t j iat t h ere was a wor ici centre which they styled 

arin* a corruption of the name of the Indian town Ujjayini 
(Ozenc in Ptolemy's Geography), where there had been an astro- 
nomical observatory and on the meridian of which the "world 
cupola" 5 or "summit" was supposed to lie. This arln they located 
on the equator between the extremes of east and west. The 
western prime meridian was thought by them to be 90 0 from 
this mythical place. Moslem geographers in general measured 
longitude from the prime meridian used by Ptolemy, that of the 
islands now called the Canaries* 

The first independent geographical treatises in Arabic took 
the form of road books in which itineraries occupied a prominent 
place. Ibn-Khurdadhbih (f ea. 912), of Persian descent, director 

1 Vol m, p. 64. * £d Hans v Uhk (Leipzig, 1926). 3 Vol n, p. 308. 

* Variants Ujjam, Uzayn, Udhayn^z. Ibn-Ru&tih, p. 22, 1. 17, Mas'udt Tanblh t 
p 225, i 2, abu-al-Fida\ cd Remand and dc Slane, p. 376, U. S, 12. 

* Qubbat ahard, abu-al-Ftd V, pp 375, 376, ibn-Rustah, p. 22, U. 17 Bironi, 
Tahqlq, p. 15S. 



CH. xxvii * SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY PROGRESS 



of the post and intelligence service in al-Jibal (Media), initiated 
the series with his al-Masalik w-ai-Mamdlik? the first edition of 
which appeared about 846. This work, especially valuable for its 
historical topography, was used by ibn-al-Faqih, ibn-Sawqal, 
al-Maqdisi and later geographical writers. In 891-2 the Shi* ite 
ibn-Wadih al-Ya'qubi, 2 who flourished in Armenia and Khu- 
rasan, produced his Kitdb al-Bufdan* (book of countries), which 
struck a new note in emphasizing topographical and economical 
detail. Soon after 928 Qudamah, who was born a Christian but 
adopted Islam and held office as revenue accountant in the 
central administration at Baghdad, completed his al-Kharaj* 
which discusses the division of the caliphate into provinces, thfe 
organization of the postal service and the taxation for each dis- 
trict. Another Arab geographer of Persian origin, ibn-Rustah, 
compiled about 903 his al~A*ldq al-Nafisah 1 (precious bags of 
travelling provisions). In that same year ibn-al-Faqlh al-Hama- 
dhani, so called from his birthplace, completed his Kitab aU 
Buldanf a comprehensive geography often quoted by al-Maqdisi 
and Yaqut, 

The great systematic geographers of the Arabs do not make 
their appearance until the advent of al-Istakhri, ibn-Hawqal and 
ai-Maqdisi in the middle of the fourth Moslem century. Born in 
Istakhr (Persepolts), aUstakhri flourished about 950 and pro- 
duced his Masaiik al-Mamalik* with coloured maps for each 
country. This work was an elaboration of the geographical 
system established by abu-Zayd al-Balkhi (f 934), who flourished 
at the Samanid court and whose work has not been preserved. 
The system initiated by al-Balkhi and al-Istakhri paid httle 
attention to countries outside Islam and made the text largely a 
description of the accompanying maps. Its representatives were 
travellers themselves, Al-Istakhri is the second writer to mention 
windmills (in Sijistan), the first reference to them having been 
made by al~Mas f udi. 7 At al-Istakhri's request ibn-Hawqal (fl. 
943-77)i w ho travelled as far as Spain, revised the maps and 
text of his geography* Ibn-FIawqal later rewrote the whole book 

1 Ed. dc Goejc (Lejdea, 1SS9). 

* Al-*Abb3sr, Yaqut, vol. it, pp. 156*7, 

* Ed. de Gocjc (Leyden, iSc^). ~ * Ed. de Goeje (Lcyden, 1891-2), 
1 XA, de Gocje (Leyden, * Ed. de Goeje (Leydea. 2870). 

* Vol. h, p. So. For an illustration see Dimashqi, NuMfat al'Daht Jt 'Ajaib 
tf-Sarr te~c*'Bajir (St. Petersburg, iS56), p. 182. 



366 THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES VK*x\n 

and issued it under his own name as al-Masdlik w-aUMamaliky 
To this same school belongs the more original work of al* 
Maqdisi (or al-Muqaddasi), so called because he was born in 
Jerusalem (JBayt al-Maqdis). This geographer visited all the 
Moslem lands except Spain, Sijistan and India and in 985-6 
embodied an account of his twenty years of travel in a delightful 
work, A/jsa?i al-Taqasim fi Mdrifat al-Aqallm? (the best of 
classification for the knowledge of regions), which contains 
much valuable and fresh information. 

In this same period flourished the Yamanite geographer and 
archaeologist al-Hasan ibn-Ahmad al-Hamdani, who died (945) 
in a prison at San a* and whose two works al-Iklil z and St/at 
Jazirat al-'ATab* constitute an important contribution to our 
knowledge of pre-Islamic and Islamic Arabia. The globe-trotter 
al-Mas*udi, who flourished in this period, we shall treat of with 
the historians. In the mineral ogical part of their epistles 6 the 
Ikhwan al-Safa 5 , who also belong to this time, elaborated a 
theory of cosmic cycles by which cultivated lands become desert, 
desert lands become cultivated, steppes change into seas and seas 
change into steppes or mountains. 
Vaqot Before the close of the *Abbasid age lived the greatest of the 
Eastern Moslem geographers, Yaqut 6 ibn-'Abdullah al-rjamawi 
(u 79-1 229), author of the geographical dictionary MtCjam 
al-Buldan? often cited in the foregoing pages, and of the equally 
important dictionary of literati Mujavi al-Udaba\ Born in Asia 
Minor of Greek parents, young Yaqut was bought in Baghdad 
by a merchant from rjamah (hence his surname al-rjamawi) 
who, after giving him a good education and employing him for 
several years as a travelling clerk, enfranchised him. To support 
himself Yaqut roamed from place to place copying and selling 
manuscripts. In 1219-20 he had to flee before the Tartar invasion 
of Khwarizm "as naked as he shall be when raised from the 
dust of the grave on the day of the resurrection". 8 The first 

1 Ed. de Goeje (Leyden, 1873); another version, $urat cl-Ard^zA. J. H. Kramers, 
2\ols (Le> den, 1938-9). 
1 Ed. de Goeje (Lejden, 1S77;. 1 See above, p. 50, n 2. 

* Ed, D, H. Muller, 2 vols. (Leyden, 1884-91). 

* Ed. Zmkli, vol 11, pp. So seq. Cf. Mas'udi, Tanbih, p. 3. 

• The word means "ruby". Staves were often given names of precious things, 
e g. Lu'Iu* (pearl), Jauhar (gem). 

7 Ed. F. WGstenfdd, 6 vols. (Leipzig, 1866-73). 

• lbn-Khalhkan, vol. hi, p. 162 «de blane, vol. iv, p. 10. 



CH xxvh SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY PROGRESS 3«7 



dr^ft of his geographical dictionary was drawn at al-Mawsil in 
1224 and the final redaction was completed in 1228 at Aleppo, 
where he died. This Mu'jam, in which names of places are alpha- 
betically arranged, is a veritable encyclopaedia, containing, in 
addition to the whole fund of geographical knowledge of the 
age, valuable information on history, ethnography and natural 
science 

Literary Islamic geography left no direct impression on Euro- 
pean medieval thought, as the works of these geographers found 
no translators into Latin. Certain aspects of astronomical 
geography, including an approximately correct theory of the 
causation of tides, worked out by abu-Ma'shar, and of the length 
of the terrestrial degree, did find their way into the West, the 
latter through a translation of ai-Farghani's work on astronomy. 
Likewise fragments of the geographical lore of the Greeks as 
exemplified by Aristotle and Ptolemy were reintroduced to the 
West through the Arabs. But most of the contribution of the 
Arab geographers failed to pass on. This contribution included 
descriptive geography of the Far East, East and Sudanese 
Africa and the steppe land of Russia; more accurate cartography, 
especially in the form of world maps; and provincial geography, 
where one country is taken as a unit and the relation between 
the lives of die people and the physical environment is shown. 
The primary interest of the Latin Occident in Arabic books 
had for its object the preparation of calendars, star tables and 
horoscopes and the interpretation of the hidden meaning in the 
words of the Scriptures through commentaries on Aristotle. The 
bulk of this scientific material, whether astronomical, astrologi- 
cal or geographical, penetrated the West through Spanish and 
Sicilian channels. The contributions of al-Bitruji of Cordova, 
al-Zarqfvli of Toledo and ai-Idrisi of Palermo will be discussed 
under Spain and Sicily. 

The majority of the earliest historical writings surviving in 
Arabic date from the 'Abbasid period. Few of those composed 
under the Umayyads have been preserved. The first subject- 
matter came, as we have learned before, from the oral legends 
and anecdotes relating to pre-Islamic days and from the religious 
traditions which clustered round the name and life of the 
Prophet. In the pre-Islamic field Hisham aJ-Kalbi of al-Kufah 
(t s *9) particularly distinguished himself. Of the one hundred 



388 THi: UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PART III 



and twenty-nine works listed in al-Fikri$t x as his, only three 
have survived; 2 but extracts from others can be found quoted by 
al-Tabari, Yaqut and other historical writers* 

The first work based upon religious traditions was the Strat 
Rasiil Allah, the biography of the Prophet by Muhammad ibn- 
Ishaq of al-Madinah, whose grandfather Yasar was among the 
Christian children captured in 633 by Khalid ibn-al-Walld at 
c Ayn al-Tamr in al-'Iraq. 3 This biography by ibn-Ishaq, who 
died in Baghdad about 767, has come down to us only in the 
later recension of ibn-Hisham,* who died in 834 at Cairo. 5 
Then came works dealing with the early wars and conquests of 
Islam, the Maghazi by Musa ibn-'Uqbah 6 (f 758), by al- 
Waqidi 7 (f 822/3), both of al-Madinah, and by others. From the 
pen of ibn-Sa f d, who died in Baghdad in 845 and is known as 
the secretary of al-Waqidi, 8 we have the first great book of 
classified biographies 9 containing sketches of the lives of the 
Prophet, the Companions and their Successors {al-idbfiin) 
down to his own time. Two of the leading historians of the 
Moslem conquests were the Egyptian ibn-*Abd-al-Hakam 
(f S70-71), whose Futuh Misr wa-AMddmha 10 is the earliest 
extant document on the conquest of Egypt, North Africa and 
Spain, and the Arabic -writing Persian Ahmad ibn-Yahya 
al-Baladhuri (f 892), whose main works were the Futuh ai- 
Bulddn 11 and the Ansab al-Ashrdf 1 * (book of the lineages of 
nobles). Al-Baladhuri was one of the first to integrate the many 
stories of the conquests of various cities and lands into one 
comprehensive whole, thus ending the era in which the mono- 
graph was the typical form of historical composition. 

Ihe time was now ripe for formal historical composition 
ba^ed on these legends, traditions, biographies, genealogies and 

1 95-S 

1 Of these the best known is the Kttab al Afttam t ed. Afcmad Zaki (Cairo, 1914). 

* Ibn-Khatiikan, \6i. n, p. 282* 

4 Ed Wustenfcld, 2 \ols (Gothngen, 1858-60). 

5 Ibn KhalUk&n, vol i, p 520 

* Compiled by ibn Qadi Shuhbah in 1387. 

7 Ed \on Kremer (Calcutta, 1856). See lbn-Khallikan, vol u, pp 324 6 
1 Jbn-Khalhkan, vol 11, p 326 

* Ed Sichau et a! ,9 vols (Levden and Bcrkn, 1904-28) 
3 * Ed Chirlcs C Torrey (New Ha\en, 1922) 

" Ed de Goeje (Lc>den, 1866), tr. Hith, The Origins of tie Islamic State (New 
York, 1916), first part, second part, F. C. Murgottcn (New York, 1924) 

" rd W. Ahl\vardt,\ol xi (Grcifswald, 1883), S. D. F. Goitein, vol, v Oerusalera, 
1936), Max Schloessmger, \ol iv B (Jerusalem, 1938) 



CH. xxvii SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY PROGRESS ' r 3%9 " 

narratives. The model was evidently Persian and was provided by 
such works as the Pahlawi Khudhay-namak (the book of kings), 
which had been turned into Arabic by ibn-al-MuqanV (f 757) 
under the title Siyar Muluk al-Ajam. The concept of a world 
history in which early events are but a prelude to the history 
of Islam goes back to Jewish-Christian tradition. The form 
of presentation, however, continued to be that of the stereo- 
typed Islamic tradition. 1 Each event is related in the words 
of eye-witnesses or contemporaries and transmitted to the 
final narrator, the author, through a chain of intermediary 
reporters. This technique served to develop exactitude, as did 
also the insistence on dating occurrences even to the month and 
day. But the authenticity of the reported fact generally depended 
upon the continuity of this chain {isnad) and the confidence in 
the integrity of each reporter rather than upon a critical examina- 
tion of the fact itself. Apart from the use of personal judgment 
in the choice of the series of authorities and in the arrangement 
of the data, the historian exercised very little power of analysis, 
criticism, comparison or inference. 

Among the first formal historians was ibn-Qutaybah, properly 
Muhammad ibn-Muslim al-Dlnawari. 2 Ibn-Qutaybah died at 
Baghdad in 889 after producing his Kitdb aUMadrtf* (book of 
knowledge), a manual of history. Another was his contemporary 
abu-yanlfah Ahmad ibn-Dawud al-Dinawari 4 (f 895), who 
flourished in Isbahan (Isfahan) and Dtnawar (in the Persian 
r Iraq). His principal work was al~Akhbar al-Tiwdl* (long 
narratives), a universal history from the Persian point of view. 
Both were of Iranian extraction and produced several literary 
and philological works besides histories. At the same time 
flourished the geographer and historian ibn-Wadih al-Ya qubi, 
whose compendium of universal history * ending in A.H. 258 (872) 
preserves the ancient and unfalsified Shfite tradition. To this 
group belongs rjlamzah aHsfahani, who worked in Isbahan, 
where he died ca. 9C1, and whose rather critical annals 7 became 

1 Sec be!o\v, p. 394. 

* Sttfrkrist, pp. 77*8; Nawa>sw, Tahdhib, p. 771; Sam anj, Ansab> fol. 443a. 

* Ed. Wttstenfeld (Gottingcn, 1850). 

* See Fthrist, p. 7S; Yaqut, Udabd\ vol. i, pp. 123-7. 

* Ed. Vladimir Gmrgass (Uyden, iSSS). 

* T<?rikh 9 cd. TK Houtsma, z vols. (Leyden, JS83). 

1 TJrfte Stm MulSk ahA?4 wai-Anbtytf, cd. I. M. E. Gottwaldt (Lcipoe. 
1S44); tr. into Latin by Gott\va!dt (Leipzig, 1848). 



390 THE UMAVYAD AND *ABBAS1D EMPIRES part ill 

known comparatively early in modern Europe. Another great 
historian of Persian stock was Miskawayh 1 (f 1030), who held a 
high office in the court of the Buwayhid r Adud-al-Dawlah and 
compiled a universal history 2 reaching down toA.H. 369(979-80). 
Miskawayh, who was also a philosopher and physician, ranks 
among the leading Moslem historians, of whom the two greatest 
were undoubtedly al-Tabari and al Mas*udi. 
Ai-Tabati The fame of abu-Ja f far Muhammad ibn-Jarir al-Tabari (838- 
923), who was born in Tabaristan, that mountainous district of 
Persia along the south coast of the Caspian Sea, rests on his 
remarkably elaborate and accurate history TaWtkh al-Rustd 
w-aUMuluk z (annals of the apostles and kings), as well as on his 
commentary on the Koran. 4 In his commentary, originally com- 
posed on a far larger scale, he made not only the earliest but the 
largest collection of exegctical traditions. This became a standard 
work upon which later koranic commentators drew. His monu- 
mental work on universal history, the first complete one in the 
Arabic tongue, likewise served as a source for later historians 
such as Miskawayh, ibn-al-Athir and abu-al-Fida*. Like most 
Moslem historians, al-Tabari arranges the events chronologi- 
cally, tabulating them under the successive years of the Hijrah. 
In fact his history begins with the creation of the world and goes 
down to A.H. 302 (915). The same annalistic method was used 
by al-Waqidi and others before him as well as by Miskawayh, 
ibn-al-Athir, abu-al-Fida 5 (1273-1331) and al-Dhahabi 6 (1274- 
1348) after him. The original edition of al-Tabari's history is 
said to have been ten times as long as the surviving edition. His 
favourite method of presenting the narrative is that of the 
religious tradition, by tsnad. Besides making use of the literary 
sources extant in his day, such as the works of ibn-Ishaq, al- 
Kalbi, al-Waqidi, ibn-Sa'd and ibn-al-Muqaffa' and of several 
historical translations from Persian, al-Tabari procured data for 
his history from oral traditions collected during his travels and 
from the lectures of the sheikhs under whom he studied in 

1 kess correctly *'ibn- Miskawayh", Yaqut, vol ii, p. 88; QiffT, p 331, 

* Taj art b al-Umam> cd A. T. Amedroz, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1914-21); tr. D. S. 
MargoUouth, The Experiences of (he £faltons % 2 -vols (Oxford, I921). 

3 Ed dcGoejcr/c/, 15 \ols (Leydcn, 1879-1901). 

4 Jam? al Bayan fi To/sir al Qufan, 30 \ols (Bulaq, 1323-9). 

* See lus Tarikh, also called al-AIvkhiasor ft Akhbar at Basher % 4 rols, (Con« 
ftintmople, 12S6) 

* See his Duwal al Islam , 2 vols. (Ha>darabud, 1337). 



CH- xxvil SCIENTIFIC AND L1TERAKY PROGRESS 39* 



Baghdad and other intellectual centres. His journeys in quest of 
learning covered Persia, al~ e Iraq, Syria and Egypt, 1 On one 
occasion he was forced to sell the sleeves of his shirt to buy bread 
for sustenance. An idea of his industry and enthusiasm for 
learning may be gained from the popular tradition that during 
forty years al-Tabari wrote forty sheets every day. 3 

Abu-al-9asan r Ali al-Mas'Gdi, 3 styled the "Herodotus of the 4 
Arabs", inaugurated among the Arabs the topical method of 
writing history. Instead of grouping his events around years he 
grouped them around dynasties^ kings and peoples, a treatment 
followed by ibn-KhaJdun and minor historians. He was also one 
of the first to make good use of the historical anecdote. Young 
al-Mas'udi, who belonged to the rationalistic school of Mu'tazi- 
lites, undertook the usual scholar's "journey in quest of learning" 
which carried him from his native Baghdad 4 into almost every 
country of Asia and even into Zanzibar, The last decade of his 
life he spent in Syria and Egypt compiling the material into a 
thirty-volume work, surviving in an epitome, Afuruj aUDkahab 
sua-Maadin al-Jawh&r 6 (meadows of gold and mines of gems). 
In this encyclopaedic historico-geographicai work the author, 
with catholicity and scientific curiosity, carried his researches 
beyond the typically Moslem subjects into Indo-Persian, Roman 
and Jewish history* At its beginning he states that what is now 
dryland had been sea, and what is sea had been dry land — all as 
a result of physical forces. Before his death at al-Fustat in 957 
al-Mas f udi summarized his philosophy of history and nature 
and the current philosophers* views on the gradation between 
minerals, plants and animals 6 in aUTanbtk w-al-Ishrdf? com- 
parable to Pliny's. 

Arabic historical composition reached its highest point in 
al-Tabari and ai-Mas'udi, and after Miskawayh (f 1030) 
started on a rapid decline. *Izz-al-Dln ibn-al~Athir s (1160- 
1254) abridged in his al-Kamil fi al-Tc?rikh* (the complete book 

* mrisu p. 254. * Yaqut, vol. vi, p. 424, 
9 A descendant of 'Abdullah ibn-Mas'fid. 

* Fihtist) p. 154, Txrvngly makes Kim a native of al-Maghrib. Cf. Y&qfit, vol. v t 
P« 14$. 

* Ed. and tr, de Mcvnard and de CourtcUle, 9 vols. (Paris, 1861-77). 

* Cf. Ikhwan, Retail, vol. i, pp. 247-8. 7 Ed. de Goeje (Leyden, 1893-4). 

* Bora in JasSrai ibn^Umar on the Tigris, flourished in al-Mawsil. Ibn*KhaJIikan, 
ii, pp, 35-6. 

* Ed* C* J. Tomberg, 13 vok. (Lcydcn, 1867-74!. 



392 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PART«ni 



of chronicles) al-Tabari's work and continued the narrative to 
1 23 1. The period dealing with the Crusades is an original 
contribution. Ibn-al-Athlr produced another important work, 
Usd al-Gkabah 1 (the lions of the thicket), a collection of 7500 
biographies of the Companions. His contemporary Sibt ibn-al- 
Jawzi 2 (1 1 86-1257), who was born in Baghdad and whose father 
was a Turkish slave, wrote among other works the Mir y at aU 
Zaman fi Tartkh al-Ayydm, a universal history from Creation 
to 1256.* To this late 'Abbasid period belongs the chief judge 
of Syria, ibn-Khallikan (f 1282), the first Moslem to compose 
what we might term a dictionary of national biography. Before 
him Yaqut had issued his dictionary of literati and ibn-'Asakir 
(t 11 77) nac * sketched in eighty volumes the biographies of 
distinguished men connected with his native town, Damascus.* 
Like most other treasures of historical and geographical lore 
written in a foreign tongue the works of al-Tabari, al-Mas'udi, 
ibn-al-Atlur and their confreres remained inaccessible to 
medieval Occidental readers. In modern times many have been 
translated in part or in full into modern European tongues. This, 
however, does not mean that the Arabic authors made no con- 
tribution to the social sciences. In appreciating their work in this 
and other disciplines Sarton 6 enthusiastically declares: 'The 
main task of mankind was accomplished by Muslims. The 
greatest philosopher, al-Farabl, was a Muslim; the greatest 
mathematicians, Abu Kamil* and Ibrahim ibn Sinan, 7 were 
Muslims; the greatest geographer and encyclopaedist, al- 
Mas'udT, was a Muslim; the greatest historian, al-Tabari, was 
still a Muslim". 

Theology We now come to those intellectual activities evoked by the 
predilections of the Arabs as Arabs and Moslems. Foremost 
among the sciences thus developed were theology, tradition, 

1 5 vols. (Cairo, 1280). 

* This surname he ou es to his famous maternal grandfather, ibn«al-Jawri (f izoi). 
8 Extracts cd and tr. in Rtcuttl des histonens des croisades: histonens orzentaux, 

vol iu (Paris, 1884), Pt. 8 was reproduced in facsimile by James R. Jewett (Chicago, 
1907) 

4 Al-Tt?rlkk aUKablr, ed. *Abd-al-Qadir Badran and Arunad 'Ubayd (Damascus 
1329-51)! first seven volumes. 

* Introduction to ike History of Science t vol. i (Baltimore, 1 927), p. 624. 

* Shuja* lbn-Aslam of Egypt, who at the beginning of the tenth century perfected 
al'Klmarizmi's algebra. 

1 Grandson of Thlbit ibn-Qurrah, lived 908-46. His quadrature of the parabola 
was the simplest ever made before the invention of integral calculus. 



ckxxvn SCIENTIFIC ANtf LITERARY PROGRESS „ 393,^ 

jurisprudence; philology, and linguistics. Most of the scholars in 
this field "were of Arab descent/ in contrast to the physicians, 
astronomers, mathematicians and alchemists cited above, who 
were of Syrian, Jewish or Persian origin. , 

The attention and interest of the Moslem Arabs were drawn 
quite early to those branches of learning motivated by the 
religious impulse. The necessity of comprehending and explain- 
ing the Koran soon became the basis of intensive theologic as 
well as linguistic study. Contact with Christendom provoked in 
the first century at Damascus theological speculation leading to 
the rise of the Murji'ite and Qadarite schools of thought. 1 

Next to the holy Koran, the sunnah, 2 i.e. the deeds, utterances 
and silent approval (taqrir) of the Prophet, stood as the most 
important doctrinal source. Transmitted at first orally, this 
sunnah of Muhammad was fixed during the second century in 
the form of written hadlths. A hadith, therefore, is a record of an 
action or saying of the Prophet. In a more general sense it may 
be used also for a record of an action or saying of any of his 
Companions or their Successors. 8 Though not equally canonical 
with the Koran, the Prophetic hadith nevertheless exerted an 
equally great influence over the development of Islamic thought. 
In the hadith Muhammad speaks; in the Koran Allah speaks, 
In the hadith the meaning only is inspired; in the Koran the 
meaning and the word are inspired. The bases of jurisprudence 
(fiqh) as well as of theology are firstly in the Koran, secondly in 
the hadith. Among all peoples Moslems stand unique in having 
developed a science £zlm) out of their mass of religious traditions 
{fraditks). 

To the pious Moslem the science of hadith soon became 
the science par excellence. 4 It was primarily in its quest 
that the would-be scholar, in response to the famous Prophetic 
tradition, VSeekye learning though it be in China", undertook 
long and tiresome journeys throughout the extensive domains 
of the caliphate. Such journeys (al-rihtak fi talab al*ihti)* 

1 Other Moslem sects will be treated in the following chapter. 
* Btyniologically meaning "custom," "use**, the word has developed several 
technical meanings. In opposition to SliTah, it is used for the theory and practice 
of the catholic Moslem community. 
, * See above, p. 242, 
^ Consult the chapter on V/m in BuMiari, vol. i, pp. 19 scq 
t * X^nsu1tibn*KhaId5n, Mu$«ddcmttk, p, 476; Alfred GuiUuuroe, The Tradition* 
tf Ishm (Oxford, 1024), pp. 6S 9. 



394 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 

were elevated into acts of consummate piety; he who lost his 
life through their perils was likened to him who Jost it in the 
holy war. 

In the course of the first two and a half centuries after Muham- 
mad the records of his sayings and doings increased in number 
and copiousness. Whenever an issue — religious, political or 
sociological — arose each party sought to find authority for its 
views in some word or decision of the Prophet, be it real or 
fictitious. The political rivalry between *Ali and abu-Bakr, the 
struggle between Mu'awiyah and *Ali, the enmity between the 
*Abbasids and Umayyads, the burning question of superiority 
between Arabs and non-Arabs — these and similar exigencies 
provided ample opportunity for the fabrication of hadlths and 
motivated their dissemination. Moreover, the manufacture of 
hadiths had commercial value and many teachers thrived on it 
Before his execution* at al-Kufah in 772, ibn-abi-aI-*Awja* con* 
fessed to having circulated 4000 traditions of his own invention. 1 
In general more weight is attached to the Madmcse than to the 
Kufan school of traditions, yet here again not all transmitters 
are above suspicion. Abu-Hurayrah f for instance, a Companion 
of the Prophet and a most zealous propagator of his words and 
deeds, reputedly transmitted some 5374 hadlths, 3 many of which 
were unquestionably foisted on him after his death. 'A'ishah 
transmitted 2210 traditions, Anas ibn-Malik 2286 and*Abdullah 
ibn^Umar ibnral-Khattab 1630. 3 

Every perfect hadtth consists of two parts: a chain of author- 
ities (isnad) and a text (tnatn). The text follows the chain and 
should be in direct address: A related {haddatkd) to me that B 
related to him, on the authority of C, on the authority of D, on 
the authority of E, who said . - . . The same formula was used in 
historiography and in wisdom literature. In all these fields 
criticism was usually external, being limited to a consideration 
of the reputation of the transmitters, who are at the same time 
guarantors, and to the possibility of their forming an uninter- 
rupted chain leading back to the Prophet. On the basis of such 
criticism hadiths are classified as genuine (sahVj), fair (hasan) 

1 Tabari, vol. hi, p. 376, copied by xbn-al-Athlr, vol. vi, p. 3. Cf. Baghdadi, ed. 
Hitti, p. 164. 

* Ibn-Hajar, I$abah y vol. vii, p. 201, His title "abu-Hurayrah", "father of the 
kitten", was due to his fondness for cats; ibn-Qutaybah, Ma*anf t p. 141; ibn-Sa'd, 
vol. iv, pt, 2, p. 55. * Nawawi, pp. 165, 358. 



CH.'xxvn SCIENTIFIC AND 'LITERARY PROGRESS' ,395 

and weak (da'tf)} The ludicrous extreme to which this external 
criticism may lead is illustrated la the story of a traditionist who 
accepted a large cup of wine offered him by a Christian* and 
when reminded that this was a prohibited drink bought by the 
Christian's slave from a Jew his excuse was: "We traditionists 
consider as authority such men as Sufyan ibn-'Uyaynah and 
YazTd ibn-Harun. Are we then to believe a Christian, on the 
authority of his slave, on the authority of a Jew? By Allah, I 
drank it only because of its weak isnad*"* 

The third Moslem century saw the compilation of the various ' 
collections of hadrths into six books which have since become ! 
standard. Of "the six books'* the first and most authoritative 
is that of Muliammad ibn-Isma r Jl al-Bukhari (Sto-70). 3 Al- 
Bukhari, who was a Persian, selected out of the 600,000 traditions 
he collected from iodo sheikhs in the course of sixteen years of 
travel and labour in Persia, aKIraq, Syria, aWftijaz and Egypt 
some 7397 traditions 4 which he classified according to subject- 
matter, such as prayer, pilgrimage and holy war. Before com- 
mitting a tradition to writing it was ai-Bukhari's wont to 
perform the ceremonial ablution and prayer. 5 His collection has 
acquired a quasi-Sacred character. An oath taken on it is valid, 
as if taken on the Koran itself. Next to the Koran this is the be ok 
that has exerted the greatest influence over the Moslem mind. 
Its author's tomb outside of Samarqand is still visited by pil- 
grims who accord him the next rank in Islam after Muhammad. 

Al-Bukhari's corpus of traditions came near finding a rival 
in the collection of Muslim ibn-al-IJajjaj (f 875) of Naysabur, 
a work on which Islam has conferred the same title, al~$ahih % 
the genuine collection. The contents of Muslim's Salnfc are 
almost identical with ai-Bukhari's, though the isnad may vary. 
Next to these "two genuine books" come four others which 
Moslems have elevated to canonical rank. These are the Sunan 
of abu*D5wud of al-Basrah (f 888), the JamC of al-Timndhi 
(f 892), the Sunan of ibn-Majah of Qazwtn (f 886) and the 
Sman of ai-Nasa'i, who died at Makkah in 91 5. 6 

* Consult iWAsUirj TVfte*, vol, ii, pp. iS seg4 ibn-Khaldfln, Mugeddarrtah, 
pp. 370 se?. 

* Nawatu tfaibaht p. 17. * Al-Jan? at*$ahiti t S vols. (Bulaq, 1296). 

* Nawawi, pp : 93, 05-6. * Ibxi*Khalbkan, vol. «, p. 

* Various editions of these works, but none critical, have been printed or litho- 
graphed m Egypt and India, 



39^ 



THE TJMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part hi 



Besides clarifying and supplementing the Koran, the hadlth 
literature provided the Moslem community with apostolic 
precept and example covering the whole range of man's duty. 
Even such trivial questions as the proper way of cutting a water- 
melon before eating it or cleaning the teeth with a toothpick — 
"proper" from the standpoint of the Prophetic practice — did not 
escape the traditionists* researches. The nocturnal journey 
vaguely reported in one solitary koranic verse (17:1) developed in 
the hadlth an extensive and colourful crop of elaborate traditions 
with which the Occident has long been familiar as reflected in 
the pages of Dante, The hadlth literature further served as a 
vehicle for transmitting wise sayings, anecdotes, parables and 
miracles — all ascribed to Muhammad — from various secular and 
religious sources, including the New Testament. In abu-Dawud 1 
a version of the Lord's Prayer is put in Muhammad's mouth. In 
al-Bukhari 2 and Muslim, 3 Muhammad, on the authority of 
abu-Hurayrah, upon whom many such pious and edifying 
sayings are fathered, once commended "him who gives alms 
only in secret, so that his left hand knows not what his right 
hand does". Nothing could better illustrate the general recept- 
ivity and hospitality of Islam as a system. In the hadlth lore the 
Moslem home found its fireside literature and the Moslem 
community its Talmud, 
juris- After the Romans the Arabs were the only medieval people 
prudence %v j )Q cu ]tivated the science of jurisprudence and evolved there- 
from an independent system. Their system,^// 4 as they called 
it, was primarily based on the Koran and the sunnah (i.e. 
hadtth), styled upll (roots, fundamental principles) and influ- 
enced by the Greco-Roman system. Ftqh was the science through 
which the canon law of Islam (sAarfafi*), the totality of Allah's 
commandments as revealed in the Koran and elaborated in the 
hadlth, was communicated to later generations. These com- 
mandments embrace regulations relative to ritual and worship 
Qibdddt), civil and legal obligations (mttamaldt) and punish- 
ments ^t<qubdf). 

Of the six thousand verses or thereabouts in the Koran only 
about two hundred, most of which occur in the Madinese portion, 



* {Cairo, 12S0), vol. 11, p. 101. 

* (Delhi, 1319}, vol. i, p. 331. 

* Literally "road to the watering place' 



a Vol. u, p 105. 

4 Literally "knowledge'*, "wisdom" 
"clear path to be followed". 



CH XXVH SCIENTIFIC AND LIT&KAKY fKUUKWS 397 

especially surahs two and four, may be classed as strictly legis- 
lative. It soon became evident that these statutes were not 
sufficient to cover all cases — civil, criminal, political, financial — 
which might and did arise under the new conditions and varied 
situations encountered in Syria, al-*Iraq and other conquered 
territories. Hence the necessity for speculation. Speculation gave 
rise to two new fundamental principles: gzyds, i.e. analogical 
deduction, and ijma, Le. catholic consent. Thus did Moslem 
jurisprudence come to have two new roots in addition to the 
Koran and tradition: analogy and consensus of opinion. As for 
ray t i.e. private judgment, though often resorted to, it was 
never quite elevated to the rank of a fifth fundamental principle. 
A traditional discourse between the Prophet and his appointee 
as qadi over al-Yaman, Mu'adh ibn-Jabal, sums up the Magna 
Charta of Islamic legal fundamentals: 

Muhammad: "How wilt thou decide when a question arises?" 
Muadh; "According to the Book of Allah". 
Muhammad: "And if thou findest naught therein?" 
Muddfc "Accortimg* £0 tfie sxtanah of the Messenger of Allots 
Muhammad; "And if thou findest naught therein?" 
Muadh: "Then shall I apply my own reasoning". 1 

The leader of the 'Iraq school, which insisted on the right of 
juridical speculation in contrast to the Madinah school, which 
attached special importance to hadlth, 2 was abu-yamfah, 
properly al-Nu f man ibn-Thabit. Abu-rji anlfah was the grandson 
of a Persian slave, 3 flourished in al-Kufah and Baghdad and 
died in 767. A merchant by profession, abu-rj anifah became the 
first and most influential jurist in Islam. His teachings he im- 
parted orally to his disciples, one of whom, abu-Yu$uf (j 798), 
has preserved for us in his Kiidb al-Kharaj*" the chief views of 
the master. Abu-H anifah did not actually introduce, though he 
emphasized strongly, the principle of analogical deduction 
leading to what we call legal fiction. He also insisted upon the 
right of "preference 1 * (tsttJxsdn)* departure from analogy on 
grounds of equity. Like his competitor Malik of al-Madlnah he 
had no idea of forming a juridical school (itnadhhai^ rite), yet 
abu-rjamfah became the founder of the earliest, largest and most 

1 Shahrcstani, p. 155. * IM. pp . x 6o*6i; lbn-Khaldun, Muqadticmak, p. 372. 

* Ftkrisi, p, 2ot; ibn-KhalhkSn, vol. m, p. 74. * (Cairo, I346.) 

* The tstthtan of the Hanafite school, the tshfUh (principle of public advantage) 
of the Malikitc school, and the r*> are often treated as synonyms of $*y& (analogy)* 



39& THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES *wrctB 

tolerant school of Islam. To his rite almost one half of the world 
of Sunnite Islam adheres. It was officially recognized in the 
territories of the defunct Ottoman empire as well as in India 
and Central Asia As a system of religio-juridical thought von 
Kremer considers it "the highest and loftiest achievement of 
which Islam was capable". 1 

The leader of the Madman school, supposedly better ac- 
quainted with the Prophet's life and frame of mind, was Malik 
ibn-Anas (ca. 715-9$ 2 ), whose a!~Muwatta* (the levelled path), 
next to the compendium of Zayd lbn-'Ali 4 (f 743), is the 
oldest surviving corpus of Moslem law. This monumental 
work, with its 1700 juridical traditions, codified the sunnah, out- 
lined the first formula of the ijma (consensus of opinion) as 
prevalent in al-Madlnah and became the canon for the Mahkite 
rite. This rite drove from the Maghrib and Andalusia the two 
minor systems of al-Awza'i (f 774) and of al-Zahiri 5 (815-83) 
and to the present day prevails throughout northern Africa, 
with the exception of Lower Egypt, and in eastern Arabia. After 
abu-rjtanTfah and Malik jundico-theological studies so developed 
as to become the most extensively cultivated branch of Arabic 
learning. 

Between the liberal *Iraq and the conservative Madinah 
schools there arose one which professed to have found the golden 
mean by accepting speculation with certain reservations. This 
is the Shafi'ite school, whose founder was Muhammad ibn-Idrls 
al-Shafi*i. Born in Ghazzah (767), al-Shafi'i, who belonged to 
the Quraysh family, studied under Mahk in al-Madmah, but 
the main scenes of his activity were Baghdad and Cairo. 6 He 
died in 820 at Cairo, where his tomb at the foot of al-Muqattam 
is still the object of pilgrimage. The Shafi'i rite still dominates 
Lower Egypt, eastern Africa, Palestine, western and southern 
Arabia, the coastal regions of India and the East Indies. Its 
adherents number about 105,000,000 as against 180,000,000 
Hanafites, 50,000,000 Malikites and 5,000,000 Hanbahtes. 

1 CuUurgacAictte t \o\ i, p 497. * Cf. ibn-Kballikan, \oI. « f p. aoi. 

8 Delhi, 1302 Sec also his at Mudawzicmah al-Kuhra (Cairo, 1323), 16 vols. 

* Afcjni? cl Fiqh, cd. E. Gnffiru (Milan, 1919). 

4 Diwud ibn Khalaf aMsbaham (ibn Khalhkan, \ol 1, p 312), surnamed al 
£anin because he regarded onl> the literal {$ahir) meaning of the Koran and faidith 
as authontauve Though his teachings found a most gifted protagonist in ibn»$azro 
of Cordova (994-1064), yet they did not survive 

* Yaqut, Udahd\ \oI* vj, pp. 367 scg,; ibn-Khalhkan, vol. ii» pp. 215-16. 



or* xxvii SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY PROGRESS " ' 399 

The last of the four rites into which the whole Moslem com- 
munity, exclusive of the Shf ah, has divided itself is the #an- 
balite, which takes its name from Ahmad ibn-FJfanbal, a student 
of al~Shafi c i and a representative of uncompromising adherence 
to the letter of the hadith. Ibn-$ anbal's conservatism served as 
the bulwark of orthodoxy in Baghdad against the Mutazilite 
innovations. Though subjected to the inquisition (mt&na/i) and 
put in chains under al-Ma*mun, scourged and imprisoned by 
al-Mu'tasim, ibn-rjanbai stubbornly refused to recant and 
allowed no modification in the traditional form of confession. 1 
The 800,000 men and 60,000 women who are estimated to 
have attended his funeral in 855 at Baghdad 2 testify to the 
hold this stalwart champion of orthodoxy had on public im- 
agination. Posterity venerated his tomb as that of a saint and 
honoured him with the same title, imam, bestowed upon abu- 
H an if ah, Malik and al~Shafi*i. For a long time the collection 
of over 28,000 traditions, Miamad? ascribed to him, enjoyed 
special renown. Today, however, the I^anbalite rite claims no 
considerable following outside of the Wahhabis. 

In the principle of ijma, elaborated by al-Shafi*i, the Moslem 
community hit upon a most useful theological expedient which 
has enabled its members to adapt their institutions and beliefs 
to varied and novel situations in a changing world. In a com- 
munity where no church, no clergy and no central authority are 
recognised, deference to public opinion naturally assumes an 
important role. It was through this principle that the vulgate 
text of the Koran was canonized, the six canonical books of 
hadlths were approved, the miracles of the Prophet were accepted, 
lithographic reproductions of the Koran were authorized and 
the necessity of belonging to the Quraysh was dispensed with in 
favour of the Ottoman caliphs. The Shfites, it should be remem- 
bered, have their own rite and do not accept To it they 
oppose the absolute authority and judgment of the infallible 
imams, all descendants of *Ali. With the above four rites, which 
crystallized traditional dogma and everything necessary for doc- 
trinal and juridical development, the door of ijtihdd, the right 
of further interpreting the Koran and the sunnah or of forming 
a new opinion by applying analogy, was for ever closed to the 

1 Ibn-*A<&kir, TcriH, vol. ii, pp. 41 sc?. 
* Ibn*KhaHikuu, voh i» p. 2S. » 6 vols. (Cairo, 1313). 



4oo THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES yartiii 



Sunnite community; but the Shi'ites still have their mujtakids, 
learned men who are qualified to act as spokesmen for the 
sublime and hidden imam and to interpret his ideas. 

The indebtedness of the Islamic juridical system to the 
Roman-Byzantine laws, which had been for centuries naturalized 
in Syria, Palestine and Egypt, has not yet been made the object 
of the study it deserves by competent scholarship. Certain 
orientalists see Roman influence not only in particular regula- 
tions but also, and what is more important, in questions of 
principle and methodology. The Justinian Code recognized the 
method of analogical deduction and private judgment. Certain 
Byzantine regulations may have left their impress upon the 
Islamic statutes of purchase, sale and other commercial rela- 
tionships; others relating to guardianship and will, letting and 
hiring may have passed through Judaic, rabbinical or talmudic, 
channels. But it is surprising that the Roman influence is not 
better marked in the system of the Syrian al-Awza*i (f 774), 
who laboured in Beirut, 1 as late as the sixth century still the 
seat of a flourishing school of Roman law, and came very near 
establishing a fifth rite. 
Ethics The prescriptions of the canon law (sharfah) discussed above 
regulate for the Moslem his entire life in its religious, political 
and social aspects. They govern his marital and civic relations 
as well as his relations with non-Moslems. Accordingly ethical 
conduct derives its sanctions and inhibitions from the sacred 
law. All man's acts are classified under five legal categories: 
(l) what is considered absolute duty (fard), embracing actions 
the commission of which is rewarded and the omission punished 
by law; (2) commendable or meritorious actions (musta/tabb), the 
performance of which is rewarded but the omission not punished; 

(3) permissible actions (jats, mubaJt), which arelegally indifferent; 

(4) reprehensible actions (makriih), which are disapproved but 
not punishable; (5) forbidden actions Qtardm), the doing of which 
calls for punishment. 

Ethical works based on the Koran and tradition, though 
numerous, do not exhaust all the material in Arabic literature 
dealing with morals (akhlaq)? There are at least three other 
types. Several works deal with good morals and refinement of 
spirit and deportment (adab). These are based mainly on Indo- 

1 Ibn Khalhkan, vol. i, p. 493 1 See tfajjt Khalfah, vol. i, pp. 200-205. 



CB. XXVJi * SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY PROGRESS 1 "* 401 v 

Persian anecdotes, proverbs and wise sayings. Al-Durrah al- 
Yatimak 1 by ibn-al-MuqaftV (executed ^.757), which eulogizes 
temperance, courage, liberality and proficiency in discourse and 
business, may be taken as a specimen of this type. A similarly 
popular philosophy of morality is found in the fables and 
proverbs of Luqman, the /Esop of the Arabs. An ethical treatise 
by the celebrated constitutional theorist of Baghdad, al-Mawardi 
(f 1058),* rich in wise sayings of the Prophet and the Com- 
panions, is still popular as a text-book in Egyptian and Syrian 
schools* Another type of work is philosophical, ultimately going 
back to Aristotle through Neo-Piatonic and Neo- Pythagorean 
sources. These Greek works, headed by Aristotle's Nichomachean 
Ethics translated as Kit&b al-Akklaq by FJunayn or his son 
Ishaq,* laid the foundation of Arabic moral philosophy ('ilm 
al-akhlaq), whose aim, like that of Aristotle and Plato, was to 
facilitate the attainment of earthly felicity. Of this school the 
most notable representative was the historian Miskawayh, whose 
Takdhib al-Akhlaq* is the best ethical work of the strictly 
philosophical or Neo-Platonic type composed by a Moslem. 
We also have in the epistles of the Brethren of Sincerity, of which 
the ninth is devoted to akhlaq> a characteristic deposit of Greek 
ethics pervaded by astrological and metaphysico-psychological 
speculation. The Brethren show special enthusiasm for Christ 
and Socrates as examples of the moral man, though to the 
Sunnites Muhammad and to the Shi'ites *Ali are the perfect 
men. The third type of ethics may be styled the mystico- 
psychological. Its exponents were al-Ghazzali and various Sufi 
authors whom we shall consider in a forthcoming chapter. In all 
these Moslem moral philosophies certain virtues such as resigna- 
tion, contentment and endurance are admired; vices are treated 
as maladies of the soul with the moral philosopher as the 
physician; and the classification is founded on the analysis of the 
faculties of the soul, each faculty having its own virtue and its 
own vice. 

In the early centuries of the \Abbasid power an interesting 
movement developed among the subjected races, particularly 
the Persians, whose object it was to combat the feeling of 

, * EiLSbaUb Arisian (Cairo). 

9 Adeh al-Dunyo w-d~X>ift t 16th cd. (Cairo, 1925). 

* Cf. Fikttst, p. 352, * Several Cairo editions, none of them critical. 



402 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES VATLT in* 



superiority which those Moslems of Arabian descent, real or 
claimed, had long manifested. The movement took its name 
Shu'ubiyah (belonging to the peoples, non-Arabs) from a koranic 
verse (49 : 1 3) the purport of which was to inculcate the brother- 
hood and equality of all Moslems. Whilst among the Kharijites 
and the Shi'ites it took dynastic and political aspects, and among 
some Persians it took religious aspects involving heresy and 
zindiqism % yet the form which al-5hu*ubTyah assumed in general 
was that of literary controversy. It derided the Arab pretensionr 
to intellectual superiority and claimed for non-Arabs superiority 
in poetry and literature- The n on- Arab cause was championed 
by such leaders as al-Blruni and PJamzah al-Isfahani, whilst the 
Arab side was represented by several of Arabian as well as others 
of Persian extraction, including al-Jahiz, 1 ibn-Durayd, 2 ibn- 
Qutaybah and al-Baladhuri. It was in"- connection with such 
controversial questions that some of the earliest original pieces 
of Arabic literature were composed. 

What we call "Arabic literature" was no more Arabian than 
the Latin literature of the Middle Ages was Italian. Its producers 
were men of the most varied ethnic origins 3 and in its totality it 
represents the enduring monument of a civilization rather than 
of a people. Even such disciplines as philology, linguistics, lexi- 
cography and grammar, which were primarily Arabian in origin 
and spirit and in which the Arabs made their chief original 
contribution, recruited some of their most distinguished scholars 
from the non-Arab stock. Al-Jawhari (f ca. 1008), whose lexicon, 4 
arranged in the alphabetical order of the final radical letters 
of the words, served as a model for later lexicographers, was a 
Turk from Farab. 6 His contemporary ibn-Jinni tf 1002), who 
adorned the IJamdanid court at Aleppo and whose chief merit 
was a philosophical treatment of philology, was the son of a 
Greek slave. 6 

Arabic literature in the narrow sense of adab (belles-lettres) 
began with al-Jahiz (f 868-9), tne sheikh of the Basrah littera- 
teurs, and reached its culmination in the fourth and fifth 

1 Bcyan, vol. iii F pp. 9 scq. 

1 A lexicographer, died at Baghdad, 933. He wrote against" the Shu'ublyah Xitci 
al'Iskttqdq^ ed. Wuslenfeld (Gottmgcn, 1854). 

8 In his Muqaddamahy pp, 477-9, ibn-Khaldtm has a chapter headed "Most of the 
karncd men in Islam vcrc non- Arabians 

* Siftdjt t a vols. (Buluq, 1292). * Yaqut, Udala, vol. ii, p. 266. 

• J bid. vol. v, p. 15. 



CH. xxvn SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY PROGRESS 403 

Moslem centuries in the works of BadI* al~Zaman al-Hamadhani 
(969-1008), al-Tha'alibi 1 of Naysabur (961-1038) and al-rjariri 
(1054-1122). One characteristic feature of prose-writing in this 
period was the tendency, in response to Persian influence, to be 
affected and ornate. The terse, incisive and simple expression of 
early days had gone for ever. It was supplanted by polished and 
elegant style, rich in elaborate similes and replete with rhymes. 
The whole period was marked by a predominance of humanistic 
over scientific studies. Intellectually it was a period of decline. 
It supported a literary proletariat, many of whose members, 
with no independent means of livelihood, roamed from place to 
place ready to give battle over linguistic issues and grammatical 
technicalities or to measure poetical swords over trivial matters 
with a view to winning favours from wealthy patrons. This 
period also saw the rise of a new form of literary expression, the 
maqdmah. 

Badi* ai-Zaman (wonder of the age) al-Hamadhani is credited 
with the creation of the maqdmah (assembly), a kind of dramatic 
anecdote in the telling of which the author subordinates sub- 
stance to form and does his utmost to display his poetical 
ability, learning and eloquence. In reahty such a form of 
composition as the maqdmah could not have been the creation 
of any one man; it was a natural development of rhymed prose 
and flowery diction as represented by ibn-Durayd and earlier 
stylists. Al-Hamadhani's work* served as a model for al-rlanri 
of ai-Basrah, 3 whose Maqamdt* for more than seven centuries 
were esteemed as the chief treasure, next to the Koran, of the 
literary Arabic tongue. In these maqdmdt of al-rjarlri and other 
writers there is much more than the elegant form and rhetorical 
anecdote which most readers consider the only significant 
feature. The anecdote itself is often used as a subtle and indirect 
way of criticizing the existing social order and drawing a whole- 
some moral. Since the days of al-Hamadhani and al-rlanri the 
maqdmah has become the most perfect form of literary and 
dramatic presentation in Arabic, a language which has never 

1 The name means futner; ibn*KhalHkan, vol. i, p. 522. His best-known work is 
Yatimai <xhDahr> 4 vols. (D<*m*iscus> 1302), an anthology of .contemporary poets. 
" Afag&mat, e<L Muhammad 'Abduh (Beirut, 1S89). 
* 3b»~Kh«i1)j1tan, vol. i t p< 6S. 

V Ef <ie Sary, 2 vols. (Paris, 1847-53); tr. into English by Thomas Chenery and 
F^Stemgass, * vols, {London, 



404 THE UMAYYAD AND <ABBAS1D EMPIRES part in 



produced real drama. Early Spanish and Italian tales of the 
realistic or picaresque type display clear affinities with the Arabic 
maqamah. 

Before the maqamah was developed Arabic literature saw the 
rise of its greatest literary historian, abu-al-Faraj al-Isbahani, or 
al-Isfahani (ca. 897-967), a lineal descendant of Marwan, the 
last Umayyad caliph. Abu-al-Faraj flourished in Aleppo, where 
he produced his Kitab al-Aghani 1 (book of songs), a veritable 
treasury of poetry and literature and an indispensable source for 
the study of Moslem civilization. In his Muqaddamah 5 ibn- 
Khaldun rightly calls it "the register of the Arabs" and "the 
final resource of the student of belles-lettres". His Alcppine 
patron Sayf-al-Dawlah al-riamdani bestowed on the author a 
thousand gold pieces as a reward for this work, 3 and the Anda- 
lusian al-rjakam II sent him a like sum. A Buwayhid vizir, 
al-Sahib ibn-*Abbad (f 995), who is said to have been wont to 
take with him on his journeys thirty camel-loads of books, 
dispensed with them all on receiving a copy of al-Aghani> which 
he thereafter carried about alone. 4 
Thw In this period, shortly before the middle of the tenth century, 

the first draft of what later became Alf Laylah wa-Layiah* (a 
thousand and one nights) was made in al-'Iraq. The basis of 
this draft, prepared by al-Jahshiyari 6 (f 942), was an old Persian 
work, Hazdr Afsana (thousand tales), containing several stories of 
Indian origin. Al-Jahshiyari added other tales from local story- 
tellers. 7 The Afsana provided the general plot and framework as 
well as the nomenclature for the leading heroes and heroines, 
including Shahrazad. As time went on additions were made 
from numberless sources: Indian, Greek, Hebrew, Egyptian and 
the like. Oriental folk-tales of every description were absorbed 
in the course of centuries. The court of Harun al-Rashld provided 
a large quota of humorous anecdotes and love romances. The 
final form was not taken by the Nights until the later Mamluk 
period in Egypt. Its heterogeneous character has inspired the 

1 20 vols. (BQlaq, 1 285); Brunnow edited vol. 21 (Le>den, jSSS) and Guidi issued 
index (Lejden, 1900). 

* P. 487. * Yaqut, vol. v, p. 150, ibn-Khallikan, vol. ii, p. XX. 

* Ibn-Khalhkan, vol. ii, p. II, cf. vol i, p. 133. 

* Bulaq editions A. H. 1251 {1835) and 1279 fixed the vulgate Arabic text. 

8 Better known for his Kttdb al-Wutara wal-Kuttdb, ed. Hans v. Mzik (Leipzig, 
1926) 

* Ft Art's/, p 304. Cf. Mas'Gdt, vol. iv, p. 90. 



ca xxvn SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY PROGRESS 405 



facetious words of a modern critic who has described the Arabian 
Nights as Persian tales told after the manner of Buddha by 
Queen Esther 1 to "Haroun Alraschid" in Cairo during the 
fourteenth century of the Christian era. First translated into 
French by Galland, 3 the Ntgkts have worked their way into all 
the principal languages of modern Europe and Asia and have 
taken their place as the most popular piece of Arabic literature in 
the West, vastly more popular than m the Moslem East itself. In 
English the first important translation, incomplete but accurate, 
is that of Edward William Lane- 3 It has a valuable and full com- 
mentary and has gone through several editions. John Payne's 
translation, 4 the best in English, is complete but has no com* 
mentary. In his rendition Sir Richard F, Burton 5 follows Payne's 
except in the poetical part and endeavours to improve on it by 
attempting to reproduce the Oriental flavour of the original 

The pre-Islamic poetry of the heroic age of the jahiliyah Po< 
provided models for the Umayyad bards, whose imitations of 
the antique odes were treated as classical by the 'Abbasid poets. 
The pietistic spirit fostered by the new regime of the banu-al- 
'Abbas, the foreign cultural and religious influences streaming 
mainly from Persia, and the patronage of the cahphs under 
whom the poets flourished and whom they were expected to laud 
and glorify, tended to produce deviation from the old trodden 
paths of classicism and develop new forms of poetical expression. 
Nevertheless poesy proved the most conservative of all Arab arts. 
Throughout the ages it never ceased to breathe the spirit of the 
desert. Even modern Arabic versifiers of Cairo, Damascus and 
Baghdad feel no incongruity in introducing their odes by 
apostrophizing the deserted encampments {aflat) of the beloved, 
whose eyes they still liken to those of wild cows (wtaha). Other 
than poetry, law— particularly in its marital ordinances— is 
perhaps the only field in which the old desert elements have 
succeeded m perpetuating themselves. 

The earliest exponent of the new style in poetry was the blind 
Persian Bashshar ibn-Burd> who was put to death in 783 under 
al-Mahdi, according to some for satirizing his vizir but more 

1 Cf Fthrut, p, 304, 1, 16, with Tabari, vol. 1, p. 688, \l 1, 12-13, p. 689, 1. 1, 

* 12 vols (Pans, 1704-17) 

5 3 vols. (London, 1839-41). Ed. with illustrations by L. S. Poole, 3 .vols (London, 
1859) Rev by L» S. Poole, 3 \ols (London, 1SS3) Several later reprints 

* 9 \oh. (London, 1SS2-4) * 16 vols (London and "Benares", 1885-$). 



406 THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES PAStrm 



probably on account of his zindiqi$m t Zoroastrian or Manichaean 
secret views, Bashshar, who once thanked Allah for having made 
him blind "so that I need not see that which I hate", 1 was a rebel 
against the archaic formulas of ancient poetry. 2 Another early 
representative of the new school was the half-Persian abu- 
Nuwas 3 (f ca, 810), the boon companion of Harun and al-Amm 
and the poet in whose songs love and wine found their best 
expression. The name of abu-Nuwas has lived to the present day 
in the Arabic world as a synonym for clown; in reality he has 
few rivals in amorous sentiment, erotic expression and elegant 
diction. He is the lyric and bacchic poet par excellence of the 
Moslem world. The many songs on the beauty of boys attributed 
to this dissolute favourite of the f Abbasid court, as well as his 
poems in praise of wine {khamriydt\ which have not ceased to 
enchant those who read and drink, throw interesting light upon 
contemporaneous aristocratic life.* The ghazal of abu-Nuwas, 
short poems of love ranging from five to fifteen verses, follow the 
model of Persian bards, who developed this verse form long before 
the Arabs. 

Just as the witty and licentious abu-Nuwas represented the 
lighter side of court life, so did his ascetic contemporary abu-al- 
*Atahiyah 5 (748-^. 828), a potter by profession, give expression 
to pessimistic meditations on mortality which the common man 
of religious mentality entertained. The soul of this scion of the 
Bedouin tribe of 'Anazah rebelled against the frivolous high life 
of Baghdad, where he lived, and although Harun assigned to him 
a yearly stipend of 50,000 dirhams, he adopted the garb of a 
dervish and produced those ascetic and religious poems (su/tdl- 
ydt) which entitle him to the position of father of Arabic sacred 
poetry. 6 

The provinces, particularly Syria, reared during the 'Abbasid 
period a number of first-class poets, among whom the most 
renowned were abu-Tammam (f ca. 845) and abu-al- f AIa\ 

1 Aghdm, vol. in, p. 22. 

* Consult the collection edited by Afcmad H. al-Qimi as JBashshar ibn*Burd; 
SHCruhu **a-Akhbaruku (Cairo, 1925); Aghani t vol. m, pp 1973, vol. vi, pp. 47*53; 
ibn-Khallikan, -vol. i, p. 157; ibn-Qutaybah, Sh?r % pp 476-9. 

* Al-Hasan ibn-Hani*; ibn-Khallikan, vol, f, p. 240. 

* Consult bis l>Iu>ar: t cd. Mahmud Wasif (Cairo, 1898); Aghcni y vol. xviii, pp. 2-8; 
ibn-Qutaybah, Sfo~r t pp. 501*25. 

8 Isma'fl ibn-al-Qusim. On his life sec Agham, vol. ui, pp 126-83; Mas'fldi, vol. 
vi , pp. 240-50, 333*40, vol. vii, pp. Si-7; ibn-Khalbkon, \ol i, pp. 125-30. 
* Consult his Dfrv&n (Beirut, 1SS7) 



t i 
cH.xxvn SCIENTIFIC AN T D LITERARY PROGRESS 407 

Abu-Tammam's father, who kept a wine shop in Damascus, was 
a Christian by the name of Thadus (Thaddaios), which the son 
changed to Avvs when he embraced Islam.* Abu-Tammam was 
a court poet in Baghdad. His title to fame rests as much on his 
Dttvdts 2 as on his compilation of Diwan al-ffamasah? poems 
celebrating valour in battle. This Dvwatt embraces gems of 
Arabic poetry. The collection of ffamasah* poems of the same 
description by the other court poet, al~Buhturi (820-97), * s * n- 
ferior to that of abu-Tammam, after which it was modelled. 

The patronage accorded by the 'Abbasid caliphs, vizirs and 
governors to poets, whom they employed as encomiasts, not only 
made the panegyric {madt(i) an especially favourite form of 
poetical composition but led poets to prostitute their art, and 
resulted m that false glitter and empty bombast often said to be 
characteristic of Arabic poetry, 'Abbasid poetry, not unlike 
Arabic poetry of other periods, was moreover mainly subjective 
and provincial in character, full of local colour but unable to 
soar above rime and place to gam a position among the timeless 
and landless offspring of the Muses. 

1 Sec Agh&nit vol xv, pp 99 10S, Mas*udi, vol vji, pp 147-67, ibn-KhaJhkiui, 
vol. u pp 214 *S x Ed Shahin 'Ajayah, {Beirut, 1SS9) 

* Ed as Ash* dr al-fiamdsek by Freytag (Bonn* 182$), supplemented by a conv 
mcntar> in z vols. (Bonn, 1847-51) 

* Photographic reproduction with indexes by Geyer and MargoUouth (Leyden, 




THE OLDEST REPRfSENTATlON OF THE CAESAREAN SECTION 
From a3 Birum, ai-Jth$r at Baqi$ak % MS dated A H. 707 (1307-8), in the Library 
of the Unncrsit) of Edinburgh 



CHAPTER XXVIII 
EDUCATION 



THE child's education began at home. As soon as he could 
speak it was the father's duty to teach him "the word" {aU 
kalimahy. La ildha illa-l-Lah (no god whatsoever but Allah) * 
When six years old the child was held responsible for the ritual 
prayer. It was then that his formal education began. 1 

The elementary school (/tut tab) was an adjunct of the mosque, 
if not the mosque itself. Its curriculum centred upon the Koran 
as a reading text-book. With reading went writing. On visiting 
Damascus in 1 1 84 ibn-Jubayr 2 noticed that the writing exer- 
cises by the pupils were not from the Koran but from secular 
poetry, for the act of erasing the word of Allah might discredit 
it. Together with reading and penmanship the students were 
taught Arabic grammar, stories about the prophets — particu- 
larly hadlths relating to Muhammad — the elementary principles 
of arithmetic, and poems, but not of erotic character. Through- 
out the whole curriculum memory work was especially empha- 
sized. Deserving pupils in the elementary schools of Baghdad 
were often rewarded by being paraded through the streets on 
camels whilst almonds were thrown at them. In one instance the 
shower had tragic results by destroying the eye of a young 
scholar. 8 Similar scenes enacted in honour of young pupils who 
have memorized the Koran are not infrequent today in Moslem 
lands. In certain cases the scholars were granted a whole or 
partial holiday whenever one of them had finally mastered a 
section of the Koran. 

Girls were welcome to all the religious instruction in the lower 
grades of which their minds were capable, but there was no 
special desire to guide them further along the flowery and thorny 
path of knowledge. For after all was not the centre of a woman's 
sphere the spindle? 4 The children of the wealthy had private 

1 Cf. GhazzSh, /&>«\ vol. i, p. 83. * P. 272. 

' Agkdm x \ol. xvui, p. xoi.* * Cf. Mubarrad, p. 150, 1. 3. 

408 



* 'cH.XXvni r ' , ~ EDUCATION V, ^ „- 

tutors (sing, mii'additiy who instructed them in religion, polite 
literature and the art of versification. Very commonly these 
tutors were of foreign extraction. The ideals of aristocratic 
education may be ascertained from the instructions given by- 
al-Rashid to the tutor of his son al-Amln : 

Be not strict to the extent of stifling his faculties or lenient to the 
point of making him enjoy idleness and accustom himself thereto. 
Straighten him as much as thou canst through kindness and gentleness, 
but fail not to resort to force and severity should he not respond. 1 

The rod was considered a necessary part of a teacher's equipment 
and, as is evident from the above, had the caliph's approval for 
use on his children* In his chapter on the parental management 
of children in Risalat al-Siyasah? ibn-Slna speaks of "seeking 
the aid of the hand" as a valuable auxiliary of the educator's art. 

The teacher in the elementary school, called tntfattim t some- 
times faqth on account of his theological training, came to 
occupy a rather low status socially. "Seek no advice from 
teachers, shepherds and those who sit much among women", 3 
admonished a favourite adage* A judge under al-Ma'mun went 
so far as to refuse to admit teachers' testimonies as satisfactory 
evidence in court. A whole body of anecdotes in Arabic literature 
developed round the teacher as a dunce. "More foolish than a 
teacher of an elementary school" 4 acquired proverbial usage. 
But the higher grade of teachers were on the whole highly 
respected. They evidently were organized into a sort of a guild, 
and the master would grant a recognized certificate (ijdzah) to 
those students who satisfactorily passed the prescribed course of 
study under him. In his treatise on pedagogy al-Zarnuji, 5 who 
wrote in 1203, devotes a section to the high regard in which a 
student should hold the profession of teaching, quoting the 
adage^attributed to 'Alt; "I am the slave of him who hath taught 
me even one letter", Al-Zamuji's is the best known of some two 
score Arabic treatises on education, most of which have survived 
in manuscript Yorm. 6 

1 Ma$*adi, toLti, pp. 321-2; ibn-Khaldun, Muqaddamah^ pp. 475-6. 

* E<L LuwTs MaJlQf \t\ al-Mashriq^ vol. ix (1906), p, 1074. 

, * Ta*iim cl'Mufa'dtim T«rtq al~Ta* ctlum, cd. C. Caspar! (Leipzig, 1838), pp. 
14.XQ. See also Ghaszati, voU i, pp. S«n. 

* For fist see Khalit A. Totah, The Contribution of the Arabs to Education 
(NcwTork, 1926). pp, 67-76. ; 



4io 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBA3ID EMPIRES paktiii 



Institutions The first prominent institution for higher learning in Islam 
£d^t£n was the Bayt al-Ihkmah (the house of wisdom) founded by 
al-Ma*mun (830) in hie capital. Besides serving as a translation 
bureau this institute functioned as an academy and public 
library and had an observatory connected with it. The observa- 
tories, which sprang up at this time, it should be remembered, 
were also schools for teaching astronomy, just as the hospitals, 
which also made their first appearance at this period, served as 
centres for medical studies. But the first real academy in Islam 1 
which made provision for the physical needs of its students and 
became a model for later institutions of higher learning was the 
Nizamlyah, founded in 1065-7 by the enlightened Nizam-al- 
Mulk, the Persian vizir of the Saljuq Sultans Alp Arslan and 
Malikshah and the patron of 'Umar al-Khayyam. The Saljuqs, 
like the Buwayhids and other non-Arab sultans who usurped 
the sovereign power in Islam, vied with each other in patronizing 
the arts and higher education, evidently as a means of ingratiat- 
ing themselves with the populace. The Nizamlyah was conse- 
crated as a theological seminary {inadrasali), particularly for the 
study of the Shan'i rite and the orthodox Ash f ari system In it the 
Koran and old poetry formed the backbone of the study of the 
humanities ('i/m al-adafr), precisely as the classics did later in 
the European universities. The students boarded in this academy 
and many of them held endowed scholarships. It is claimed that 
certain details of its organization appear to have been copied by 
the early universities of Europe. 2 That the students cherished 
a measure of esprtt de corps is evidenced by the rough treat- 
ment accorded a representative of the court who came to seal the 
door of a room formerly occupied by a scholar who died in 1187 
leaving no heirs. 3 

The Nizamlyah was a theological institution recognized by 
the state. Ibn-al-AthTr 4 cites the incident of a lecturer (mudarris) 
who received his appointment but could not perform his duty 
pending confirmation from the caliph. Evidently one lecturer 
was appointed at a time. 5 The lecturer had under him t;vo or 
more ripititeurs (sing, mu'id, repeater) 6 whose duty consisted 
in reading over the lecture after class and explaining it to 

1 Consult SuyGp, Husn y vol. u, pp. I $6*7. Cf Qazwmi, Atkar> p. 276. 

* Reuben Lev/, A Baghdad Chronicle (Cambridge, 1929), p 193. 

* Ibn al-Athir, vol xi, p. 115. 4 Vol. xi, p. 100 

4 Ibn-al Athlr, \ol x, p. 123 * See ibn-Khalhkan, vol. iu, p. 43a 



cx.xxmt 1 EDUCATION ' ~4*t 

the less-gifted students* Ibn-Jubayr 1 once attended a lecture 
delivered after the mid-afternoon prayers by the ranking pro- 
fessor. The lecturer stood on a platform while the students sat 
on stools and plied him with written and oral questions till 
evening prayer. It was in this Nizamiyah that ai-Ghazzali 
lectured for four years (1091-5). 3 In the chapter on learning with 
which he introduced his Ijtya* al-Ghazzali combated the idea 
that the imparting of knowledge was the object of education and 
emphasized the necessity of stimulating the moral consciousness 
of the student, thus becoming the first author in Islam to bring 
the problem of education into organic relation with a profound 
ethical system- Among the later eminent teachers of the Niza- 
mlyah was Baha'-al-Dln, Salah-al-Dln's (SaladhVs) biographer, 
who tells us in his reminiscences, as reported in ibn-Khallikan, 4 
that to sharpen their memories a group of students once drank 
such a heavy dose of an infusion of anacardia* kernels that one 
of them lost his wits entirely and came naked to the class. When 
amidst the laughter of the class he was asked for an explana- 
tion, he gravely replied that he and his companions had tried 
the anacardia infusion, which made them all insane with the 
exception of himself, who had happily kept his senses. 

Al-Nizamiyah survived the catastrophe that befell the capital 
at its capture by llulagu in 1 258, as it survived the later invasions 
by the Tartars, and was finally merged with its younger sister, 
al-Mustansinyah, about two years after Timur Lang (Tamerlane) 
captured Baghdad in 1393. Al-Mustansinyah derived its name 
from the next-to-iast caliph, al-Mustansir * who built it in 1234 
as a seminary for the four orthodox rites. The building had a clock 
(doubtless of the clepsydra type) at the entrance, was equipped 
with baths and kitchens and included a hospital and a library. 
Ibn-Battutah, 7 who visited Baghdad in 1327, gives us a detailed 
description of the building. Renovated as a school in 1961 this 
structure and nl-Qasr (palace) al-Abbdsi, now a museum, are 
the only ones surviving from e Abbasid days. 
1 Pp. 219-20. 

■ Ihn^KhnUik^, vol.il, p. 246; a/.JI/jw^M (Cairo, 1329), pp. 59-30. 

Vol. I, pp. 43-9; Ayyuka elAYalad, cd. and trJ Haimncr-PurgstaH (Vienna, 
1838}; tr. (Eng.) G. H. Schcrcr (Bdrftt, 1933). * Vol. ui, pp. 435 stq. 

* Ar» bcladkur t from Pcrs. bcUdtir. The celebrated historian sl-Bsladhuri is said 
to feave died as a result of drinking the juice of the anacardia (cashew nut). Hence 
lus surname. 

• Abu«aI*Bda% vol iii, p. 179. * VoL ii, pp. 108*9. 



412 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABDASID EMPIRES part hi 



Besides the Nizarmyah of Baghdad the Saljuq vizir is credited 
with establishing several other seminaries in Naysabur and other 
towns of the empire. Prior to Salah-al-Dln he was the greatest 
patron of higher education in Islam The NizamTyah type of 
madrasah spread over Khurasan, al-'Iraq and Syria. Founding 
a madrasah was always considered a meritorious act in Islam 
This explains the large number of such institutions reported 
by travellers. Ibn-Jubayr 1 counted in Baghdad about thirty 
schools; in Damascus, which then enjoyed its golden age under 
Salah-al-Dln, about twenty; in al-Mawsil, six or more; and in 
rjims only one. 

In all these higher institutions of theology the science of 
tradition lay at the basis of the curriculum, and memory work 
was especially stressed. In those days of no diaries and no 
memoranda the retentive faculties must have been developed to 
phenomenal limits, if we are to believe the sources. Al-Ghazzali 
earned his title hujjat al-Islam (the authority of Islam) by 
memorizing 300,000 traditions Ahmad ibn-rlanbal, it is said, 
knew by heart i,ooo,ooo. 2 Al-Bukhari was tested by one hundred 
traditions in which the chain of authorities (tsndd) of the one 
was affixed to the text {main) of the other — all of which he 
straightened out nicely from memory. 3 Poets vied with tradition- 
ists in memory work Having read a copy of a book loaned him 
by a bookseller, al-Mutanabbi' saw no more reason for buying 
the book, for its contents were already stored in his mmd 
Anecdotes of a similar nature are told to prove the prodigious 
memories of abu-Tammam and al-Ma'arri. 

Adult education was nowhere carried on in a systematic way, 
but the mosques in almost ail Moslem towns served as important 
educational centres When a visitor came to a new city he could 
make his way to the congregational mosque confident that he 
could attend lectures on hadith. This is what al-Maqdisi* tells 
us he did on visiting distant al-Sus. This travelling geographer 
of the tenth century found in his native Palestine and in Syria, 
Egypt and Faris many circles (sing, halqali) or assemblies (sing. 
majlis) centring upon faqths t Koran readers and litterateurs in 
the mosques. 6 The Imam al-Shafi'i presided at such a halqah 

1 P 229, 1 10, p 283, 1 8, p 236, 11. t-2, p. 258, 1 20. 

* Ibn Klnlhknn, \ol t, p 28 * Ibn Khallikan, \ol it, pp 2303 1 

P. 415 * Maqdist, pp 1S2, 179, 1. 20, pp 205, 439, 1, 11. 



CB.xxym ' *- - ^ EDTICXTION „ - < V , ^ d > 4x3 

at the Mosque of f Amr at al-Fustat, where he* taught various 
subjects every morning till his death in'820. 1 Ibn-IJawqal 3 
mentions similar assemblies in Sijistan- Not only religious but 
linguistic and poetical subjects were treated in these assemblies. 5 
Every Moslem had free admission to such lectures in the mosques,' 
which remained until the eleventh century the extension school 
of Islam. 

These mosque circles bring to mind another type of coterie, 
chiefly literary, which met in the homes of the aristocracy and 
cultured society under the name of majalis al-adabf literary 
salons. These gatherings begin to appear early under the *Ab- 
basids. In the presence of several early caliphs poetical contests, 
religious debates and literary conferences were often held. We 
owe a few surviving works to such debates. 5 

Mosques also functioned as repositories for books. Through \ 
gifts and bequests mosque libraries became especially rich in 
religious literature. Among others the historian al-Khatib al- 
Baghdadi (1002-71) willed his books "as a waqf [mortmain] for 
the Moslems", but they were housed in the home of a friend of 
his. 6 Other libraries established by dignitaries or men of wealth 
as semi-public institutions housed collections bearing on logic, 
philosophy, astronomy and other sciences, 7 Scholars and men of 
standing had no difficulty in finding access even to private collec- 
tions. Al-Mawsil had before the middle of the tenth century a 
library, built by one of its citizens, where students were even 
supplied with free paper. 8 The library (kkizaiiat al-kutttb) 
founded in ShTraz by the Buwayhid *Adud-al-Dawlah (977-82) 
had its books arranged in cases and listed in catalogues and was 
administered by a regular staff. 9 In the same century al-Basrah 
hada library whose founder granted stipends for scholars working 
in it. 10 In al-Rayy there flourished at the same time a "home of 
books" with over four hundred camel-loads of manuscripts listed 
in a ten-volume catalogue. 11 Libraries were used as meeting* 
places for scientific discussion and debate. Yaqut spent three 
years collecting material for his geographical dictionary from the 

1 Yaqut, UJcba\ vol. vi, p. 3S3; Suyu$ t tfusn, vol* i, p. 136. * P. 31}. 

* Yaqut, vol. £t, p. 135, iL 14-16, vol. vi, p. 432, II. 14-16. 

* Aghant, vol xviii, p, iou * See above, p. 354. 

* Yaqut, vol. i, p. 252, vol. iv, p. 287. 

T l?or an illustration see t'Hd. vol. v, p. 467. 

Y?^ vo1 * P« * 20 > * M»q<*w». P< 449. See also Yaqut, vol. v, p. 446. 
" MaqtHsi, p. 413. « Yaqut, vol. ii, p. 315. 



414 THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES PARTIU 

libraries of Marw and Khwarizm, whence he fled in 1220 at the 
approach of the Mongol hordes of ChingTz Khan, who com- 
mitted all these libraries to the flames. 

Bootehops The bookshop as a commercial and educational agency also 
makes its appearance early under the 'Abbasids. Al-Ya'qubi 1 
asserts that in his time (891) the capital boasted over a hundred 
book-dealers congregated in one street. Many of these shops, like 
their modern successors in Cairo and Damascus, were but small 
booths by the mosques, but some were undoubtedly large enough 
to act as centres for connoisseurs and bibliophiles. The book- 
sellers themselves were often caliigraphcrs, copyists and literati 
who used their shops not only as stores and ateliers but as centres 
for literary discussion. They occupied a not inconspicuous place 
in society. Yaqut started on his career as a book-dealer's clerk. 
Al-Nadim (f 995), also called al-Warraq (stationer), was evi- 
dently himself a librarian or book-dealer to whose catalogue we 
possibly owe that scholarly and remarkable work al-Fikrist. In 
this work 5 we read of an 'Iraqi bibliophile whose large trunk 
housed treasures of manuscripts which included parchments, 
Egyptian papyri, Chinese paper and leather scrolls, each bear- 
ing the name of the scribe attested by the notes of from five 
to six generations of learned men. 

Paper The common wiring-material was parchment or papyrus 
down to the beginning of the third Moslem century. Certain 
official documents written on parchment and looted in the civil 
war between al-Amin and aI-Ma*rnun were later washed clean 
and sold again. 3 After the beginning of the third century some 
Chinese paper was imported into al-*Iraq, but soon the paper 
industry became indigenous. It was first into Samarquand, as we 
have already pointed out, that certain Chinese prisoners intro- 
duced in 751 the art of manufacturing paper from flax, hnen or 
hemp rags. 4 The ancient Arabic word for paper, kdghad, is pro- 
bably of Chinese origin through Persian. From Samarquand the 
industry soon passed to al- r Iraq. At the instance of the Barmakid 
al-Fadl ibn-Yahya, who had been governor of Khurasan in 794, 
the first paper-mill was established in Baghdad. 5 His brother 
Ja'far, Harun*s vizir, had parchment replaced by paper in the 

1 P. 245- * P. 40 5 Ftknst % p. ar. 

4 W. Barthold, Turkestan dentm to the Mangel Invasion, 2nd ed {Oxford, 1928), 
pp. 236-7. Cf. Fikrtst, p. 21. 
* Ibn-Khaldun, Muqaddamah % p. 352 



' ch, xxvai * EDUCATION 4*5 

1 government offices. 1 Other Moslem towns erected mills on the 
plan of those in Samarqand. A native factory arose in Tihamah 
for the manufacture of paper from vegetable fibre. 2 At the time 
of al-Maqdisi 3 the Samarqand product was still considered the 
finest. But in the following century, the eleventh, even better 
paper was manufactured in such Syrian towns as Tripoli. 4 From 
Western Asia the industry made its way at the end of the ninth 
century into the Delta of Egypt, where several towns had been 
for a long time exporting to the Greek-speaking lands papyrus 
for writing-material under the name qarafis? By the end of the 
tenth century paper had succeeded in entirely displacing papyrus 
and parchment throughout the Moslem world. 

That there was an elite of highly educated men under the first 
'Abbasids is fully recognized, but how high the general level of 
culture was among the masses is not so easy to determine. A story 
about a starving scholar of Baghdad who hesitated to sell his 
books even when his daughter was taken ill has been preserved 
in Yaqut. 6 The answers submitted by the educated slave girl 
Tawaddud to the questions of the savants as reported in The 
T/iousa?id and One Nights (nos. 438-61) may be taken as an 
index of the degree of knowledge attained by the cultured person 
after Harun and down to the twelfth century. According to 
Tawaddud intellect is of two kinds: one innate and the other 
acquired. Its seat is the heart, where God deposits it and whence 
it ascends to the brain. Man has three hundred and sixty veins, 
two hundred and forty bones and five senses. He is compounded 
of four elements: water, earth, fire and air. The stomach lies in 
front of the heart, to which the lungs are ventilators. The liver is 
the seat of compassion; the spleen, of laughter; and the two 
kidneys, of cunning. The head has five faculties: sensation, im- 
agination, will, fancy and retention. The stomach is the home of 
all disease, and diet is the source of all healing. The planets are 
seven: the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and 
Saturn. 7 

1 Maqria, Kkifrt, c<L Wiet, vol. ii, p t 34. Cf. Qalqashandi, vol, 11, pp, 475-6. 

* See Fikrjf, p. 40, 1. 23. * P, 326 

* Nasir*i-K!msraw, Sefer AftneA, ed. and tr* Charles Schefer (Pans, iSSx), text 
p. 12, tr. p« 41. 

* Sing, q irf&f, from Gu ckertcs. See Ya'qubi, p. 338, 11* 8, 13; Qalqashandi, vol. n, 
p. 474, See above, p. 34?* * Vol. i, pp. 3S-9. 

7 Hie \ery same planets of the Ptolemaic system. The last fhc ^erc those knov,n 
to ibt Assyrians and Babylonians; Jastrow, Ctmlisatwn of Bat% /<w« t p ?6j . 



From 7". ft Arnold and A.GrthmaKn. "Tht Islamic £e*k, ' by femisrten fifth* Ptfarus Priit^Poru 

A SILVER PORTRAIT COIN OF AL-MUTAWAKKIL (OF THE 
YEAR 855) WITH A TWO-POINTED BEARD, WEARING A 
LOW CAP OF THE SASAN1D TYPE 
(Original in Kunsthistonsches Museum, Vienna) 



CHAPTER XXIX 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF FINE ARTS 



In his art as in his poetry the Arab, a Semite, revealed himself 
with a keen appreciation of the particular and the subjective 
and with a delicate sense for detail, but with no particular 
capacity for harmonizing and unifying the various parts into a 
great and united whole. However, in architecture and painting 
particularly, he did not so early attain a certain degree of pro- 
gress, and stand still for ever after, as he did in his sciences after 
the tenth century. 

Archi- Of the architectural monuments which once adorned the city 
teciure q ^ al-Mans.Gr and al-Rashid no trace has been left, whereas two 
of the noblest surviving structures of Islam, the Umayyad 
Mosque at Damascus and the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem, 
date from the earlier Umayyad period. The caliphal palace 
called the Golden Gate {bab al-dhahab) or Green Dome 
qubbah al-khadra) erected by the founder of Baghdad, as well 
as his Palace of Eternity (qasr al-khuld) and the Rusafah 

4x6 



Wxxix ' t "THE DEVELOPMENT OF FINE ARTS « 417 

palace, built for the crown prince al-Mahdi; 1 the palaces of the 
Barmakids at al-Shammasiyah; 2 , the palace of the Pleiades 
(al-thurayyd), on which al-Mu*tadid (892-902), who restored 
Baghdad as capital after Samarra, spent 400,000 dinars, 3 and 
his adjoining palace styled the Crown (al-tdf)* completed by 
his son al-Muktafi (902-8); the unique mansion of fcl-Muqtadir 
(908-32) designated the Hall of the Tree (ddr al-shajaraji) on 
account of the gold and silver tree that stood in its pond; the 
Buwayhid mansion known by the name al-Mu'uzTyah after 
Mu'izz-al-Dawlah (932-67), which cost 1,000,000 dinars 5 — all 
these and many others like them left no remains to give us an 
inkling of the splendour that was theirs. So complete was the 
destruction wrought by the civil war between al-Amln and al- 
Ma'mun, by the final devastation of the capital by Hulagu in 
1258 and by natural causes that even the sites of most of these 
palaces cannot today be identified. 

Outside of the capital no *Abbasid ruin can be dated with any 
degree of probability prior to the reigns of al-Mu'tasim (833-42), 
founder of Samarra t and of his son a}-Mute\Y$kki} (847- 
86i), the builder of its great mosque. 0 This congregational 
mosque, which cost 700,000 dinars, 7 was rectangular and the 
multifoil arches of its windows suggest Indian influence. 
Neither here nor in the mosque at abu-Dulaf (also of the mid- 
ninth century) near Samarra has any trace been found of the 
mihrfib (prayer niche) in the qiblah wall. The wall mihrab seems 
to have been a Syrian invention, suggested in all likelihood by 
the apse in the Christian church. 8 Outside, against the wall of 
the great mosque of Samarra, rose a tower which is analogous 
to the ancient Babylonian ziggnrat? This tower was copied 
by ibn-Tulun for the minaret of his mosque (876-5), in which 
the pointed arch appears for the third time in Egypt, after the 
repaired mosque of 'Amr (827) and the Nilometer (861). Such 
" 'Abbasid remains as have survived at al-Raqqah, of the late 

1 Al-Khajib (al-Baghdadi), vol. i, pp. 82-3. 
» * One of the eastern quarters of Baghdad. 

s Mas'Gdi, vol, via, p. n6. This palace was destroyed two centuries later. 

* Khatib,vol. i, pp. 99 sea. * lbn-al-Athlr, vol. ix, p. 2^6 

, * Ya'qfcbs, p. 260; Maqdist, p. 122. » Yaqut, JBuldan, vol in, p. 17, 

* Ernest T, Richmond, Moslem Architecture, 623 to i$i6 (London 1926) p *C4* 
" <£ Ernst Herzfcld, Erster vorlaufiger£cricht titer die Ausgrabungcn vdn Samarra 

(Berlin, 1912), p. 10. See above, p, 261, 

* Above, p. 262. This ancient minaret with its spiral outside stai^ay still exists 
under the name Malwiyah (the bent one). 



CH/XX1X 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF FINE ARTS' - 



419 



eighth century, and at Samarra cany on the tradition of Asiatic, 
more particularly Persian, architecture in contrast to the 
Umayyad structures which bear clear traces of Byzantine- 
Syrian art. Under the Sasatiid dynasty (A.D. 226-641) a dis- 
tinctive type of Persian architecture was developed, with ovoid 
or elliptical domes, semicircular arches, spiral towers, indented 




From Andrae u P*r t»t* Adad Tempd 1 (fftttrtefts, Ltifitj?) 

, STAGE TOWERS, ZJGGUJtAT, OF THE ANXJ-ADAD TEMPLE 
' ^ AT ASHUR (A RECONSTRUCTION) 

battlements, glazed wall-tiles and metal-covered roofs. This 
type became one of the most powerful factors in the formation 
of *Abbdsid art. 

The theologians* hostility to all forms of representational Pau 
art 1 did mo more stop its development along Islamic lines than 
did ,the more explicit koranic injunction against wine enforce 
prohibition in Moslem society. We have already noticed that 
al-Mansur set upon the dome of his palace the figure of a horse- 
man which might have served as a weathercock, that al-Amln 
had his pleasure boats on the Tigris fashioned like lions, eagles 
and dolphins and that al-Muqtadir had a gold and silver tree 
with eighteen branches planted in a huge tank in his palace. 
1 Sec above, pp. 269-71, 



420 



THE UMAVYAD AND f ABBASID EMPIRES part nt 



On cither side of the tank stood the statues of fifteen horsemen, 
dressed in brocade and armed with lances, constantly moving 
as though in combat. 

The builder of Samarra (836), the CaHph al-Mu r tasim, had 
the walls of his palace there ornamented like those of Qusayr 
*Amrah with frescoes of nude female figures and hunting-scenes, 
probably the work of Christian artists. His second successor, 
al-Mutawakkil, under whom this temporary capital reached its 
zenith, 1 employed for the mural decoration of his palace Byzan- 
tine painters who had no scruples against including among the 
many pictures a church with monks, 2 

In Islam painting was pressed into the service of religion at a 
rather late date and never became its handmaid as it did in 
Buddhism and Christianity. The earliest record of any pictorial 
representation of the Prophet was noted by an Arabian traveller 
of the late ninth century who saw it in the Chinese court, 3 but it 
may well have been produced by Nestorians. The many repre- 
sentations of the Buraq seem to have taken for their prototype, 
through Persian channels, Greek centaurs or the human-headed, 
winged beasts of the earlier Assyrians. Moslem religious painting, 
however, does not make its full appearance until the beginning 
of the fourteenth century. Its derivation was evidently from the 
art of the Oriental Christian churches, particularly the Jacobite 
and the Nestorian, as the researches of Arnold have shown,* and 
developed from book-decoration In miniature illustration the 
Manichaean influence is sometimes apparent. 6 Of the few 
Arabic works dealing with the history of Islamic painters un- 
fortunately none have survived — so little has been the interest 
in the subject. 

The oldest illustrated Arabic manuscript extant is al-Sufi's 
astronomy dated 1005 (nowin Leningrad). In belles-lettres we have 
no work before the thirteenth and twelfth Christian centuries, as 
represented by Kaltlah wa-Dimnah, al-rjarin's Maqamdt, and 
al-Aghani* These miniatures reveal artists who worked under 

1 His buildings are discussed by Ya'qubi, pp 266 7, and b) Yaqut, vol ui, pp 
r 7-1S, who estimates that thej cost al-Mutawakkil 294,000,000 dirhams 

2 Ernst Herzfeld, Die Malcrexen van Samarra (Berlin, J 927), pis lxi t Km 

* Mas'udi, vol 1, pp 315 18 * Painting tn Islam (Oxford, 1928)* ch ut 

* Cf. Thomas W Arnold and Adolf Grohmamu The Islamic Bool (London, 
1929), p 2 

e For a 1 217/18 miniature of the Prophet consult Bulletin dc V Instttut d £gypte t 
vol, xxvm (Cairo, 1946), pp 1-5 



422 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PART III 



the influence of traditions derived from a Christian source or 
were Christians themselves Such Moslems as cared to ignore the 
teaching of their theologians had first to employ Jacobite or 
Nestonan painters until the Moslems themselves had time to 
develop their independent artists. Persia with its old Indo- 
Iranian instincts and traditions was particularly fertile in the 




f*rvM Arn >JJ end Gri>/t» ami The Islan ic Bo tx (TAt Pf casus Puss) 

A SCENC I- ROM AL HARIRI, MAQAMAH 19 
A sick man, with his son behind his head, is \1s1ted by Ins friends 
MS , dated a H 734 (1334), in the National Library, Vienna 

early production of such independent painters But the prevailing 
idea that this production was due to non-conformist Shfite ten- 
dencies cannot be sound in view of the fact that Shl'ism did not 
prevail in Persia to the extent of becoming the state religion until 
the establishment of the Safawid dynasty m 1502. 
industrial Since early antiquity the Persians have proved themsches 
MU masters of decorative design and colour. Through their efforts 
the industrial arts of Islam attained a high degree of excellence. 
Carpet-weaving, as old as Pharaonic Egypt, was especially de- 
veloped. Hunting and garden scenes were favoured in rug de- 
signs, and alum was used in the dye to render the many colours 



CH.XXIX THE DEVELOPMENT OF FINE ARTS 



fast. Decorated silk fabrics, the product of Moslem hand-looms 
in Egypt and Syria, were so highly prized in Europe that they 
were chosen by Crusaders and other Westerners, above all tex- 
tiles, as wrappings for relics of saints* 

In ceramics, another art as ancient as Egypt and Susa, the 
reproduction of the human form and of animals and plants, as 
well as geometric and epigraphic figures, attained a beauty of 
decorative style unsurpassed in any other Moslem art, 1 In spite 
of the prejudicial attitude of legists, which crystallized in the 
second and third Moslem centuries against plastic as well as 
pictorial art, pottery and metal-work continued to produce dis- 
tinctive pieces second to none in the Middle Ages, Qashani tile, 
decorated with conventional flowers, which was introduced from 
Persia to Damascus, found great vogue, together with mosaic 
work, in exterior and interior decoration of buildings. Better 
than any others, Arabic characters lent themselves to decorative 
designs and became a powerful motif in Islamic art. They even 
became religious symbols. Particularly in Antioch, Aleppo, 
Damascus and such ancient Phoenician towns as Tyre were the 
processes of enamelling and gilding glass perfected. Among 
the treasures of the Louvre, the British Museum and the Arab 
Museum of Cairo are exquisite pieces from Samarra and ai* 
„ Fustat, including plates, cups, vases, ewers and lamps for home 
and mosque use, painted with brilliant radiant lustres and 
acquiring through the ages metallic glazes of changing rainbow 
hue. 

The art of calligraphy, which drew its prestige from its object 
to perpetuate the word of God, and enjoyed the approval of the 
Koran (68 ; I, 96 ; 4), arose m the second or third Moslem cen- 
tury and soon became the most highly prized art. 2 It was entirely 
Islamic and its influence on painting was appreciable. Through 
it the Moslem sought a channel for his esthetic nature, which 
could not express itself tlirough the representation of animate 
objects. The calligrapher held a position of dignity and honour 
far above the painter. Even rulers sought to win religious merit 
by copying the Koran. Arabic books of history and literature 
have preserved for us with honourable mention the names of 
several calligraphers^but kept their silence in the case of archi- 
tects, painters and metal-workers. Among the founders of Arabic 
* * Gaston Migcon, JLcs oris musulmons (Paris, 1926), pp. 36-7. 
* Set QaJqashandi, vol. hi, pp. $ seq , vol. u, pp. 430 seq. 



424 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PART III 



calligraphy were al-Rayhani 1 (Rlhani, 1834), who flourished 
under al-Ma'mun and perfected the style named after him; ibn- 
Muqlah (886-940), the *Abbasid vizir whose hand was cut off by 
the Caliph al-Radi and who could still write elegantly with his left 
hand and even by attaching a pen to the stump of his right one; 8 
and ibn-al-Bawwab 3 (f 1022 or 1032), the son of a porter of the 
audience chamber of Baghdad and inventor of the muJtaqqaq 
style. The last penman of the 'Abbasid period to achieve dis- 
tinction was Yaqut al-Musta*simi, the court calligraphist of the 
last 'Abbasid caliph, from whose name the Yaquti style derives 
its designation. Judging by the surviving specimens of the 
penmanship of Yaqut* and other renowned calligraphers of yore 
the artistic merits cannot be placed high. Calligraphy is perhaps 
the only Arab art which today has Christian and Moslem repre- 
sentatives in Constantinople, Cairo, Beirut and Damascus whose 
productions excel in elegance and beauty any masterpieces that 
the ancients ever produced. 

Not only calligraphy but its associate arts, colour decoration, 
illumination, and the whole craft of bookbinding, owed their 
genesis and bloom to their relation to the sacred book. Under the 
late 'Abbasids began the art of book-decoration and Koran illu- 
mination which reached its highest development in the Saljuqand 
Mamluk periods. Here again the pictorial art of the Nestorians 
and Jacobites was evidently the main influencing factor. -The 
Moslem gilder {?nudhahhib\ who thus arose after the calli- 
graphcr, ranked second to him in importance. After the Koran 
the art was extended to include profane manuscripts. 

The legists' disapproval of music was no more effective in 
Baghdad than it had been before in Damascus. The 'Abbasid 
al-Mahdi began where the last Umayyads ended. He invited 
and patronized Siyat 5 of Makkah (739-85), "whose song warmed 
the chilled more than a hot bath'*, 6 and his pupil Ibrahim al- 
Mawsili (742-804), who after his master became the patriarch of 
classical music. When young, Ibrahim, a descendant of a noble 
Persian family, 7 was kidnapped outside al-Mawsil and during 

1 Fxkrtst, p 119; Yaqut, Udcbd\ vol. v, pp. 268 seq. 

* Ibn-Khalhkfin, vol. 11 , p. 472; Fakhrt, pp. 366, 370-7 1; YaqQt, vol. iii, p. 150. 
JL 8- 10 * Ibn-Khalhkan, vol* 11, pp. 31 seq.\ Nutvayn, \ol. vh, pp. 3-4, 

* Sec B. Moritz, Arahc Palaograpky (Cairo, 1905), pi 89 

* 'Abdullah lbn-Wahb, a freedman of Khuza'ah; Aghdni t vol. vi, p. 7. 

* Aghant, vol. vi, p. 8, 11. 4-5, quoted by Nuwayri, vol. iv, p. 289. 

* Fthrist) p. 140, ibn-Khalbkan, vol. i, p. 14; Nuwayri, vol. iv, p. 320. 



CK.XX1X 'THE DEVELOPMENT OF FINE ARTS 4*5 

his detention learned some of the brigands* songs. He was the 
first to beat the rhythm with a wand 1 and could detect one girl 
amongthirty lute-players and ask her to tighten the second string 
ofherill-tuncd instrument. 2 Later, al-Rashld took Ibrahim into his 
service as boon companion, bestowed on him 1 50,000 dirhams 
and assigned him a monthly salary of 10,000 dirhams. From his 
patron the artist received occasional presents, one of which is 
said to Jiave amounted to 100,000 dirhams for a single song. 
Ibrahim had an inferior rival in ibn-Jami*, a Qurayshite and 
stepson of Siyat. In the judgment of the % lqd "Ibrahim was the 
greatest of the musicians in versatility, but ibn~Jami r had the 
sweetest note". 3 When a favoured court minstrel was asked by 
Harun for his opinion of ibn-Jami f , his reply was: "How can 1 
describe honey, which is sweet however you taste it?"* 

The refined and dazzling court of ai-Rashld patronized music 
and singing, as it did science and art, to the extent of becoming 
the centre of a galaxy of musical stars. 5 Salaried musicians 
accompanied by men and women slave singers thrived in it and 
furnished the theme for numberless fantastic anecdotes im- 
mortalized in the pages of the Agkani? x Iqd t Fihrist, Nihdyah r 
and, above all, the Arabian Nights. Two thousand such singers 
took part in a musical festival under the caliph's patronage* His 
son al-Amln held a similar night entertainment in which the 
personnel of the palace, both male and female, danced till dawn. 7 
While the army of al-Ma'mun was investing Baghdad al-Anun 
sat pathetically in his palace on the bank of the Tigris listening 
to his favourite singing girls. 8 

Another proteg£ of al-Rashid was Mukhariq (f ca. 845), a 
pupil of Ibrahim. When young, Mukhariq was bought by a 
woman singer who heard him in his father's butcher shop cry* 
ing in his beautiful and powerful voice his father's meats. He 
later passed into the possession of Harun, who freed him, re- 
warded him with 100,000 dinars 9 and honoured him with a seat 
by the caliph's side. One evening he went out on the Tigris and 

* P- 3 *°> 1* 4. Cf. above, p. 275. * Aghant, vol. v, p. 41. 

* Vol. in, p. *39 + * Uc. dl. Cf. Agkani, vol. vi, p. 12, 

* I$d, vol. in, pp. 239 se$. 

* besides being a treasure-house of information on almost every phase of Arab 
social life* this "book of songs" is also a history of music from prc-lslamic days to 
the jime of the author, ftMsfahani {$07~9$7)> the greatest music historian the Arabs 
produced. ' Above, p. 303. • Mas'udi, vol. vi, pp. 426-^0. 

* Agk&ti vol *xj, p. 226, vol- viri, p. 20. 



426 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 



started to sing. Immediately torches began to move to and fro in 
the streets of Baghdad in the hands of people anxious to hear the 
master-singer. 1 

Al-Ma*mun and al-Mutawakkil had as a cup companion 
Ishaq ibn-IbrahTm al-Mawsili (767-850), dean of the musicians 
of his age. 3 After his father, Ishaq personified the spirit of classi- 
cal Arabic music. As an all-round musician he was "the greatest 
that Islam had produced*'. 3 He claimed, as did also his father 
and Ztryab, that it was the jinn who prompted his melodies. 

These and other virtuosi of 'the halcyon days who won undying 
fame as companions to the caliphs were more than musicians; 
they were endowed with keen wits and retentive memories well 
stocked with choice verses of poetry and delightful anecdotes. 
They were singers, composers, poets and scholars well versed in 
the scientific lore of the day. Under them stood the instrument- 
alists (sing, ddrib), among whom the lute was generally most 
favoured; the viol (radalr) was used by inferior performers. Then 
came the singing girls (sing. qaynah) t who as a rule performed 
while concealed behind curtains. Such girls came to be a 
necessary adornment of the harem and their keeping and 
training developed into an important industry. For one educated 
by Ishaq, a messenger of the governor of Egypt offered 30,000 
dinars, which sum was matched by an envoy of the Byzantine 
emperor and increased to 40,000 by a messenger of the ruler of 
Khurasan. Ishaq solved the problem by freeing the girl and 
marrying her.* 

The caliphal house in Baghdad, more than that of Damascus, 
developed several distinguished lutanists, singers and composers. 
Of all the *Abbasids Ibrahim ibn-al-Mahdi, brother of Harun 
and in 817 rival caliph of al-Ma'mun, acquired the greatest fame 
as musician-singer. 2 Al-Wathiq (842-7^, who performed on the 
lute and composed a hundred melodies, 8 was the first caliph 
musician. After him both al-Muntasir (861-2) and al-Mu'tazz 
(866-9) showed some poetical and musical talent. 7 But the only 
real caliph musician was al - Mu'tamid (870-92), in whose 

1 Aghani, vol. xxi t pp. 237-8. Cf. Nuwayri, Nthayah^ \o\. iv, p. 307. 
1 See ibn-Khalhkan, vol 1, pp 114 seqs, Ftkrts£ t pp. 140*41; Aghant t vol. v, pp. 
52 scq*\ Nuwayri, vol. v, pp. 1 sea. 

* Farmer, Arabian Music^ p. 125. 4 Fchhri t pp. 276*9. 

* Ibn-KhaiUkSn, vol. i, pp. 12 segs, "Jakari, vol. hi, pp. 1030 sea. 

* Agkant, vol. viu, p. 163, quoted by Nuwa>ri, vol. xv, p. 198, 

* Nuwayri, vol. iv, p. 199. 



* CHl 30UX '<* --THE DEVELOPMENT OF FINE ARTS * ' 427 

presence the geographer ibn-Khurdadhbih delivered his oration 

on music and dance, a notable contribution to our knowledge 

of their state at that time. 1 
Among the many Greek works translated in the golden age: 

of the *Abbastds were a few dealing with the speculative theory 1 
of music. Two such Aristotelian works were done into Arabic 
under the titles Kitdb aUMasail (Problcmatd) and Kitdb fi 
al-Naf$ (De anirna) z by the famous Nestorian physician 
Hunayn ibn-Ishaq (809-73), w ^o also translated a work by 
Galen under the title Kitdb al-Sawt (De voce). Euclid had two 
titles ascribed to him in Arabic, Kitdb al-Nagham (book of 
melody), a pseudo-Euclidian work, and Kitab al-Qdnun (canon). 8 
Aristoxenus, of the fourth century B.C., was known chiefly by 
his Kitdb al-tqtt (rhythm) 4 and Nicomachus, Aristotle's son, 
through Kitdb al-Muslqi al-Kablr (opus major on music). 5 The 
Brethren of Sincerity (tenth century), some of whom were 
evidently musical theorists, classified music as a branch of 
mathematics and venerated Pythagoras as the founder of its 
theory. 6 It was from these and other Greek works that the Arab 
authors acquired their first scientific ideas on music and became 
schooled in the physical and physiological aspects of the theory 
of sound. The scientific-mathematical side of Arab music was 
therefore derived from the Greek, but the practical side, as the 
researches of Farmer 7 have shown, had purely Arabian models. 
About this time the word musxqi, later musiqa (music), was 
borrowed from the Greek and applied to the theoretical aspects 
of the science, leaving the older Arabic term ghina, used 
hitherto for both song and music, to the practical art. Qitdr 
(guitar) and nrghun (organ), as names of instruments, and other 
technicaHcrms of Greek origin now appear in Arabic. The organ 
was clearly an importation from the Byzantines. Two organ 
constructors flourished in the twelfth century, abu-at-Majd 
ibn-abi-al-Hakam (fn8o) of Damascus and abu-Zakariya* 
Yahya al-Bayasi, who was attached to the service of Salah- 
al-Dln.* 

1 Mas*udi t vol. viii, pp. S8-103. 

5 Possibly translated by ljunayn's son Isrmq (f 910), 

* Fikristt p. 266; Qifft p. 65. 

* Fihtist, p. 270. * Ibid, p. 269. « Xas&it, vol. J, p. I 

"* AraMcn Music, pp. 200-2015 "Music" in The Legacy of Islam, ed. Thoinae 
Arnold and Alfred GuillMime (Oxford, 1931), pp. 356 seq. 
■ Ibn-ftbi-UgaybTah, vol. ii, pp. 155, 163. 



428 THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES part m 

Musical writers after the Greek school were led by the 
philosopher al-Kindi, who flourished in the second half of the 
ninth century and whose works, as noted before, bear the earliest 
traces of Greek influence. Al-Kindi is credited with six works, 
in one of which we find the first definite use of notation among the 
Arabs. Not only ai-Kindi but several of the leading Moslem 
philosophers and physicians were musical theorists as well. 
Al-Ra2i (865-925) composed at least one such work, cited by 
ibn-abi-UsaybTah. 1 Al-Farabi (f 950), himself an accomplished 
lute performer, was the greatest writer on the theory of music 
during the Middle Ages. Besides writing commentaries on 
various lost works of Euclid he produced three original works. 
Of these Kitdb al-Aiusiqi al-Kabir 2 was the most authoritative in 
the East. In the West his compendium of sciences, Ihsa aU 
*Uluvi* {De seic7itiis) t being the earliest and best known of the 
works dealing with music to be rendered into Latin, exerted 
powerful influence. Besides the writings of al-Farabi those of 
ibn-Sina (f 1037), who abridged earlier works and included in 
his at-Shifa a study of music, and of ibn-Rushd (f 1198) were 
translated into Latin and became text-books in Western Europe. 
As for al-Ghazzali (f 1 u 1), it was his defence of al-samd' (music 
and song) 4 that caused music to play such an important part in 
the ritual of the Sufi fraternities. 

Most of these technical treatises unhappily have been lost in 
the original. Arabic music, with its notation and its two con- 
stituent elements of nagham (melodic modes) and tqa (rhythmic 
modes), has been therefore transmitted by word of mouth only 
and has been finally lost. Arabic chants today are scant in 
melody but strong in rhythm, and no modern person can interpret 
properly the few surviving works on classical music or under- 
stand fully the meaning of their ancient designations of rhythm 
and their scientific terminology. Many such terms may be traced 
to Persian and Indian origins. 

1 Vol. i, p. 320, ]. 26. 1 See above, p. 372, n. I* 

1 Ed. 'Uthman Muhammad Amin (Cairo, 1931) 
* Ifry£\ vol. a, pp. 238 scq* 



CHAPTER XXX 
MOSLEM SECTS 



WE have dwelt at some length on the first two and a half 
centuries of the *Abbasid period (750-1000) because this was a 
formative period during which Moslem civilization received that 
distinctive stamp which it has retained down to our time. In 
theology and law, in science and philosophy, in literature and 
the humanities, Islam is today virtually what it was nine centuries 
ago- Its schools of thought, developed then, have persisted in 
some form to the present day. Among those schools the sects are 
the most important. 

The Mu'taziiah started as a rigid puritanical movement assert- 
ing that the doctrine that the Koran was the uncreated word of 
God and eternal would compromise His unity, but developed 
later a rationalist wing which accorded the products of human 
reason an absolute value above the Koran. Prompted by his 
Mu*tazilite judge ibn-abi-Duwad, 1 aI-Ma*mun, whose philoso- 
phical interests raised the new creed to a state religion, issued in 
827 a momentous proclamation declaring the dogma of "the 
creation [kkalq] of the Koran", in opposition to the orthodox 
view that in its actual form, in its Arabic language, the Koran 
is the identical reproduction of a celestial original. 3 This new 
dogma of "the creation of the Koran" soon became the touch- 
stone of Moslem belief. Even judges had to pass its test. In 833 
the caliph issued his infamous edict that no qadi who did not 
subscribe to the view of the creation of the Koran could hold 
his office or be appointed to one. At the same time he instituted 
the miknah, an inquisitorial tribunal for the trial and conviction 
of those who denied his dogma. 3 Thus by a strange irony of fate 
did the movement which had a party standing for free-thought 
become a deadly instrument for suppressing thought. 

* See ibn-KhtOlikaa, vol. i, pp. 38-45; Tabari, vol. in, pp. lt& se$. 
4 Sec above, pp. 123-4. 

* A copy of his orders is preserved in Talari, vol. Hi, pp. 1112-16. 

429 



43° 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 



Moslem This was not the first time Islam persecuted heresy. The 
mtpmmon xjmayyad Hisham (724-43) had ordered the execution of al-Ja'd 
ibn-Dirham for teaching that the Koran was created 1 and had 
put to death Ghaylan al-Dimashqi (the Damascene) for maintain- 
ing the doctrine of free will; 2 and both al-Mahdi and al-Hadi 
had crucified a number of zi?tdzgs. z But this mthnak of al- 
Ma'mun was the first systematic inquisition into heresy and the 
earliest formal attempt to stamp it out. 

The leading victim of the mthnak was Ahmad ibn-IJanbai, 4 
whose bold and stubborn championship of the cause of con- 
servative orthodoxy constitutes one of the glamorous pages in 
its history. The persecution of the orthodox continued under 
al-Ma'mun's two successors. But in the second year of his reign, 
848, al-Mutawakkil turned the tables on the Mu'tazilites and 
restored the old dogma. 

Among the leaders of the Mu'taziiite school of this period was 
al-Nazzam (f ca. 845). This "sheikh of the Mu'tazilites" en- 
deavoured to check the Persian dualistic tendencies in Islam 
and proclaimed that doubt was the first absolute requirement 
of knowledge. 6 His system recalls in the main Anaxagoras. 
Al-Nazzam counted among his pupils the encyclopaedist al-Jahiz 
of al-Basrah (f 868-9).® Another early leader was Mu'ammar 
ibn-'Abbad al-Sulami 7 (f ca. 835), a Qadarite who entertained 
Indian ideas. 

The ^ On the theological side the man credited with exploding the 
^tcm ltC Mu'tazilite theories and re-establishing the orthodox creed which 
prevails has since become the heritage of Sunni Islam was abu-al-rjasan 
r Ali al-Ash'ari of Baghdad (f 935~6), 8 a descendant of the 
arbitrator abu-Musa. "Al-Mu'tazilah", in the words of a pious 
Moslem, "carried their heads high, but their dominion ended 
when God sent al-Ash'ari. n Starting as a pupil of the Mu'tazilite 
theologian al-Jubba'i 0 (f 91 5-16), al-Ash'ari later in life changed 

1 Ibn al-Athlr, vol. \, pp. 196 7. 

* Hid p 197, Tabari, vol u, p 1733. 

* See above, p 359 * Tabiri, %oI tu f pp. 1 13 1 seq. 

* For his "heresies" see Shahrastam, pp. 37 42, Baghdudi, ed HitU, pp 102-9 

* Ibn-Hazm, vol. iv, p 14S, al-Kha)ylt, Ktt&b ai /nit far, cd. H. S. Njberg 
(Cairo, 1925), index. 

7 Consult Shahrastani, pp 46 8, Baghdadi, pp, 109-10 

1 See his Maqalat al-Islamtyn^ ed. H. Rrtter (Constantinople, 1 929), pp. 155*27$; 
Shahrostani, pp 65-75. 

* Sfc Shrhrastam, pp. 54 stq , Baghdadi, p 121. 



CU. XXX 



;MDSLEM SECTS 



fronts 1 and used in his polemics against his former masters the 
same weapons of logical and philosophical argumentation which 
they had introduced and developed. Thus he became, in addi- 
tion to his other achievements, the founder of scholastic theology 
in Islam (kaldm). After him the scholastic attempt to reconcile 
religious doctrine with Greek thought became the supreme 
feature of Moslem intellectual life as it was of medieval Christian 
life. To al-Ash'ari is also attributed the introduction of the for- 
mula bila kayf (without modality), according to which one is 
expected to accept the anthropomorphic expressions in the Koran 
without any explanation demanded or given. This new principle 
served as a damper on free-thought and research. It was with a 
view to propagating the Ash'ari system of theology that the 
famous Nizamlyah seminary was established by the Saljuq vizir. 

Al-Ash'ari was followed by al-Ghazzali 3 (L, Algazci), un- 
questionably the greatest theologian of Islam and one of its 
noblest and most original thinkers. It was al-Ghazzali who fixed 
the ultimate form of the Ash'ariyah and established its dicta as 
the universal creed of Islam. This "father of the church in 
Islam" has since become the final authority for Sunnite ortho- 
doxy. Moslems say that if there could have been a prophet after 
Muhammad, al-Ghazzali would have been the man. 

Abu-fjamid al-Ghazzali was born in 1058 at Tus, Khurasan, 
where he died in mi. He reproduced in his religious experience 
all the spiritual phases developed by Islam. Here are his own 
words: 

Ever since I was under twenty (now I am over fifty) I have not 

ceased to investigate every dogma or belief. No Bafinite did I come 
across without desiring to investigate bis esotericism; no Zahiritc, with- 
out wishing to acquire the gist of his literalism; no philosopher, 8 without 
wanting to learn the essence of his philosophy; no dialectical theo- 
logian {mutckaltim], without striving to ascertain the object of his 
dialectics and theology; no Sufi, without coveting to probe the secret of 
his Sufism; no ascetic, without trying to delve into the origin of his 
asceticism; no atheistic mndtq^ without groping for the causes of 
his bold atheism and zindiqism* Such was the unquenchable thirst 
of my soul for investigation from the early days of my youth, an 

* From#*«*z7 (spinner), less correctly al«Gha*Hi; Mutuunmad ibn-abi-Shanab 
in Mafaltot &i-Majma\ voL vii (1927), PP- 224-6. Cf. Duncan B. Alacdonald in 
fcumal Keyot Asiatic Society (1902), pp. 18-22. 

* Neo-Platonuju 



432 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES FA*T in 



instinct and a temperament implanted in me by God through no choice 
of mine. 1 

Starting his religious life as orthodox, al-Ghazzali soon turned 
Sufi, and when still under twenty he had broken with all the 
past. In 1091 he was appointed lecturer at the Nizamiyah in 
Baghdad, where he became a sceptic. Four years later he re- 
turned to Sirflsm after a terrific spiritual struggle that left him 
a physical and moral wreck. Intellectualism had failed him. 
As a dervish he roamed from place to place enjoying peace of 
soul and acquiescence of mind. After about twelve years of re- 
tirement in various places, including two years of retreat in Syria 
and a holy pilgrimage, he returned to Baghdad to preach and 
teach. There he composed his masterpiece Ihya * Uliim al-Din 1 
(the revivification of the sciences of religion). The mysticism of 
this work vitalized the law, its orthodoxy leavened the doctrine 
of Islam. In it and in such other works of his as Fatihat al~ 
*Ulwn? Tahafitt al-Falasifak* al-Iqtisad fi al-Ftiqad* ortho- 
dox speculation reached its culminating point. These works 
deposed fiqh from the high rank it had usurped, employed 
Greek dialectic to found a pragmatic system and made 
philosophy palatable to the orthodox school of theologians. 
Partly translated into Latin before 11 50, they exerted marked 
influence on Jewish and Christian scholasticism. Thomas 
Aquinas, one of the greatest theologians of Christianity, and 
later Pascal were indirectly affected by the ideas of al-Ghazzali, 
who of all Moslem thinkers came nearest to subscribing to 
Christian views. The scholastic shell constructed by al-Ash*ari 
and al-Ghazf ali has held Islam to the present day, but Christen- 
dom succeeded in breaking through its scholasticism, particu- 
larly at the time of the Protestant Revolt. Since then the West and 
the East have parted company, the former progressing while the 
latter stood still. 

Sufism 6 is the form which mysticism has taken in Islam. It is 

1 Al-AIunqidh mm cUDalal^ ed. A. Schmolders (Paris, 1842), pp. 4-5; cf. 
C. Field, The Confessions of A I Gkazzali (London, 1^09), pp. 12-13. The autobio- 
graphical part of thistvork runs almost parallel with the experience of St. Augustine 

* 4 \ols (Cairo, 1334). There are several other editions. 

* (Cairo, 1322.) * Ed. M. Bouyges (Beirut, 1927). * 2nd ed. (Cairo, 1327). 

* From Ar. s uf % xv ool , to denote the practice of assuming a woollen robe on entering 
the mystic life. Theodir Noldckc in Zetischrift dcr deutscken morgenldndischen 
Gaelhekaft, vol. 4S (it>94), pp. 45-8. 



CH. XXX 



MOSLEM SECTS 



433 



not so much a set of doctrines as it is a mode of thinking and 
feeling in the religious domain. Moslem mysticism represents a 
reaction against the tntellectualism of Islam and the Koran and 
the formalism which developed as a consequence. Psychologically 
its basis should be sought in the human aspiration to a personal, 
direct approach to, and a more intense experience of, the deity 
and religious truth. Like other Islamic movements Sufism traces 
its origin to the Koran and the hadfth. Such verses as 4 : 96; 
9 : 1 13; 33 : 47, condemning "greed after the chance good things 
of this present life", commending "those who turn to God" and 
emphasizing "trust in God, for God is a sufficient guardian", are 
not Jacking in the Koran. Muhammad's own relation to God hada 
mystical aspect, namely, a direct consciousness of divine presence, 
and the Sufis came to consider themselves the true interpreters of 
the esoteric teaching of the Prophet as preserved in the hadlth. 

Beginning simply as an ascetic life, mainly contemplative, 
such as was commonly practised by Christian monks, Sufism 
during and after the second Islamic century developed into a 
syncretic movement, absorbing many elements from Christianity, 
Neo-Platonism, Gnosticism and Buddhism, and passing through 
mystical, theosophical and pantheistic stages. Wool (stlf) was 
adopted as a dress in imitation of Christian monks, from whom 
was also borrowed the ideal of celibacy which orthodox Islam 
never encouraged. The practice of solitary meditations and pro- 
longed vigils likewise show Syrian monastic influence. The Sufi 
fraternity {tariqah} right way), which developed in the thirteenth 
century, with its master {shaykh) and novice (murid), corre- 
sponding to the Christian relation of clergy and beginner, ap- 
proaches the monastic orders, notwithstanding the apocryphal 
tradition "no monasticism [rakbdniyah] in Islam". The frater- 
nity's religious service called dhikr' 1 is the only elaborate 
ritual in Islam and betrays Christian litanies as a source. 3 The 
Sufi eschatological traditions with their Antichrist 4 suggest that 
the fraternities found many recruits among those newly con- 
verted to Islam from the older forms of monotheism. 

The term Sufi appears first in Arabic literature in the middle As« 

of the ninth century applied to a certain class of ascetics. 5 The 

1 Sur. 46:29 sc$, 1 Remembrance and mention of God's name, sur. 33 .41, 
8 Reynold A. Nicholson, The Mystics of Islam (London, 1914), p. 10. 
* AI-Afasift al*Dajj$i t from Aramaic Mtthfya Daggafa. Ci*. Matt 24 • 24, Rev. 
13 ; i*iS, Dan, 1 1 : 36. * Jamz, Mayatt, \ oh i, p 233. 



434 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES P art hi 



first individual on whom the name Sufi was bestowed, and that 
by later tradition, was the famous occultist Jabir ibn-fjayyan 
(fl. ca* 776), who professed an ascetic doctrine of his own. His 
contemporary Ibrahim ibn-Adham of Balkh (f ea. 777) may be 
taken as a type of this early quietist asceticism (stthd). In the 
Sufi legend of his conversion, evidently modelled upon the story 
of Buddha, 1 Ibrahim appears as a king's son who, while hunting, 
heard some mysterious voice warning him that he was not 
created for such a purpose. Thereupon the princely sportsman 
dismounted and for ever abandoned the path of worldly pomp 
for that of asceticism and piety. According to another legend his 
conversion came as a result of having observed from the window 
of his palace a beggar contentedly enjoying a meal of stale bread 
soaked in water and seasoned with coarse salt. When assured by 
the beggar that he was fully satisfied, Ibrahim put on hair- 
cloth and took to a wandering life. 2 After his Sufi conversion, 
Ibrahim migrated to Syria, where Sufism had its earliest organ- 
ization, and lived by his own labour. 

Under the stimulus of Christian as welL as Hellenistic ideas 
Moslem asceticism became mystical in the second Moslem 
century; that is, it began to be regarded by its devotees as an 
emotional means of purifying the human soul, so that it may 
know and love God and be united with Him, rather than as a 
means for winning His reward in a future world. This Sufi 
knowledge (jndrifaK) of God is a form of gnosis achieved by the 
inner light of the individual soul, in contrast to the knowledge 
('jlm) of Him by the intellect or through acquiescence in the 
accepted tradition. The doctrine of gnosis was developed by 
abu-Sulayman al-Darani (f 840-50), whose tomb in Darayya 
near Damascus was still an object of pilgrimage in the days of 
Yaqut. 3 But the first Sufi of the mystic, as opposed to the ascetic, 
school was Ma'riif al-Karkhi, of the Baghdad school, who died 
in 815. Originally a Christian, or possibly a Sabian, 4 MaVuf was 
described as a God-intoxicated man and venerated as a saint, 
His tomb at Baghdad on the west bank of the Tigris is still a 
great resort for pilgrims and at the time of al-Qushayri B (f 1074) 

1 T, Duka in Journal Royal Asialu: Society (1904), pp 132 $eg. 

* Sec itm 'Asuktr, vol u, pp 167-96; Kutubi, vol 1, pp 3-5; al Qushayri, cl 
Rtsatah (Ciiro, 1284), pp. 9-10 3 Bulddn, vol u, p 536. 

* Cf al Hujwin, Kashf al-Mahjuh, tr. R. A. Nicholson (Leyden, 191 1), p 114 

* JZtsalah. p. t2. 



CH* XXX * MOSLEM SECTS 43S 

prayer at it was considered a sure remedy for the sick. According 
to the mystic principle nothing really exists but God, God is 
eternal beauty, and the path leading to Him is love. Love thus 
becomes the essence of mysticism* 

From speculative mysticism, Sufism advanced to theosophy. 
In effecting this transition, which took place during the period 
of translation from Greek, Hellenistic influence was paramount. 
The exponent of Sufi theosophy was dhu-ai-Nun 1 al-Misri 
the Egyptian), of Nubian parents, 2 who died at al-jlzah 
(Gizeh) in 860. Sufis in general consider this ascetic the 
originator of their doctrine. They number him among their 
first gttfbs (pivots of the universe) and follow the mention 
of his name by the invocation "May God sanctify his in- 
most soul [$trr}¥* It M*as dhu-al-Nun who gave Sufism its 
'permanent shape- He introduced the idea that the true know- 
ledge of God is attained by one means only, ecstasy (wajd). 
Al~Mas*udi 3 tells us that dhu-al-Nun was wont to wander amid 
the ruined monuments of his native Egypt endeavouring to 
decipher their mysterious figures as a key to the lost sciences 
of antiquity. 

The step from theosophy to pantheism was not difficult and 
was made chiefly under Indo-Iranian influences. The AgJtam* 
has preserved for us at least one portrayal of an unmistakable 
Buddhistic view of life, and the sindzq monks described by 
al-Jahtz 5 were either Indian sadhus, Buddhist monks or their 
imitators. 6 A Persian, Bayazld 7 aKBistami (f ea. 875), whose 
grandfather was a Magian, probably introduced the doctrine 
of /ana, self-annihilation, possibly a reflection of Buddhist 
Nirvana. Another Persian, ai-FIallaj (the carder), was in 922 
flogged, exposed on a gibbet, then decapitated and burned by 
the 'Abbasid inquisition for having declared, "I am the Truth" 
(i.e. God). His "crucifixion" made him the great Sufi martyr. 
His mystic theory is made clear in these verses: 

1 "The wan of the 6sh n , applied to Jonah in Koran 21 : 87. Dhu al-Nun*s real 
name was Thawban abu-at-Fay^ ibn*lbrahim. 

* Qushayn, p. 10, Hujwin, p 10a 

* Vol it r pp. 401-2. 

4 VoKjii, p* 24, 11 2J--S. * Mayawati, vol iv, pp. 146-7. 

* Ignax Goldnher, VcrUsvngtn itfor dsn fsfam> ed F. Babmger (Heidelberg, 
1925), p 

* Tur. pronunciation of Ar. abu-Vasid. Set Qushayn, pp. 17-18, ibn-Khaihkan, 
vol 1, p 429, 



436 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 



I am He whom I love, and He whom I love is I. 
We are two souls dwelling in one body. 
When thou seest me, thou sccst Him: 
And when thou seest Him, thou seest us both. 1 

AkPJallaj's tomb in west Baghdad stands till now as that of a 
saint. But the greatest monist and pantheist Sufi was Muhyi-al- 
Din ibn-'Arabi (1165-1240) of Spain, whose tomb at the foot of 
Mt. Qasiyun in Damascus is today enclosed in a large mosque 
bearing his name. Unlike such orthodox Sufis as al-Ghazzali 
and al-Junayd of Baghdad (f 910),* ibn-'Arabi endeavoured to 
reduce Sufism to a science which he intended to have reserved 
for circles of initiates. The development of the pantheistic idea 
that all is God was due to him. 
Mystic In the field of mystic poetry the Arabs produced only one great 
poetry and name that of the Egyptian ibn-al-Farid, 1181-1235, whose 

philosophy ' . . / u * - • 

masterpiece is a long ode (rhyming in /; 3 forming an exquisite 
hymn of divine love. On the other hand, almost all Persian poets 
of the first order, e.g. Sa* di, FJafiz and al-Rumi, were mystics. 
But in the field of philosophic Sufism the Arabic-writing world 
can claim two of the greatest intellects Islam ever produced, 
al-Farabi and al-Ghazzali. It was the latter who reconciled 
Sufism, with its many unorthodox practices, with Islam and 
grafted mysticism upon its intellectualism. 
Fraternal For the first five Islamic centuries, that form of religious 
ordcr8 experience termed Sufism stood almost entirely on an individual 
basis. Small circles of disciples and followers did cluster round 
the personality or memory of some inspiring teacher, as in the 
case of al-Jrlallaj, but such organized bodies were local in 
provenience and not of permanent character. Before the close 
of the twelfth Christian century self-perpetuating corporations 
began to appear. The first fraternity (tartqah) established on 
such a principle was the Qadirite, so named after the Persian 
'Abd-al-Qadir ai-Jilani or al-Jiii (1077-1166)/ who flourished in 

1 Ibn-Khalhkan, \oh i, p. 261. Cf. R. A. Nicholson, Studies tn Islamic Mysticism 
(Cambridge, 1921), p. 80; Louis Massignon, La Passion a" ah Halla~j: martyr 
mystique de V Islam (Paris, 1 922), vol. u, p. 518. 

1 Qushayri, pp 24-5; Hujwlri, pp. 128-30. 

8 &iwdn t ed. Armn Khuri, 3rd cd. (Beirut, 1894), pp. 65-132; tr. almost entirely 
by Nicholson, Studies, pp. 199-266, 

* The best extant biography is in al-Dhahabi, "Ta'rikh aMslam", D. S. 
Margotiouth in Journal Royal Asiatic Society (1907), pp. 267-310. On his miracles 
sec Shattana^fi, Bahjat al-Asrar {Cairo, 1304), which has on its margin 78 sermons 
of al-Jilfmi entitled Furtfi al-Ghoyb. 



ch. xxx * MOSLEM SECTS * ! 437 * 

Baghdad. The order, one of the most tolerant and charitable, 
now claims followers throughout the whole Moslem world, in- 
cluding Algeria, Java and Guinea. The second fraternity in order 
of antiquity was the Rifaite, founded by an 'Iraqi, Ahmad al~ 
Rifa f i (f I J 83), whose members, like those of other fraternities, 
can perform strange feats, such as swallowing glowing embers, 
live serpents and glass, or passing needles and knives through 
their bodies. The Mawlawite order, commonly known as the 
whirling dervishes, centres upon the great Persian poet Jalal-al- 
Dln al-Rumi, who died in Qumyah (Konieh, classical Iconium) 
in 1273. In opposition to the general Moslem practice al-Rumi 
gave an important place to music in the ceremonies of his order. 
The order has always had as its superior one of his descendants 
who lived in Quniyah. The superior enjoyed the privilege of 
girding the new sultan-caliph of Turkey with his sword. 

Various other independent fraternities developed in various 
countries at different times, ranging in their Sufism from ascetic 
quietism to pantheistic antinomianism. In most instances the 
founder of the order became himself the centre of a cult, invested 
with divine or quasi-divine powers, and the headquarters of his 
order developed into a foyer of saint-worship. In Africa the 
strongest religious brotherhood is the Shadhilite, 1 founded by 
f AU al-Shadhili (f 1258), which is especially strong in Morocco 
and Tunisia and has sub-orders under special names. Islam in 
Morocco is characterized by saint-worship to a greater degree than 
perhaps in any other country. The modern Sanusi brotherhood, 
with headquarters in the oasis of Kufra and formerly in Jaghbub, 
was founded in 1837 by the Algerian Shaykh al-Sanusi and is 
clearly distinguishable from the preceding orders in being a 
congregation-state with political and military as well as religious 
aims. The leading native fraternity of Egypt is the AhmadTyah, 
after Ahmad-al-Badawi (f 1276),, whose centre is at Tanfa. In 
Turkey one of the strongest orders is the Baktashi, noted for its 
connection with the Janissaries. This order, which became firmly 
established about 1500, encourages celibacy, reveres c Ali and 
shows traces of Christian influence in its theology. It seems to 
represent a sect rather than a Sufi fraternity. Besides inheriting 
the old religions of Asia Minor the dervish orders of that country 

1 On this sec auu a! Matvahih al-Shadhih, Qewanln Htkarr aUshraq (Damascus, 
13&9): tr. Edvmrd J. Jurji, Wutrtnctx&n in frtemtc Mysitctsm (Princeton, 1938). 



438 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES partui 



have preserved traces of shamanism, which the early Turks 
brought with them from Central Asia. 

The Sufi orders represent the only ecclesiastical organization 
in Islam. The members, commonly called dervishes, 1 live in 
special quarters, termed taktyah, zawiyah or ribat> which at the 
same time serve as social centres, a function which the mosque 
fails to perform. The fraternity may have, in addition to the 
masters and neophytes, a third class of affiliated lay members 
who are subject to the guidance of the superior of the order. 
The rosary Besides introducing a form of monasticism and ritual 2 the 
Sufis made other contributions to Islam. They were evidently 
responsible for the diffusion of the rosary (subJiah) among Mos- 
lems. 3 Today only the puritanical Wahhabis eschew the rosary, 
regarding it as an innovation {bid* alt). Of Hindu origin, this instru- 
ment of devotion was probably borrowed by the Sufis from the 
Eastern Christian churches and not directly from India. During 
the Crusades the rosary found its way into the Roman Catholic 
West. The first mention of the rosary in Arabic literature was 
made by the poet laureate abu-Nuwas (f ca. 8ro). 4 The cele- 
brated mystic al-Junayd (f 910) of Baghdad used it as a means 
of attaining a state of ecstasy, and when once a critic remonstrated 
with him for the use of such an innovation despite his reputation 
for sanctity, al-Junayd replied: "I will not renounce a path that 
has led me to God". 5 
The cult Moreover, Sufism founded and popularized the cult of saint- 
of samts hoo^ Veneration of saints finds no sanction in the Koran. It 
sprang up, following the Christian practice, in response to the 
mystic call and to meet the need of bridging the gap between 
man and God in Islamic theology. While there is no formal 
canonization in Islam, popular acclaim based upon the per- 
formance of miracles (kardmat) constitutes a saint (wali> friend 
of God). By the twelfth century the original feeling common to 
both Sunnites and Shl'ites that the invocation of saints was an 
idolatrous form of worship had been dissipated by a philo- 
sophical reconciliation of sainthood with orthodox principles, 
effected mainly through Sufi influence. When u came to the 

* Ar. darmtsk, from Pers , commonly explained as poor, needy, a mendicant 
4 For a criticism by an orthodox Moslem see ibn-al-Jawn, Nagd, pp. 262 seg 
9 Ignaz Goldzihcr in jRevut de V ht start dts rehgtons. vol xxi (1800), pp 295-300 
Vcrhsungcn s p 164 

1 Diwan p 108 t tS. Cf Jbn«Qutaybah, tfA^xV. p 508,1 2 Qushayn, p. 25. 



qi.XXX i: -v ^ MOSLEM" SECTS 439 

question of rank among "the friends of Allah", the chivalrous 
Sufis maintained the principle of complete equality between the 
sexes, 1 They, for instance, accorded Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyah 
(ca> 717-801) of al-Ba§rah, a mystic woman of noble life and 
lovely character, first place in the list of saints. Since then 
Rabi'ah has become "the saint par excellence of the Sunnite 
hagiology'\ When young she was sold as a slave, but on seeing 
a radiance round her while she prayed her master freed her. 
She refused to marry and lived a life of extreme asceticism and 
other-worldliness. She soon became a revered guide along "the 
mystic way", inculcating penitence, patience, gratitude, holy 
fear, voluntary poverty and utter dependence (tawakktit) upon 
God, Asked whether she hated Satan, Rabi'ah replied: "My love 
for God leaves no room for hating Satan". When in a dream the 
Prophet asked her whether she loved him, her reply was: "My 
love for God has so possessed me that no place remains for hating 
aught or loving any save Him". 2 On another occasion she de- 
clared: "I have not served God from fear of God . . or love of 
Paradise . , . but only for the \oveof Him and the desire for Him" * 

An impassioned prayer by one of those lovers of God, al- 
Suhrawardi, who at the age of thirty-six (A.D. 1 191) was executed 
as a heretic at Aleppo by order of the viceroy al-Malik al-?ahir 
and his father, Salah-al-Din, makes plain the indebtedness of 
Sufi theosophy to Neo-Platonism as well as to Christianity. 4 

Another religious movement that took its final form under the s 
*Abbasids and developed offshoots that played decisive rdles in 
the history of Islam and the caliphate was the Shl'ah, The 
partisans of c Ali fared no better under the ' Abbasid regime than 
under the Umayyad, and that in spite of the fact that they had 
been an important factor in establishing the former at the 
expense of the latter. The smiles of al-Ma'mun, who even went 
so far as to don their colour, green, and proclaim as heir appar- 
ent one of their imams, *Ali al-Rida, 5 proved of no permanent 

1 Ab^ Nu'aym (f 103$) devotes a section of his voluminous ffi/yat al*Awhya 
wet-TataqHt al~As/iyd\ vol. ii (Cairo, 1033), pp. 30*70, to women Su6s and saints. 

1 Farid-al-Dan 'AJtar, Tadhhirat a/-Azv/tya\ ed. R. A. Nicholson, vol. i (Leydcn, 
1905), p- 67, 

9 Abu-fatib (al-Makki), Q»t alQulub (Cairo. 1932), vol. iu, p, 83. For more on 
&abi*ah consult Margaret Smith, Rahia the Mystic and her Fellow-Sfrnts in Islam 
(Cambridge, 1O2S). 

4 Louis Massjgnon, RecUeil de textts midits conccrncmt Vhistcire de la mystique 
cn pan dThlan (Paris, 1929), pp. in -12. See below, p. 586, 
4 Ya'qQbi, vol h, pp 544-5 



440 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part ill 



avail. Soon came al-Mutawakkii, who in 850 resumed the early 
practice of persecuting the Shfah; he destroyed the tomb of 
f Ali at al-Najaf and the more venerated one of al-Husayn at 
KarbalaV thereby earning the everlasting hatred of all Shl'ites. 
In 1029 the Caliph al-Qadir drove a Shi'ite leader out of his 
Baghdad mosque and installed in his place a Sunnite. 2 This 
■general hostility led the Shi'ites to the adoption of the principle 
of dissimulation (taqiyah*)) i.e, dispensation from the require- 
ments of religion under compulsion or threat of injury. The 
legitimacy of dissimulation as an ethical principle had already 
been recognized by some Kharijites,* but the Shl'ites made it a 
fundamental tenet. They contributed to it the further point that 
when a believer finds himself in a position where his adversaries 
are in the ascendancy, not only may he profess outwardly the 
form of the prevailing religion but he must do so as a measure 
of protection for himself and his co-religionists. fi 

Although a suppressed minority and perpetrators of un- 
successful, though not always unheroic, rebellions against the 
established order, the non-conformist ShI'ites persisted openly 
and under cover of taqtyah in according their allegiance to 
whom rightful allegiance (zvaldyak) was due, namely, an imam 
descended from r Ali. Unlike the Sunnite caliph the Shfite 
imam had inherited from Muhammad not only his temporal 
sovereignty but the prerogative of interpreting the law. In that 
capacity he was an infallible teacher and to his infallibility 
(^ismahy he added the divine gift of impeccability. 7 Contrary 
to the Sunnite and the Sun doctrine the ShI'ites maintained that 
religious certainty could be gained only from the instruction of 
such an imam divinely protected against error and sin. *Ali, 
their first imam, was succeeded by his son al-IJasan and then 
by his other son, al-rjusayn, 8 whose line is the more celebrated 
one. The last nine of the twelve imams to whom the Twelvers 

» FaJkhrii p. 325; Mas'Gdi, \oL vii, pp. 302-3. 

9 Ibn-al-Athfr, vol. ix, p. 278. 8 Literally "caution", "fear". Koran, 3 : 27, 
4 Shahrastani, p. 92, 1. 15, p. 93, 1. 6. * Goldziher, Vor!esungen t p* 203. 

• See abo\e, p. 24$ Baghdadi, U$ul t voL i, pp. 277-9. 

* Shahrastani, pp. 108*9; xbn-Khaldun, MugadJama/t t pp. 164-5. 

■ The numberless descendants of al-Hasan and al-Husayn are distinguished from 
other MoJcms by the titles sharif (noble) and sayytd (lord) respectively and hy the 
right to wear green turbans. The Sharifs of Makkah, v.host scion was the Sunnite 
King Faysal of al-Traq, as well as the Sharifs of Morocco, represent the line of the 
eldest son of FatimaiL. 



CH. XXX 



MOSLEM SECTS 



441 



(It Ana 'Ashariyak), the main body of theShT'ah, swore allegiance, 
were descendants of al-I^usayn. Of these nine, four are said to 
have met death successively by poison: Ja'far (765) in al-Madinah, 
Musa 1 (799) in Baghdad, c Ali al-Rida 2 (818) in Tus and 
Muhammad al-Jawad (835) in Baghdad. Others fell fighting 
against the authority of the caliphs or at the hands of execu- 
tioners. Since the youthful twelfth imam, Muhammad, "dis- 
appeared'* (264/878) in the cave of the great mosque at Samarra 
without leaving offspring, he became "the hidden [mu$tatir\ u 
or "the expected [?nuntazar\ imam". 3 As such he is considered 
immune from death and in a temporary state of occultation 
(ghaybah). In due time he will appear as the Mahdi (divinely 
guided one) to restore true Islam, conquer the whole world and 
usher in a short millennium before the end of all things. Though 
hidden, this twelfth imam has always been "the master of the 
time" (qaim al-satndn)* In Persia the Twelver Shfah was 
established in 1 502 by the Safawids, who claimed descent from 
the seventh imam, Musa al-Kazim. Since then the shah has been 
considered as simply the locum tenens of the hidden imam and 
the mujtahids (higher theologians) as his spokesmen and inter- 
mediaries with men. 

Thus did the imam-mahdi dogma become an essential part 
of Shi'ite creed. Even today it forms the main line of demarca- 
tion between Shi'ite and Sunnite Islam. While the Sunnites do 
look forward to a future restorer of the faith, they neither em- 
phasize his importance in their eschatology nor call him mahdi. 4 

The ShI'ah soil proved most fertile for the development of 1 
heterodoxies. According to a tradition Muhammad once said, 
"The Israelites have been divided into seventy-one or -two sects, 
and so have the Christians, but my community shall be divided 
into seventy-three". 6 Of these sects many were offshoots from the 
Shfah. 

The Twelvers were not the only group among the imamite 

1 Cf. WqObi* vol. it, p. 499, 

* Wqubt, vol. H, p. 55 1; ibn-Khalltttan, vol, i, p. 577, 

* Shahrastani, p, 128; Baghdadi, cel. llitti, pp. 6o-6i; ibn-Hasm, voL iv> p. 138; 
a!-Niwba.khti, Firaq al>Shi*/ik, ed. Hellrout Ritter (Constantinople, 1931), pp. 
84-5. CL ibn-Khaldun, Muqaddamok, p. 166. The cave (sirdab) is still shown among 
the ruins of Samarra. 

* Sec genealogical tree on next page. The belief in the return of the Mahdi lent it. 
■> Krif to imposture and produced many pretenders in all periods of Moslem hit»torv. 

\* * Ibn-al-Tara, JyVfrf, pp- 19.20. Cf. Baghdadi, cd; Hitti, p. 15. 



442 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PAKTiu 



Shl'ah. Another group agreed with the Twelvers as to the sue- 
cession down to the sixth imam, Ja*far al-Sadiq, but at this point 
diverged, making Ja'far's eldest son, Isma'il (f 760), in prefer- 
ence to his brother Musa, the seventh and last imam. This sect 
restricted the number of visible imams to seven and were there- 
fore called Sevcncrs (Sab'iyah). Ja'far had designated Isma'il as 
his successor, but having learned of Isma'iTs intemperance 

x. 'Au,f 6Sz 



3 AL-IUSAN,f 669 3. AX.<-HUSATO v t 6So 

4. 'AU ZA^K-AX-'ABlDW.t^ 712 



Zayd 5. Muhammad al-Baqir, 1 73* 

6. Ja'far al-Sadiq,! 765 

Isma'ii, t 76o 7« M vsa a l-K X? iu, f 799 

S. *Ali Ai.-KiD\,t S^S 
9 Muhammad At-jAwAo,t 835 

10. 'All AL'HADI,tS6S 

! 

11. Al-Hasas al-'Askari,! 874 

i 

12. Muhammad ax-Mu>«ta2ar 

(al-Mahai),t87S 

Tree showing the Relationship of the Twelve Imams 

changed his decision in favour of his second son, Musa. The 
majority of the Shf ah acquiesced in the change and continued 
the imamate in Musa al-Ka?im, who thus became number seven 
in the scries of the twelve visible imams. But others, claiming 
that the imam as an infallible being could not prejudice his 
case by such a thing as drinking wine, remained loyal to Isma'il, 
who predeceased his father by five years. To these Seveners, also 
called Isma'Uites, Isma'il became the hidden Mahdi. 1 

In the Isma'iliyah system, as in the Pythagorean system of 
old, the number seven assumed sacred importance. The Seveners 

* Na^bakhtt, pp. 57-8; Baghdadi, ed. Hitti, p, 58; ibn-Khaldun, Muqaddztnah, 
pp. 167-S. 



CH. XXX 



MOSLEM SECTS 



443 



"periodicated" all cosmic and historical happenings by this num- 
ber. In their gnostic cosmogony, partly based on Neo-Platonism, 
the steps of emanation were seven: (i) God; (2) the universal mind 
0*?0; (3) the universal soul (nafs)] (4) primeval matter; ($) space; 
(6) time; (7) the world of earth and man. This world was favoured 
with seven legislating prophets (sing, ndiiq): Adam, Noah, 
Abraham, Moses, Jesus (Isa), Muhammad and Muhammad al~ 
Tamm, son of Isma'Il. In between each two of these legislating 
prophets they inserted seven silent ones (sing, sdmi£) $ of whom 
the first was the "foundation" (asds). The silent prophets in- 
cluded such men as Ishmael, Aaron, Peter and *Ali. Parallel to 
them ran another lower hierarchy, arranged in sevens or twelves, 
of propaganda leaders (sing. £ufjaA) and simple missionaries 
(sing. da't)} 

The Isma'ilites organized one of the most subtle and effective 
means of politico-religious propaganda that the world of Islam 
ever experienced. From their places of retreat they began to send 
out missionaries to traverse the Moslem world preaching the 
doctrine known as batin 2 (inner, esoteric). According to the un- 
organized schools of thought, called Batinitcs by the orthodox, 
the Koran should be interpreted allegorically and religious truth 
could be ascertained by the discovery of an inner meaning of 
which the outer form (zahir) was but a veil intended to keep that 
truth from the eyes of the uninitiate. Quietly and cautiously the 
novice was initiated under oath of secrecy in the esoteric doc- 
trines, including such recondite ones as the formation of the 
universe by emanation from the divine essence, transmigration 
of souls, the immanence of the Divinity in Isma'fl and the ex- 
pectation of his early return {rafah) as the Mahdi. Initiation 
is said to have involved seven to nine graded stages z which recall 
modern Freemasonry. 

This esoteric system found an able enthusiast in one 'Abdullah, 
whose father, Maymun al-Qaddah, of obscure origin, had prac- 
tised as an oculist (qaddd/t) in al-Ahwaz before moving to 
Jerusalem. It was 'Abdullah who perfected the religio-political 
system of the Isma'ilites just delineated. From his headquarters, 

* Shahrastarn, pp. 145.7; al-Iji, eUMctvdfif, vol viii (Cairo, 1327), pp. 388-9. 
Consult W. Ivanow, A Guide to Ismmli IMerature (London, 1933)* 

* Baghdad*, Uful, pp. 329*30; Shahrastani, pp. 147 sc?.; ibn-al-Jawzi, p. 10S. 

* Initiatory illumination transmitted to the adept by decrees was practised before 
this xxtiit by the Matuchaeans and certain Greek school* o( thought. 



444 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part m 



first at al-Basrah and later at Sal amy ah 1 in northern Syria, he 
and his successors sent secret missionaries who systematically 
made their starting-point the arousing of scepticism in the 
would-be follower. They would then direct his attention to the 
great Mahdi soon to make his public appearance. Taking ad- 
vantage of the growing enmity between Arab and Persian 
Moslems, this son of a humble Persian oculist conceived the 
audacious project of uniting in a secret society, with grades of 
initiation, both conquered and conquerors, who as free-thinkers 
would use religion as a scheme to destroy the caliphate and give 
'Abdullah or his descendants the throne — a project as astounding 
in its conception as it was rapid in its execution and certain in its 
partial success. For it was this scheme that culminated in the rise 
of the Fatimid dynasty in Tunisia and Egypt. 
Qarma- Before his death, about 874,* 'Abdullah had found a most 
* iana zealous pupil and proselytizer in rjamdan Qarmat,* an 'Iraqi 
peasant who had read in the stars that the Iranians were going 
to regain the empire of the Arabs. 4 Flamdan became the founder 
of the Batini sect known after him as the Qarmatian. In this 
movement the ancient feud between the native peasantry and 
the sons of the desert evidently found expression. About 890 
the founder built himself, near al-Kufah, an official residence, 
Dar al-Hijrah 5 (refuge for emigrants), which became the head- 
quarters of the new movement. Active propaganda among the 
native masses, especially the so-called Nabataean peasants and 
artisans, as well as among the Arabs themselves, swelled the 
number of members in the new sect. Fundamentally the organ- 
ization was a secret society based on a system of communism. 
Initiation was necessary for admission. The new community sup- 
ported itself from a common fund created through contributions 
which were seemingly voluntary but in reality a series of taxes, 
each heavier than the preceding. Qarmat even went so far as to 
prescribe community of wives and property (ulfa/i). c In their 
theology these "Bolsheviks of Islam", as they are called by 

1 See Isjnkhri, p 61; ibn-al-Faqih, p. 1 10, Yaqut, vol. iii, p. j 23. The less authentic 
and modern form is Salamlyah; Maqdisi, p. 190, ibn-Khurdudhbih, pp. 76, 98. 

8 A century earlier according to a note jn al-Juwayni, T<?rikk*i"Jahan-Gushd y cd. 
Mirza M. al-Qarwini, pt. 3 (Lcydcn, 1937), p. 315 

* Erymolog) of this word doubtful; probably not Arabic (Baghdadi, cd. Hitti, 
p 172; Fthnst) p. 187, 1. 9; Sam'ani, Anscb y fol. 44 Sb) but Aramaic for "secret 
teavlitr*'; Tabari,vol. Hi, pp. 2125, 2127; ibn-al-Ja^zi, p. no. 

* /V/*r/,p 18S. 6 Cf. ibn-al Atrrir, vol. vjii, p 136. 

* For other sects with same vicus see lbn Hazm, vol. iv, p 143, II. 13-14. 



CH.XXX MOSLEM SECTS . * > < 44S 

some modern writers, used an allegorical catechism based on^the 
Koran and supposedly adapted to all creeds, all races and all 
castes. They stressed tolerance and equality, organized workers 
and artisans into guilds (sing. $inf) and in their ceremonial 
had the ritual of a guild. The earliest sketch of the organization 
of Moslem guilds occurs in the eighth epistle of the Ikhwan al- 
Safa\ themselves probably Qarmatians. This trade guild move- 
ment, in the opinion of Massignon, reached the West and in- 
fluenced the formation of European guilds and Freemasonry. 1 

The Qarmatian movement with its communistic, revolutionary 
tendencies developed into a most malignant growth in the body 
politic of Islam. To shed the blood of their opponents, even if 
Moslem, the Qarmatians considered legitimate. Before they were 
fully organized they had a hand in the servile war of the Zanj 
(negroes) at al-Basrah which between 868 and 883 shook the 
caliphate to its very foundation. Under the leadership of abu- 
Sa'id ai-Hasan ai-Jannabi, 2 originally a missionary of Qarmat,* 
they succeeded in founding (899) an independent state on the 
western shore of the Persian Gulf with al-Ahsa * for their 
capital Soon this state became at once the bulwark of their power 
and the terror of the caliphate in Baghdad. From their new head- 
quarters they conducted a series of terrible raids on the neigh- 
bouring lands. Al-Jannabi himself subjected al-Yamamah about 
903 and invaded *Uman. His son and successor, abu-Tahir 
Sulayman, laid waste most of lower al-'Iraq and cut the pilgrim 
routes. 5 His atrocities culminated in 930 in the seizure of Makkah 
and the carrying off of the Black Stone, 6 After an absence of 
some twenty 5'ears this most sacred relic of Islam was returned 
(951) to al-Ka'bah by order of the Fa timid Caliph al-Man^ur. 7 
Between the tenth and eleventh centuries the followers of 
Qarmatand al-Jannabi from theirheadquartersatSalamyahkept 
Syria and al- f Iraq drenched in blood. 8 Even distant Khurasan 

1 Art, ''Kartnatiatvs", Encyclopedia of Islam. 

1 Jannab was a town in Fans near the mouth of a n\er emptying into the Persian 
Gulf, I$takhn, p 34, 

* Ibn-ftawqal, p, 2io 

4 Modern al-Hufuf* Ibn-al-AthTr, vol vm, p. 63. 

* Ibid. vol. vui, pp 124.5, 132*3, 15 8 *9* 232. 

MisHvrayh, Tajartb cl-Unam, ed. H. F. Amedroz, vol, i (Oxford, 1920), 
p. 201; lbn-aJ-Athlr, vol. viii, pp. I53»4. 
7 Cf . Baghdadi, ed Hub, pp 1767; ibn*a!-AthIr, vol. van, pp. 153*4 

Tftban, vol, m, pp, 2217 se&, Mas'udi, Tanbih. ^D. 3*1-6, MisUwi>h, vol, tf, 
pp 10S 9. 



446 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 

and al-Yaman, because of the Qarmatian activity, formed lasting 
hotbeds of discontent. 

The Qarmatian state fell but its Isma'tli doctrine passed on to 
the Fatimids of Egypt, from one of whom Druzism sprang, and 
later to the Neo-Isma f Hites or Assassins 1 of Alamut and Syria, 
The Assassin movement, called the "new propaganda" * by 
its members, was inaugurated by al-Hasan ibn-al-Sabbah 
(f 1124), probably a Persian from Tus, who claimed descent 
from the yimyarite kings of South Arabia. The motives were 
evidently personal ambition and desire for vengeance on 
the part of the heresiarch. As a young man in al-Rayy,' 
ai-rjasan received instruction in the Batinite system, and after 
spending a year and a half in Egypt returned to his native 
land as a Fatimid missionary. 4 Here in 1090 he gained pos- 
session of the strong mountain fortress Alamut, north-west of 
Qazwin, Strategically situated on an extension of the Alburz 
chain, 10,200 feet above sea-level, and on the difficult but 
shortest road between the shores of the Caspian and the Persian 
highlands, this "eagle's nest", as the name probably means, gave 
ibn-al-Sabbah and his successors a central stronghold of primary 
importance. Its possession was the first historical fact in the life 
of the new order. 

From Alamut the grand master (dat al-dttali) with his 
disciples made surprise raids in various directions which netted 
other fortresses. In pursuit of their ends they made free and 
treacherous use of the dagger, reducing assassination to an art. 
Their secret organization, based on Isma'ilite antecedents, 
developed an agnosticism which aimed to emancipate the 
initiate from the trammels of doctrine, enlightened him as to the 
superfluity of prophets and encouraged him to believe nothing 
and dare all. Below the grand master stood the grand priors 
(sing, al-dai al-kalnr) each in charge of a particular district. 
After these came the ordinary propagandists. The lowest degree 
of the order comprised the fidais? who stood ready to execute 
whatever orders the grand master issued. A graphic, though late 

* From Ar. haskthashitn t those addicted to the use of fiashish, a stupefying hemp 
1 Al-dawah nhjodldoh*, Shahrastani, p. 150. 

* Hence his surname al-Riixi; ibn-al-Athir, vol. x, p. 369. 
« Ibn-al-Athfr, vol. ix, p. 304, vol. x, p. 161. 

* Variant fidawt, one ready to offer his life for a cause. Cf. ibn-Batt&tah, vol. i, 
pp. A ob 7. 



CH. XXX - * ' MOSLEM SECTS 447 

and second-hand, description of the method by which the master 
of Alamut is said to have hypnotized his "self-sacrificing ones" 
with the use of hashish has come down to us from Marco Polo, 
who passed in that neighbourhood in 1271 or 1272. After describ- 
ing in glowing terms the magnificent garden surrounding the 
elegant pavilions and palaces built by the grand master at 
Alamut, Polo proceeds: 

Now no man was allowed to enter the Garden save those whom he 
intended to be his Ashishin. There was a fortress at the entrance to the 
Garden, strong enough to resist all the world, and there was no other 
way to get in. He kept at his Court a number of the youths of the 
country, from 12 to 20 years of age, such as had a taste for soldiering. . . . 
Then he would introduce them into his Garden, some four, or six, or 
ten at a time, having first made them drink a certain potion which cast 
them into a deep sleep, and then causing them to be lifted and carried 
in. So when they awoke they found themselves in the Garden. 

When therefore they awoke, and found themselves in a place so 
charming, they deemed that it was Paradise in very truth. And the 
ladies and damsels dallied with them to their hearts' content. » . „ 

So when the Old Man would have any Prince slain, he would say 
to such a youth: "Go thou and slay So and So; and when thou returnest 
my Angels shall bear thee into Paradise. And shouldst thou die, nathe- 
less even so will I send my Angels to carry thee back into Paradise." 1 

The assassination in 1092 of the illustrious vizir of the Saljuq 
sultanate, Nizam-al-Mulk, by a fidai disguised as a Sufi, 2 was 
the first of a series of mysterious murders which plunged the 
Moslem world into terror. When in the same year the Saljuq 
Sultan Malikshah bestirred himself and sent a disciplinary force 
against the fortress, its garrison made a night sortie and repelled 
the besieging army. Other attempts by caliphs and sultans 
proved equally futile until finally the Mongolian Hulagu, who 
destroyed the caliphate, seized the fortress in 1256 together with 
its subsidiary castles in Persia. 3 

As early as the last years of the eleventh century the Assassins 
had succeeded in setting firm foot in Syria and winning as convert 
the Saljuq prince of Aleppo, Ridwan ibn-Tutush (f 1113), By 

1 The Bock cf Scr Marco Pah, the Venetian, tr. Henry Yule, 2nd ed. (London, 
1 S7$)i vo ** *» PP« *4<>-9« Cf. a strikingly similar description of a corresponding 
ceremony at Masyad ascribed to ibn-Khallikan in Fundgruben des Orients ; vol. m 
(Vienna, 18x3), cd. and tr. Hammer, pp. 201-6. 

1 Ibn-Khallikan, vol. i, p. 256; see below, p. 47S. 

* Since the Assassin books and records i*erc then destroyed, our information 
about this strange and spectacular order is derived mainly from hostile sources. 



448 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 



1140 they had captured the hill fortress of Masyad 1 and many 
others in northern Syria, including al-Kahf, al-Qadmus and al- 
'Ullayqah. 2 Even Shayzar (modern Sayjar) on the Orontes was 
temporarily occupied by the Assassins, whom Usamah 3 calls 
Isma'ilites. One of their most famous masters in Syria was 
Rashid-al-Dln Sin an (f 1192), who resided at Masyad and bore 
the title shaykh al*jabal, translated by the Crusades' chroniclers 
as "le vieux de la montagne" 4 (the old man of the mountain). 
It was RashTd's henchmen who struck awe and terror into the 
hearts of the Crusaders. After the capture of Masyad in 1260 by 
the Mongols, the Mamluk Sultan Baybars in 1272 dealt the 
Syrian Assassins the final blow. Since then the Assassins have 
been sparsely scattered through northern Syria, Persia, f Uman, 
Zanzibar and especially India, where they number about a 
hundred and fifty thousand and go by the name of Khojas or 
Mawlas. 5 They all acknowledge as titular head the Agha Khan * 
of Bombay, who claims descent through the last grand master of 
Alamut from Isma'il, the seventh imam, receives over a tenth 
of the revenues of his followers, even in Syria, and spends most 
of his time as a sportsman between Paris and London. 
Nu ? aina The Nusayris of northern Syria, who antedate the Druzes of 
Lebanon, form another of the surviving Isma'Hite sects. They 
are so named after Muhammad ibn-Nusayr, of the end of the 
ninth century, a partisan of the eleventh *Alid imam al-Hasan 
al-*Askari (f 874).* According to Dussaud 7 the followers of 
ibn-Nusayr present a remarkable example of a group passing 
directly from paganism to Isma'ilism. This explains the points 
of marked difference between them and the main body of 
Isma'flites. 

The Nusayris, in company with other sects of extreme 
ShI'ites but unlike the Isma'ilites, consider 'AH the incarnation 

1 Variants Masyof, Masyath. It still stands on the eastern side of the Nusayriyah 
Mountain. Ibn-al-Athlr, vol. xi, p. 52; abu-al-Fida*, vol. iii, p. 16. 
1 Ibn-Baftufah, vol. i, p. 166, 

* Ku&b aUVtxbar, ed. Hitti, pp. 159 60 = Aral 'Syrian Gentleman, p. 190. 

* Cf. William of Tyre, "Histona rerum" in Kecuezl des histonens des crcisades: 
histonens occidental, vol. i (Paris, 1844), p. 996. 

* Other than these the Dawudis of Gujarat in India, who number over a hundred 
thousand, arc likewise Isma ilites, but are not followers of the Agha Khan. On the 
Dawudis see D. Menant in Revue du monde musulman, vol. x (1910), pp. 472 seq. 

9 The first important references to ibn-Nusayr and his followers occur in the 
manuscripts of IHtamzah and other Druze polemicists of the early eleventh century. 

* Rene Dussaud, Htstotre et religion des Nosairts (Paris, 1900), p. 51. 



ck XXX " ^ MOSLEM SECTS 



449 



of the deity. 1 Hence the name 'Alawites given them since the 
French mandate was established in their territory. Unlike the 
Druzes and other Moslem sects they possess a liturgy and have 
adopted a number of Christian festivals, including Christmas 
and Easter. Some of them bear Christian names such as Matta 
(Matthew), Yuhanna (John) and Hilanah (Helen). In addition 
to these borrowings from Christian sources their religion, which 
they practise with even greater secrecy than the Druzes, has 
retained clear remnants of their former pagan beliefs. Today 
some three hundred thousand adepts of this system, mostly 
peasants, inhabit the mountainous region of northern and central 
Syria and are scattered as far as Turkish Cilicia. 

The Nusayris, Assassins, Druzes, Qarmatians and similar Otht 
Isma'ilite sects are considered even by the Shf ites themselves, jjjj^ 
that is by the Twelvers, who form the bulk of the Shf ite group, doxi 
as extremists (ghulaJfy mainly because they compromise the 
divinity of God and disregard the finality of Muhammad's 
prophethood. 2 Among the ghulah is a sect which has gone so far 
as to declare that Gabriel mistook Muhammad for *Ali when 
he called him to his prophetic mission. 5 Of the ultra-Shf ite sects 
which had a late development may be mentioned the Takhtajis 
(woodcutters) of western Anatolia, the e Ali-Ilahis (* Ali-dcifiers) of 
Persia and Turkestan, their close of kin the Qizil-bash (red-heads) 
of the east of Anatolia and the Baktashis of Turkey and Albania. 

On the opposite wing stand the Zaydis of al-Yaman, the 
partisans of Zayd,* grandson of al-rjusayn, whom they regard as 
the founder of their sect. Of all the Shf ite sects this is the nearest 
akin to the Sunnites and in some respects the most tolerant. 
Between the ghulah on the one hand and the Zaydis on the other 
the Twelvers occupy the middle ground of Shf ism. Contrary to 
other Shf ite groups the Zaydis believe in no hidden imam, 
practise no temporary marriage (mufaft) and allow no dis- 
simulation (taqtyah). But they share with all other Shf ite groups 
hostility to Sufism. In all, the Shf ites with their sub-sects do not 
form more than sixty million people or fourteen per cent, of the 
body of Islam. 6 

1 Shahrastani, pp. 143-5. 

* For other extremists consult Baghc&di, ed. Hitti, pp 145 stq.; Shahrastani, 
pp. 132 Jff£.; ibn^azm, vol. iv a pp. 140 seq.\ Ash'ari, McqaBt, vol. i, pp. 5-16 

* Bagbd&di, p. 157. 4 Consult the genealogical tree above, p. 442. 
1 Cf. above, p. 249, n. a. 



Fran. Stenty Lant*P*ol* t "Hufcryrf Egypr {Metkutn fr* C*. UJ.) 
DINAR OF AHMAD iBN-TOLUN, MI§R, a.d. SSt 



CHAPTER XXXI 

THE CALIPHATE DISMEMBERED: PETTY DYNASTIES 
IN THE WEST 



i. in Five years after the foundation of the 'Abbasid caliphate the 
Spain youthful ^bd-d-Rahman. sole distinguished scion of the Uniay- 
yads to escape the general massacre which signalized the ac- 
cession of the new regime, reached Cordova in far-off Spain. A 
year later, in 756, he established there a brilliant dynasty. The 
first province was thereby for ever stripped off the 'Abbasid em- 
pire, still in its infancy. Others were soon to follow* 
2 The In 785 Idns ibn-'Abdullah, a great-grandson of al-Hasan»par- 
idnsids ticipated in one of those recurring 'Alid revolts in al-Madmah. 
The insurrection was suppressed and he fled to Morocco (al- 
Maghrib), 1 where he succeeded in founding a kingdom bearing 
his name that lasted for almost two centuries (788-974). The 
Idrisids, 2 whose principal capital was Fas (Fez), 3 were the first 
Shl'ite dynasty in history. They drew their strength from the 

1 Wqtibi, vol. ii, p. 4S8; ibn-Khaldun, vol. iv, pp. 12-14; i£n-*Idbari, Bay an, 
vol. i , pp. 72 seq ,217 seq.; tr. E. Fagnan, vol. i (Algicr, 1901), pp. 96 seq. f 303 seq. 

8 Consult Stanley Lane-Poole, The Mohammadan Dynasties (London, 1893, rc ~ 
produced 1925), p. 35; E. de Zambaur, Manuel de genealogie et de chronologte pour 
Vhistotre de V 'Islam (Hanover, TO27), p. 65. 

* The dty was built by Idris. lbn*abi-Zar* (al-Fasi), Jtatvd cl-Qirtds Ji Akhbdr 
Muluh el- Maghrib, ed. J. H. Tornberg (Upsala, 1843), p. 15; tr. Torntcrg, Annales 
regum Mauritania! (Upsala, 1845), pp. 21 seq* 

A SO 



ch;w«'/ '£ *petty"pVnasties in the- west. - ^451 

Berbers, who though Surmite were ever ready to espouse a 
schismatic cause. Hemmed in between the Fatimids of Egypt 
and the Umayyads of Spain, their dynasty finally succumbed 
under the fatal blows of a general of the Caliph al-rj akam II 
(961-76) of Cordova. 1 

As the Shfite Idrlsids were carving for themselves a domain 3, 
in the western part of North Africa, the Sunnite Aghlabids were A) 
doing likewise to the east. Over the territory called tfrlqiyah 
(Africa Minor, i.e. mainly Tunisia), a corruption of Latin 
"Africa", Harun al-Rashld had appointed in 800 Ibrahim ibn- 
al-Aghlab as governor. 2 Ibn-al-Aghlab (800-811) ruled as an 
independent sovereign, and after the year of his appointment no 
'Abbasid caliph exercised authority beyond the western frontier 
of Egypt. The Aghlabids contented themselves with the title 
umtr % but seldom bothered to inscribe the caliph's name on their 
coinage even as a token of his spiritual suzerainty. From their 
capital, al-Qayrawan, heir to Carthage, they dominated in their 
century of power (800-909) the mid-Mediterranean. 

Many of Ibrahim's successors proved as energetic as he. The 
dynasty became one of the pivotal points of history in the long 
conflict between Asia and Europe. With their well-equipped fleet 
they harried the coasts of It&lyi France, Corsica and Sardinia. 
One of them^ Ziyadat-Allah I (817-38), sent against Byzantine 
Sicily in 827 an expedition which had been preceded by many 
piratical raids. This and succeeding expeditions resulted in the 
complete conquest of the island by 902. 3 Sicily, as we shall see, 
became an advantageous base for operations against the main- 
land, particularly Italy, Besides Sicily, Malta and Sardinia were 
seized, mainly by pirates whose raids extended as far as Rome. 
At the same time Moslem pirates from Crete were repeatedly 
raiding the isles of the Aegean Sea and by the middle of the 
tenth century were harassing the coasts of Greece. Three Kufic 
inscriptions lately discovered in Athens reveal the existence of an 
Arab settlement there which may have survived until the early 
tenth century/ 

1 Itm^Vt-Zar*, pp. 56-7. 
* * Ibn-aUAtiur, vol. vi, pp. 106 j^.; ibn-'Idhan, vol, i, p. 83. 
5 See ibn*al-iVthar, vol. vi, pp. 235 x^.; lbn-Klialdun, vol. iv, pp. 198-204. 
* I>< G. Ksnspouroglous, "The Saracens in Athens", Social Scttnct Abstratti, 
vol* u (1930), np. 273; G. Sotcriou, "Arabic Remains in Athens in Byzantine Times", 
no. 2360. 



THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES partih 



The great Mosque of al-Qayrawan, still standing as a rival 
to the famous mosques of the East, was begun under this 
Ziyadat-Allah and completed by Ibrahim II (874-902), The site 
was that on which the primitive edifice of 'Uqbah, founder of al- 
Qayrawan, had stood. 'Uqbah's mosque had been adorned by 
one of his successors with pillars of marble from the ruins of 
Carthage, which were again utilized in the Aghlabid structure 
The square minaret of this mosque, also a relic of the earlier 
structure of Umayyad days and therefore the oldest surviving 
in Africa, introduced into north-western Africa the Syrian form 
which was never displaced by the slighter and more fantastic 
forms of Persian ancestry and Egyptian development. In the 
Syrian type stone was used as agamst brick in the other. Thanks 
to this mosque, al-Qayrawan became to the Western Moslems 
the fourth holy city, ranking after Makkah, al-Madinah and 
Jerusalem — one of the four gates of Paradise. 

It was under the Aghlabids that the final transformation of 
Ifriqiyah from an outwardly Latin-speaking, Christianity-pro- 
fessing land to an Arabic-speaking, Islam-professing region took 
place. Like a house of cards Latin North Africa, which supplied 
St. Augustine with his cultural environment, collapsed never to 
rise again. The transformation was perhaps more complete than 
in any other region thus far reduced by Moslem arms. Such 
opposition as was raised later came from unsubdued Berber 
tribes and took the form of schismatic and heretical Moslem 
sectarianism 

The last Aghlabid was Ziyadat-Allah III (903-9),* who in 909 
took to flight before the Fa timid advance without offering any 
resistance. 3 The story of the Fatimids, who in 909 succeeded the 
Aghlabids m North Africa and in 969 displaced the Ikhshldids 
in Egypt and southern Syria, belongs to a later chapter. The 
Ikhshidids, whose history we shall soon sketch, were preceded 
by the Tulunid dynasty. 

The founder of the short-lived Tulunid dynasty (daivlak % 
868-905) in Egypt and Syria was Ahmad lbn-Tulun, whose 
father, a Turk from Farghanah, was sent in 817 by the Samanid 
ruler of Bukhara as a present to al-Ma*mun. 3 In 868 Ahmad went 

1 For other Aghlabids sec Lane-Poole, p 37, Zambaur, pp 67, 68. 

* Ibn-'Idhfin,vol. i, pp 142-6; lbn-Khaldun, \ol iv,pp 205-7; ibn-abi-Zar*»p.6l. < 

* Ibn-KhaJdun, vol. m, p. 29s, \oJ iv t p 297. 



CH.XXXT * PETTY DYNASTIES IK THE WEST" * ' m 453* 

to Egypt as lieutenant to its governor. Here he soon made him* 
self independent. 1 When hard pressed for money by the Zanj 
rebellion, the Caliph al-Mu'tamid (870-92) demanded but did 
not receive financial aid from his Egyptian lieutenant. This event 
was a turning-point in the life of Egypt. It marked the emergence 
in the Nile valley of an independent state which maintained its 
sovereignty throughout the Middle Ages. Heretofore Egypt's 
rich revenues went partly into Baghdad and partly into the 
pockets of successive governors, who were primarily tax-farmers. 
Now money remained in the country and was spent in glorifying 
the reigning house. Down to the time of ibn-Tulun as many as a 
hundred different Moslem governors, with an average of about 
two years and a quarter of incumbency, 2 had succeeded oneanother 
in the exploitation of the land. Egypt profited by the Tulunid 
regime and entered upon an era of comparative prosperity. 

Ibn-Tulun (868-84) gave his new state a rigid military 
organization. For the maintenance of authority he depended 
upon an army of a hundred thousand whose core consisted of a 
bodyguard of Turkish and negro slaves. From his troops, as 
well as from his slaves and subjects, he exacted an oath of 
personal allegiance. 5 When in 877 the governor of Syria died 
Ahmad occupied the neighbouring country without much 
opposition/ For the first time since Ptolemaic days Egypt had 
become a sovereign state, and for the first time since Pharaonic 
days it ruled Syria. To maintain his hold on Syria Ahmad 
developed a naval base at *Akka (Acre). 5 For many centuries 
to come Syria continued to be ruled from the valley of the Nile. 

The Tulunid regime interested itself in irrigation, the most 
vital factor in the economic life of the land. Ahmad improved 
the Nilomcter on the isle of al-Rawdah, near Cairo. This 
measuring instrument was first built by an Umayyad governor 
in 716 superseding the more ancient one of Memphis. 6 The 
regime was the first since the Arab conquest to make Moslem 
Egypt famed as a centre of art and as a seat of a splendid court. 
Al-Oata i* 7 (the wards), the new quarter of al-Fustat, the capital, 

1 Ya'qubi, vol. ii, pp. 615 seq.; Takari, vol. hi, p. 1697. 

1 Cf. lists in Kindi, cd. Guest, pp. 6-2x2; Suyutf, ffusn % vol. ii, pp. 2-10; de 
Zamb&ur, pp. 25.7. * Ya'qutu, \ol. «, p. 624. 

* Ibn Kbaldun, vol iv, pp, 300-301; Kindi, pp. 219 seq. 

* YSqut, vol. ni, pp. 707-8. • Maqria, «d. Wirt, vol. i 4 pp. ^47-50. 
T Maqrui (Bulaq), vol. J, pp. 313 seq. 



454 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES pakt hi 

was adorned with magnificent buildings. One of them was the 
sixty-thousand-dinar hospital (btmdrisidn) built by Ahmad. 1 
The mosque that still bears the name of Ahmad ibn-Tulun is 
one of the principal religious monuments of Islam. It shows, 
especially in its minaret — the oldest in Egypt — the architectural 
influence of the school of Samarra, where Ahmad had spent his' 
youth. The structure cost 120,000 dinars 2 and is remarkable 
for the use of brick piers and for the early use of the pointed 
arch (above, p. 417). About one-seventeenth of the Koran is 
inscribed in beautiful Kufic characters on the wooden frieze 
round the inside of the building just below the flat timbered roof. 5 
The palace of Khumarawayh (884-95), Ahmad's extravagant 
son* and successor, with its "golden hall", whose walls were 
covered with gold and decorated with bas-reliefs of himself, his 
wives and his songstresses, 5 was one of the most remarkable 
Islamic structures. The figures of Khumarawayh and his wives, 
wearing gold crowns, were life-size and carved in wood. Such 
representation of living persons is exceedingly rare in Islamic^ 
art. The palace stood amidst a garden rich in sweet-smeJling 
flowers planted in beds which were shaped to spell Arabic 
words, and in exotic trees growing round gilded water tanks, 6 
Other outstanding features were an aviary 7 and a zoological 
garden, 8 but the chief wonder of the palace was a pool of quick- v 
silver in its courtyard. Leather cushions inflated with air were 
moored on the surface of this pool by silken cords fastened to 
silver columns; on these the dynast used to lie, rocking agreeably 
to alleviate insomnia and induce slumber. Traces of the quick- 
silver were found in later years on the site. 0 Shortly before his 
violent death Khumarawayh gave his daughter Qatr-al-Nada 
(dewdrop) in marriage to the Caliph al-Mu'tadid, settled on 
her a dowry of a million dirhams and presented her with one 
thousand mortars of gold and other objects "the like of which 

1 Ibn-Taghri-Birdi, ahNujum al-Zakirak fi Mtiluh Mtft w+al-Qakir^ ed. 
T. G. J. Juynboll, vol. ii (Leyden, 1855), p. 11; Kindi, p. 216. • 

1 Ibn-Khrdltkan, vol. j, p. 97; ibn-Taghri-Birdi, vol. ii, p. S. 

3 The best description of this mosque was written about 1420 by Maqrizi (Bulaq), 
\ol. u\ pp 265 seq.\ utilized by Suyuti, f/ttsr: y vol. ii, pp. 152-4. 

* One of seventeen sons and thirty-tbree children; ibn-Taghxi-Birdi, vol. ii, p. 21; 
Su>uti, ffusn, vol. n, p. II. 

* Ibn-Taghri-Birdi, vol. ii, pp. 57-8; Maqrizi, vol. i, pp. 316-17. 

* Ibn-Taghri-Birdi, vol. ii, p. 56. 7 /bid. pp. 56-7. 

* ibtd. pp. 6o-6i. • Ibtd. pp. 58-9; Maqrizi, vol. i, p. 317. 



OI.TKB PETTY DYNASTIES IN THE WEST 455 

had never been given before". 1 On account of his extravagance 
and luxuries Khumarawayh was held impious by the orthodox. 
He could, it is claimed, drink four rotls of Egyptian wine at one 
sitting. 2 It is related that as his body was being lowered into its 
grave the seven Koran readers appointed to recite the sacred 
book on the adjacent tomb of his father happened to be chanting; 
"Seize ye him and drag him into the mid-fire of hell". 3 

The Tulumd dynasty was the earliest manifestation of a 
political crystallization in the unruly and heretofore inarticulate 
Turkish element in the heart of the caliphate. Other and more 
important Turkish dynasties were soon to follow. The case of 
Ahmad ibn-Tulun was typical of the founders of the many states 
on the ruins of the caliphate. These states broke off entirely from 
the central government or remained only nominally dependent 
upon the caliph in Baghdad. Ahmad served as an example of 
what could be done in the matter of achieving military and 
political power at the expense of a bulky and unwieldy caliphate 
through the strong-handed and confident ambition of a subject 
soldier and his slave satellites- But the Tulunid, as well as the 
Ikhshldid and most of the other dynasties, had no national basis 
in the lands over which they ruled and therefore were short-lived. 
Their weakness consisted in the absence of a strong coherent 
body of supporters of their own race. The rulers were themselves 
intruders who were obliged to recruit their bodyguards, which 
were their armies, from various alien sources. Such a rule can 
only be maintained by men of outstanding personal influence, 
and no sooner does the mighty arm of the founder relax or pass 
away than disintegration sets in. No wonder that we find the 
state founded by ibn-Tulun i everting to the 'Abbasids under his 
son and fourth successor, Shayban (904-S)** 

3 Ibn-Khalhfcun, vol 1, p 310 Cf ibn-Khaidun, vol iv, pp. 307-8, Taban, vol. in, 
pp 2145-6; ibn-Taghri-Birdi, vol 11 , p 55* 

* Tanukht, /rfw" al Tau*rikh y ed P. S. Margoliouth, ^ol i (London, 192 1), 
p. 261. 3 Sflr 44:47. 

4 kindi, pp, 247-8. Subjoined 1% a TfilCnid tree* 

i. Ahmad ibn-T^On (S68-S4) 



3. Jaysh (895-6) 4. IIarCj* (S96-904) Qatr-nl-^ada 5. Sha\iun* 

(904-5) 



456 



THE UMAVYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PART til 



s . The After a brief interval of precarious 'Abbasid sway in Egypt 
ithaMdidj and 5 yr j a ^ ano ther Turkish dynasty of Farghanah origin, 1 the 
Ikhshldid (935-69), was established at al-Fustat. The founder, 
Muhammad ibn-Tughj (935-46), after arranging the dis- 
organized affairs of Egypt, 2 received in 939 from the Caliph 
al-Radi the old Iranian princely title ikhshtd. In the next two 
years al-Ikhshld, following the Tulunid precedent, added Syria- 
Palestine to his quasi-independent state. In the following year 
both Makkah and al-Madinah were incorporated. Henceforth 
the fate of al-I^ijaz, a debatable land between east and west, was 
for several centuries linked with that of Egypt. 
a negro The two sons who succeeded Muhammad al-Ikhshld ruled 
eunuch on jy | n namCj t he reins of the government being held by the able 
Abyssinian eunuch abu-al-Misk Kafur (musky camphor). Origin- 
ally purchased by al-Ikhshld from an oil merchant for the 
equivalent of about eight pounds, Kafur became the sole ruler 
from 966 to 968.* He successfully defended Egypt and Syria 
against the rising power of another petty dynasty in the north, 
the Hamdanid His name has been immortalized in the verses 
first sung in praise of him, later in ridicule, by the greatest poet 
of his age, al-Mutanabbf / the panegyrist of Kafur's adversary, 
Sayf-al-Dawlah al-IIamdani. The case of this black slave rising 
from the humblest origin to wield absolute power was the first but 
not the last in Islamic history. Like other dynasts the IkhshTdids, 
and especially their founder, made lavish use of state moneys to 
curry favour with their subjects. The daily provision for Muham- 
mad's kitchen included, we are told, a hundred sheep, a hundred 
lambs, two hundred and fifty geese, five hundred fowls, a 
thousand pigeons and a hundred jars of sweets. When it was 
poetically explained to Kafur that the recurrent earthquakes of 
that time were due to Egypt's dancing with joy at his excellences 
the proud Abyssinian rewarded the would-be seismographer 
with a thousand dinars. Otherwise the IkhshTdids made no 
contribution to the artistic and literary life of their domain and 

1 Ibn-Sa'Sd, chMughnb fi {fuIacJ~MagArtt> f e&. K. L. Tallqvist (Leyden, 1899), 

* Kindi, p. 288; Miskawayh, vol. i, pp. 332, 366, n.; ibn-Taghri-Birdi, vol. ii f 
p. 270. 

3 Ibn-Khalkkan, vol. u, pp. 185-9; ibn-Khald&a, vol. iv, pp. 314-15; ibn-Taghri* 
BSrdi, vol. u, p. 373. 

* Dttvart, ed. Fr. DIcterid (Berlin, 1861), pp. 623-732; ibn-Sa*Id f pp. 45-6. 



dh XXXI * PETTY DYNASTIES IN THE WEST 



457 



no public works have been left by them. The last representative 
of this dynasty was an eleven-year-old boy, abu-al-Fa\varis 
Ahmad, who in 969 lost the country to the illustrious Fatimid 
general, Jawhar. 1 

The Ikhshldids of Egypt had strong rivals in the Shfite 6. Th 
IJamdanids to the north. Originally established in northern 
Mesopotamia with al~Ma\vsiI for their capital (929-91), the 
Flamdanids, who were descendants of Plamdan ibn-Hamdun * 
of the Taghlib tribe, advanced in 944 into northern Syria and 
under the leadership of the future Sayf-al-Dawlah (the sword of 
the dynasty) wrested Aleppo (J^alab) and yims from the 
Ikhshldid lieutenant in charge. Syria, which never forgot its 
past glory under the Umayyads, had ever been a hotbed of 
dissatisfaction and rebellion against the 'Abbasid regime. Sayf- 
al-Dawlah (944-67) of Aleppo became the founder of a north 
Syrian dynasty which lasted until 1003. His second successor, 
Sa*Id-al-Dawlah (991-1001), however, was a vassal of the Fati- 
mids of Egypt. Hard pressed between the Byzantines and the 
Fatimids, the I^amdanids 3 in that year gave way in favour of 
the latter* 

Sayf-al-Dawlah owes his fame in Arab annals primarily to Lite 
his munificent patronage of learning and, in a smaller measure, ^ 

1. Mohammad al-IkhshId (935-46) 



1 i > 

2. ABU-AL-Q&sm "UnOjOr 3. 'An 4. Abu-al-Misk. Kafur 

(946-60) (960-66) (966-8) 

I 

5. Ahmad 
(968-9) 

The stars indicate a waster-slave relationship. 

"UnQjOr" is transmitted in several variants. Cf. ibn-Taghri-Birdi, vol. ii, p. 315; 
Xindi, p. 294; ibn-KhaJdDn, vol. iv, p. 314; jbn-al-Athlr, vol. vjii, p, 343; Miskawayh, 
vol. ii, p. io4. See also F* WiistenfeW, Die StaUhalter von Agypten tur Ztit dcr 
Ckchfctt, pt. iv (Gottingen, 1876), p. 37. 

* Tabari, voL in, p. 3141. 

* t» Sayf.alrDatvlah abu-aMJasan 'Ali {044-6?) 
ff. 5aM*al»Dawlah abu-al-Ma*ali Sharif (067-91) 

3. Sa*ad-al-Dawlah abu-al-Fa^S'il Sa'Jd (991-1001) 



4&. Abu-al^asan 'AH (1001-3) 4b. Abu-al-Ma'ali Sharff (1001-3/ 



45 8 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES fart in 



to his taking up the cudgels against the Christian enemies of 
Islam after those cudgels had been laid down by other Moslem 
hands. The literary circle of this IJamdanid, himself a poet, 1 
recalls the days of al-Rashld and al-Ma'mun. It included the 
celebrated philosopher-musician ai-Farabi, whose modest daily 
needs were met by a pension of four dirhams from the state 
treasury; the distinguished historian of literature and music, 
al-Isbahani, who presented to his patron the autograph manu- 
script of his monumental Aghani and received in reward a 
thousand pieces of gold; the eloquent court preacher ibn- 
Nubatah (3*984), whose elegant sermons 2 in rhymed prose fired 
the zeal of his hearers for prosecuting the holy war against 
Byzantium; and above all the poet laureate al-Mutanabbi' 
(915-65), whose bombastic and ornate style with its Bowery 
rhetoric and improbable metaphors renders him to the present 
day the most popular and most widely quoted poet in the 
Moslem world. 3 An early authority calls his poetry "the height 
of perfection",* Al-Mutanabbi* 5 (prophecy claimant), son of a 
water-carrier in al-Kufah, was so named because in his youth he 
claimed the gift of prophecy among the Bedouins of Syria. His 
poetical rival in Aleppo was a cousin of Sayf-al-Dawlah, abu- 
Firas al-rjamdani. 6 Estranged for a time from his fjamdanid 
patron, al-Mutanabbi* sought and received the protection of the 
Ikhshidid Kafur, in whom he was later disappointed. 

As a late product of this ephemeral renaissance in northern 
Syria we ma) r count the "philosopher of poets and poet of 
philosophers'* abu-al-'Ala' al-Ma'arri (973-1057), who expressed 
the sceptical and pessimistic sentiments of an age of social decay 
and political anarchy in Islam. A descendant of the Tanukh, abu- 
aI- T Ala* was born and died in Ma*arrat al-Nu'man, whence his 
surname. His tomb was renovated in 1944 on the occasion of his 
thousandth anniversary. When four years old he was stricken with 

1 Ibn-KhaUiLan, \ol. u\ pp. 66-8; TanuUii, p. 134.. 

* Khutab % which have appeared m several Cairo and BeirGt editions. 

* His Diw&n was edited by Dieteriri and later by Nasif al-Y-aziji (Beirut, 1SS2). 
The thousandth anniversary of his death (a.h. 354) was commemorated in 1935 
in Syria, Lebanon and other lands. 

* Ibn-Khalhkan, vol. i, p. 63. For an early critical view see Tha'alibi, Yctlmah, 
vol. i ? pp. 7S-164. 

* Properly abu-ai*Tayyib Ahmad ibn-Husayn* 

* &iwan, ed. Nakhlah QaJfat (Beirut, 1900); tr. in part, Rudolph Dvorak as Abu 
Ftrds: ein arabUchcr Dicktcr ttnd Held (Leyden, 1895). See also Tha'alibi, voL i, 
pp. 22-62. 



smztlpox, which cost him his sight, but for which compensation 
was made by the development of a prodigious memory. In 1009 
abu-al-*Ala* wnt to Baghdad, where he spent about a year and 
seven months and became inoculated with the ideas of Ikhwan 
al-Safa* as well as with others of Indian origin. On his return 
home he adopted a vegetarian diet and a life of comparative 
seclusion. His late works, particularly his Luzwnzyat 1 and 
Risdlat al-Ghufran 2 (treatise on forgiveness) reveal him as one 
who took reason for his guide and pessimistic scepticism for his 
philosophy, It was this Risdlah that is claimed to have exercised 
a determining influence over Dante in his Divine Comedy? His 
quatrains 4 have been partly done into English* Parallels have 
repeatedly been drawn between this Syrian poet and the Persian 
'Umar al-Khayyam, who died about sixty years after him and 
shows decided marks of having been influenced by his prede- 
cessor, Al-Mutannabi' and al-Ma*arri close the period of great 
Arab poetry. Since that day hardly any Arab poet has been 
able to achieve more than local eminence. 

After making his position secure in northern Syria, "the sword 
of the IJamdanid dynasty", beginning in 947, conducted annual \ 
campaigns into Asia Minor, Until his death twenty years later ' 
not a year passed without some engagement with the Greeks. 5 
At first fortune smiled on Sayfs efforts. He seized Mar'ash 

' among other border towns. But the brilliant leadership of 
Nicephorus Phocas and John Tzimisces, 6 both future emperors, 
saved the day for Byzantium* In 961 Nicephorus captured the 
capital, Aleppo, with the exception of the citadel, put over ten 
thousand of its youth and all the captives to the sword and de- 
stroyed the palace of Sayf-al-Dawlah. But after eight or nine days 

* he retired, 7 After he became emperor (963-9) his troops wrested 
Cyprus from the Arabs and occupied Cilicia. 8 Thus was the road 

1 Al-Lusufiiiyal tnv Lxs&m Ma la Ycham % cd. 'Aziz Zand, 2 vols. (Cairo, i8$i f 
1S95); (in part) Ameen Rihani (New York* 193 S). 

* Ed, Kamil Kllam, 2 pts. (Cairo, 1923); partially translated by R. A. Nicholson in 
Journal Royal Asiatic Sochty (1900), pp. 637*7*0; (1902), pp. 75-101, 337"62, 013-47* 

* Asin, /slam and ihc Divine Comedy, tr. Sunderland. 

* Rub&iy&tt stanzas of four lines in which first, second and fourth rhyme; originally 
4 a Persian form of composition. 

* See Yahya ibn^Sald aUAnfaki, "Ta'rikh", ed. and tr. (Fr.) J. Kratchkovsky 
and A, Yasiltev In Patr&logia Oritntclis > \ol. xviii> pp. 768 scq. 

9 "Ilm-Shamshaqlq*' of Arab chronicles; ibn-al-Athlr, vol, viii, p. 407, abu-al* 
JFida*, vol, ii, p. no, I CO. 

„ 1 'Mislcawayh, vol. ii, pp iQ2'*: Yahya, pp. 786-7 1 YuaQt, vol. in, p. 527. 



460 THE UMAYYAD AND f ABBASID EMPIRES part in 

open again to Syria. In the last year of his reign his army seized 
Antioch, long coveted as a city of patriarchs, saints and councils 
and as a religious peer of Byzantium itself. The city remained in 
Byzantine hands from 969 till 1084. Soon after the occupation 
of Antioch, Nicephorus* general entered Aleppo and exacted 
from Sayfs son and successor, SaM-al-DawIah (967-91), a 
humiliating treaty. 1 The Emperor John Tzimisces (969-76) 
adopted the policy of consolidating and insuring the conquests 
in Ciliciaand northern Syria, and set for his final goal the freeing 
of Jerusalem. To this end he started from Antioch on a real 
crusade, entered Damascus, but did not penetrate far into 
Palestine. Early in his reign the refractory banu«y ablb of Naslbin, 
cousins of the yamdanids, 12,000 strong, left their homes on 
account of the high taxes, embraced Christianity and joined the 
Byzantines in their attacks on Moslem lands. 2 Tzimisces* suc- 
cessor, Basil II (976-1025), though troubled by the Arabs of 
North Africa, who at this time were in possession of Sicily and 
many Aegean islands, took the field in person to defend the 
Syrian possessions now threatened by the Fatimids of Egypt. 
But at the outset of the eleventh century he signed a treaty of 
peace with the Fatimid al-Hakim and no further serious collision 
took place. The efforts of Basil II, preceded by those of Nice- 
phorus and Tzimisces, extended the eastern boundary of the 
Byzantine empire at the expense of Islam as far as the Euphrates 
and into the heart of northern Syria. 5 Their reigns covered "the 
most brilliant period in the history of Byzantine relations with 
the eastern Muslims". 4 

1 Yahya, pp 823-4. 1 Ibn-Hawqal, pp. 140 41. 

3 Ibn-al-Atiur, vol. vui, pp. 440-41, 

* Vasiliev, Bytantine Bmpire t vol. i, p. 381 



CHAPTER XXXII 
SUNDRY DYNASTIES IN THE EAST 



WHILE petty dynasties, mostly of Arab origin, were parcelling 
out the domains of the caliph in the west, the same process was 
being carried forward by others, chiefly Turkish or Persian, in 
the east. 

The first to establish a quasi-independent state east of Bagh- . 
dad was the once trusted general of al-Ma'mun, Tahir ibn-aJ- 
Husayn of Khurasan, who had victoriously led his master's 
army against al-Amin. In this war the one-eyed Tahir is said to 
have used the sword so effectively with both hands that al- 
Ma'imlri 1 nicknamed him dhu-al-Yammayn (ambidextrous) and 
a poet described him as the warrior "minus one eye, plus an 
extra right arm"* 2 The descendant of a Persian slave, Tahir was 
rewarded in S20 by al-Ma*mun with the governorship of all lands 
east of Baghdad, with the centre of his power in Khurasan. Be- 
fore his death two years later in his capital, Marvv, Tahir had 
omitted mention of the caliph's name in the Friday prayer. 3 
Though nominally vassals of the caliph, Tahir's successors 
extended their dominion as far as the Indian frontier. They 
moved the seat of government to Naysabur, where they re- 
mained in power till 872/ when they were superseded by the 
Saffarids, 

The Saffarid dynasty, which originated m Sijistan and reigned 
in Persia for forty-one years (867-908), owes its foundation to ' 
one Ya'qub ibn-al-Layth al-Saffar (867-78). Al-Saffar (copper- 
smith) was a coppersmith by profession and a brigand by avo- 
cation. His chivalrous and efficient conduct as head of a band 
of outlaws attracted the favourable attention of the caliph's 
governor over Sijistan, who thereupon entrusted him with the 

1 T&bari, vol in, p 829, lbn-Khathkan, vol i, p 424 Cf. Mas'udi, vol. vi, p 423 

* Ibn-Khalhkan, %ol i # p 422; ibn aKAthtr, vol vi, p. 270. 
1 Ibn-al-AtMr, voi vi, pp. 255, 270, 

* Mas udi, *o], vhi f p. 42; Jaban, vol, in, p iSSa 

461 



462 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES partih 



command of his troops. 1 Al-SafFar eventually succeeded his s 
benefactor and added to his domains almost all Persia and the 
outskirts of India, even threatening Baghdad itself under the 
Caliph al-Mutamid." The Samanids fell heir to a large portion 
of the Saffand state. 3 

The Samanids of Transoxiana and Persia (874-999) were de- 
scended from Saman, a Zoroastrian noble of Balkh. The founder 
of the dynasty was Nasr ibn-Ahmad (874-92), a great-grandson 
of Saman, but the one who established its power was Nasr's 
brother Isma'il (892-907), who in 900 wrested Khurasan from 
the Saffarids. 4 Starting as Moslem sub-governors under the 
Tahirids, the Samanids under Nasr II ibn-Ahmad 5 (913-43), 
fourth in the line, extended their kingdom to its greatest limits, 
including under their sceptre Sijistan, Karman, Jurjan, al-Rayy 
and Tabaristan, in addition to Transoxiana and Khurasan. 
Though outwardly professing loyalty to the 'Abbasids, the 
dynasty was virtually independent. In the eyes of the Baghdad 
caliph its members were amirs (governors) or even *amil$ (tax 
collectors), but within their own territory their authority was 
undisputed. 

It was under the Samanids that the final subjugation of Trans- 
oxiana to Moslem rule was effected. Their capital, Bukhara, and 
their leading city, Samarqand, almost eclipsed Baghdad as 
centres of learning and art. Not only Arabic but Persian scholar- 
ship was protected and fostered. It was to a Samanid prince, 
abu-Salih Mansur ibn-Ishaq of Sijistan, a nephew of the second 
ruler, that the illustrious al-Razi dedicated his book on medicine 
entitled al~Mansuri in honour of his patron. It was in response 
to a summons from the Samanid ruler Nuh II (976-97) * that 
young ibn-Slna, then living in Bukhara and still in his teens, was 
accorded free access to the rich royal library, 7 where he ac- 
quired that seemingly inexhaustible fund of knowledge. From this 

1 Ibn-al-Athir, vol. vu, pp. 124-$; ibn-Khalhkau, vol. lii, pp. 350-51; Ya'qubi, 
vol. «, p. 605; Mustawfi-j«Qazwim, Tctrtkh-t-Guztda, cd. E. G. Browne, vol. i 
(Lcyden, 1910), p. 373; tr. (abr.) Browne, vol. li (Leyden, 1913), p. 72. 

3 I$takhri, pp, 245*7, 

8 Mas'udi, vol. vrn, pp. 4**5; T&bari, vol. ui, pp 1698-1706, 1880-87. 

4 Ibn-al-Athir, vol. vii, pp. 192-5, 346-7, vol. vni, pp. 4-6; I$fahani, ed. 
GotrwaioX pp. 236-7; Tabari, vol. hi, p. 2194; Tankh-x+Ststan> cd. Bahar (Teheran, 
*935)> P* 256. 

* Consult Mustawn-i-Qazwini, vol. i, pp. 381-3 ** vol. ii, p. 74; ibn-al-Athir, vol. 
vm, PP. 5$-6o, J54*6 

e Consult ibn-al-Athir, vol. ix, pp. 69 seg. > Ibn-abi-Usaybi*ah. vol. ii, p. 4. 



CH.Xxxn SUNDRY DYNASTIES IN THE EAST 



4*3 



epoch modern Persian literature takes its rise* Suffice it to recall 
that Firdawsi {ea* 934-1020) wrote his first poetry in this period 
and that Bal*ami, the vizir of Mansur 1 1 (961-76), translated an 
abridgment of al-Tabari's history * and thus produced one of 
the oldest extant prose works in Persian. Ever since the Moslem 
conquest Persians had used Arabic as the medium of literary 
expression, but with these %vriters the brilliant Moslem literature 
of Persia began its development. 

Though one of the most ealightened of the Iranian dynasties, 
the Samanid was not free from those elements which proved 
fatal to others of the same period. To the usual problems 
presented by a turbulent military aristocracy and a precarious 
dynastic succession was now added a new danger, that of the 
Turkish nomads to the north. Even within the state power was 
gradually slipping into the hands of Turkish slaves with whom 
the Samanids had filled their court. The Samanid territory south 
of the Oxus was absorbed in 994 by the Ghaznawids, who rose to 
power under one of these slaves. The territory north of the river 
was seized by the so-called lick (Ilaq) Khans of Turkestan, who in 
992 captured Bukhara and seven years later gave the coup de 
grace to the expiring Samanid dynasty. Thus for the first but not 
the last time we note Turanian hordes of Central Asia thrusting 
themselves to the forefront of Islamic affairs. The struggle be- 
tween Iranians and Turanians for the mastery of the borderland 
of Islam in the fourth Moslem century was but a prelude to 
graver developments. We shall hereafter see these Turks play an 
increasingly important role in world affairs until they finally 
absorb most of the powers of the caliph of Baghdad, in fact until 
they establish their own caliphate, the Ottoman, in "Baghdad 
on the Bosporus". 

Among the Turkish slaves whom the Samanids delighted to 4 
honour with high governmental posts was one Alptigin, who * 
started his career as a member of the bodyguard. Soon he rose to 
the headship of the guard * and thence was promoted in 961 to 
the governorship of Khurasan. Shortly afterwards, however, he 
fell out of favour with the new Samanid ruler and betook himself 
to the eastern border of the kingdom. Here in 962 he captured 

1 A flattering description of the internal conditions under him has been left by an 
eye-vatness, ibn-IJ&wqal, pp. 341-2, 344-5* 
* Must&wfi-l-QarwTni, vol. i, p. 385— vol. ii, p. 75, 

1 Ibn^awqal, pp. 13, 14, refers to lum as Albtakln* hajib $chib Khurasan. 



464 



THE TJMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 



Ghaznah, in Afghanistan, from its native rulers and established 
an independent realm 1 which developed into the Ghaznawid 
empire of Afghanistan and Panjab (962-1 1 86). The real founder 
of the Ghaznawid dynasty, however, was Subuktigln (976-97), a 
slave and son-in-law of Alptiglm The sixteen Ghaznawids who 
succeeded him were his lineal descendants. Subuktigln widened 
his territory to include Peshawar in India and also Khurasan in 
Persia, which he first held under the Samanids. 

The most distinguished member of the dynasty was Subuk- 
Ghaznah tiffin' s son Mahmud (999-1030). The location of his capital, 
Ghaznah, on the crest of a high plateau overlooking the plains of 
northern India, into which it possessed easy access through the 
valley of Kabul, gave him an advantageous position for a series 
of campaigns eastward. Between 1001 and 1024 Mahmud con- 
ducted no less than seventeen campaigns into India, which re- 
sulted in the annexation of the Panjab, with its centre, Lahore, of 
Multan and of part of Sind. 2 In the Panjab Moslem influence was 
now permanently established. From these raids Mahmud re- 
turned with fabulously rich spoils from the Hindu temples and 
won an enviable distinction among his contemporaries as the 
idol-breaker and champion of orthodox iconoclastic Islam. He 
was one of the first in Moslem history to receive, and that about 
1001, the title al-gkazi % bestowed on him who distinguished him- 
self in war against unbelievers. 

Mahmud likewise extended the western borders of his do- 
mains. Here he wrested the Persian 'Iraq, including al-Rayy and 
Isbahan, from the Shi'ite Buwayhids, who at the time had the 
caliph under their control. As a Sunnite, Mahmud had from the 
time of his accession acknowledged the nominal suzerainty of 
the Caliph al-Qadir (991-1031), 3 from whom he later received 
the title Yamln-al-DawIah (the right arm of the state). 4 On their 
coins he and his immediate successors satisfied themselves with 
the title amir (governor) or sayyid (chief). Though Mahmud is 
credited with being the first in Islam to be designated sultan? 
evidence from coins shows that this high designation was first 

1 Mustawfw-Qazwlni, vol. i, p 393 — vol. ii, p. 78. 

* Ibid. vol. i, pp. 395 seqs t Biruru, Tahqlq, p. 1 1; M Naziut, The Lift and Ttiret 
ef Sit if an Mafimud of Gkaxna (Cambridge, 1931), pp. 86 stq. 

* See Hilal al-$abi*, Jtfrtkh al Wutartf (supplement to Miskawayh, Tajartb, 
vol. in), ed. Amcdroz, pp 34**5- 

« Mustawfi-i-Qazwinx, vol. 1, p. 395. * Ibn-al-Athlr, vol. ix, p. 92. 



CH. xxxn SUNDRY DYNASTIES IN THE EAST 463 

officially borne by the Saljuq rulers. 1 At their greatest extent 
Mahmud's dominions, besides northern India in the east and the 
Persian 'Iraq in the west, included all Khurasan, Tukharistan 
with its centre Balkh, part of Transoxiana in the north and 
Sijistan in the south. 8 He adorned his capital with magnificent 
buildings, 3 founded and endowed a large academy and made his 
munificent court the chief resort of poets and men of learning. 
His assemblage of literary genius included the Arab historian 
al-'Utbi* (f 1036), the celebrated scientific and historical author 
al-BTruni and the illustrious Persian poet Firdawsi, the millennial 
anniversary of whose birth was celebrated in 1934-5 m As* a 
Europe and America. On dedicating his great epic, the Skdk- 
fidma/i, to Mahmud and receiving only 60,000 dirhams instead 
of dinars for its 60,000 verses, Firdawsi denounced his patron in a 
scathing satire and had to flee for his life. 

The rise of the Ghaznawid dynasty represents the first victory 
of the Turkish element in its struggle against the Iranian element 
for ultimate mastery in Islam. Yet the Ghaznawid state did not 
differ radically from the Samanid or the Saflfarid state. It was 
loosely held by force of arms, and as soon as the powerful hand 
wielding the sword relaxed the component parts were certain to 
fall away. This is what happened after Mahmud's death. The 
provinces of the east gradually separated themselves from the 
capital in the highlands, thus beginning the series of independent 
Moslem dynasties of India. In the north and west the Khans of 
Turkestan and the Great Saljuqs of Persia parcelled out the 
Ghaznawid domain. In the centre the hardy Ghurids of Afghan- 
istan dealt the final blows and in 1 186 destroyed the last Ghaz- 
nawids in Lahore. 

While the wings of the 'Abbasid eagle were being clipped at 
both extremities, a dagger clutched in Pcrso-Turkish hands was 
pointed at its heart. Under the domination of the Shfite Persian 
Buwayhids, and after them of the Sunnite Turkish Saljuqs, the 
caliph had little left except the capital and even there his 
authority was shadowy. The rise of an unruly imperial guard, 
followed by a revolt of negro slaves, undermined the central 

1 Sec below, p. 474. 

* Hilttl al*$abi', pp 340, 386. 

* See Fhiry in Syria, vol. vi (1925), pp J&1-90. 

* His Kttab uVamim, tr James Reynolds (London, 1858), originally in Arabic, 
extols the glorious reign of Ma^rnud. 



466 THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES part Hi 

authority and paved the way for the advent of the Buwayhid 
regime. 

It was the eighth 'Abbasid caliph, al-Mu'tasim (833-42), son 
of Harun by a Turkish slave, who first surrounded himself with 
a bodyguard of Turkish recruits from Transoxiana. The guard' 
numbered four thousand. Originally brought in to counter- 
balance the influence of the soldiers from Khurasan, to whom 
the 'Abbasids owed the caliphate, the yearly import of Turks 
became an even greater menace to its integrity. Al-MansuVs 
"city of peace" became a city of turmoil. Facing the danger of a 
native uprising in Baghdad against the haughty and oppressive 
conduct of his guard, the caliph in 836 removed his seat of 
government sixty miles farmer up the Tigris to Samarra. 1 Origin- 
ally Assyrian, the name was changed by him to Surra Man Ra'a 
(pleased is he who sees it) under which name it appears as a mint 
city on 'Abbasid coins. It was wittily whispered at the time that 
what the new name really meant was "he who sees it (with the 
Turks settled therein) is pleased (with Baghdad well rid of them)". 

Samarra was beautified by palaces and mosques erected 
mainly by al-Mu*tasim and his son al-Mutawakkil (847-61). It 
remained the capital for fifty-six years (836-92), during the 
reigns of eight successive caliphs, and its ruins are the most 
imposing 'Abbasid monuments extant. 2 

Genealogical Table of the 'Abbasid Caliphs at Samarra 

8, Al-Mu*ta$im {833-42) 

! 



1 I ! 

Muhammad 9. Al-WatHIQ ro. Al-Mutawakkil 

I (842-7) (847-61) 



12. Al-Musta*!k 
(862-0) 



u. Al-Muntasir 13. Al-Mu*tazs 

(861-2) (866-9) 

14. Al-Muhtadi 15. Al-Mu'tamid 

(869-70) (870-92) 



The rise of this body of predominantly Turkish soldiery, 
which played a part in the caliphate not unlike that of the 

1 Tabari, vol. iii, pp. 1179-81; Mas'udi, vol. vii, pp. 1 18 seq>\ YaqQt, Button, vol, 
iii, pp. 16-17. 

* Maqdisi, pp. 122*3; Ernst Herzfeld, Dtr Wandsckrtuck dtr Mouteti ven 
Samarra (Berlin, 1923). 



cn XXXII , iSUNDRY* DYNASTIES W THE EAJsTT r < 4<$7 

praetorian guard in Rome and the Janissaries in Turkey, marked 
the beginning of the end of caliphal power. The caliph lived m 
his new capital almost as their prisoner. The murder of al- 
Mutawakkil by them in December 86 1, at the instigation of his 
son, 1 was the first in a series of events in the course of which the 
mighty structure of the 'Abbasid dynasty — already shaken — 
stood face to face with imminent collapse. Al-Mutawakkil was 
the first caliph in the period of decline. After him we find caliphs 
made and unmade by troops, chiefly Turkish, under generals 
mostly slaves, striving for mastery. Through their influence over 
these slaves the women of the court came to play an important 
political role and thus added to the confusion. In the case of the 
weak and vacillating al-Musta'm (862-6), who eventually fled 
to Baghdad pursued by his guard after he had been besieged 
and forced to abdicate, his slave-mother shared with two 
Turkish generals the supreme power. 2 The mother of his suc- 
cessor al-Mu*tazz (866-9) refused to pay out the 50,000 dinars 
which might have saved the life of her caliph son, though she 
kept in a subterranean cellar a cache of 1,000,000 dinars in 
addition to priceless jewellery. 3 For two centuries the history of 
the disintegrating caliphate presents a confused picture of 
nominal rulers ascending the throne with no power and descend- 
ing to the grave unregretted. Peace and security, if anywhere, 
were enjoyed only in those outlying provinces where a governor, 
practically independent, held the reins with an iron hand* 

One of the most spectacular and sanguinary episodes of the a 
period was the rebellion of the Zanj 4 slaves* These were negroes w 
imported from East Africa and employed in the saltpetre mines 
on the lower Euphrates* The leader (safnb al-Zttnj) was one r AU 
ibn-Muhammad, a wily pretender, probably of Arab origin. 
Taking advantage of disturbed conditions in the capital and 
the uprising of the discontented and wretched miners, he claimed 
in September 869 that he was an r Alid called to their deliverance 
by visions and occult science. One band of slaves after another 
rallied under the banner of the new Messiah — "the rogue" and 
"Allah's enemy" of our main informant, al-Tabari. 6 Army after * 

1 Tabari, vol. 111, pp. 1452-65; abbr. ibn*al-Athir, vol. vxi, pp. 60-64, 

* Tabari, vol. iii, pp. 1512-13, copifed by ibn-al-Athlr, vol. vu, pp. So-Sx. 

s Tabari, \6L iii, pp. 1718-19. ' 

* From Vet*. 2usg (Ethiopia), %vbe«cc X&ngbSr, Ar.rZonjabar, corrupted to 
Zanzibar. s Vol. lit, pp. 17$3» 1786. 



468 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES PAntm 



army was sent to suppress the strange rebellion, but being on 
favourable and familiar territory, a patchwork of marshes inter- 
sected with canals, the negroes overcame them all and, in 
accordance with a Kharijite doctrine now adopted by their leader, 
mercilessly put all prisoners and non-combatants to the sword. 1 
During fourteen years (870-83) of the reign of al-Mu'tamid 
(870-92) this servile war raged. The estimates of those who 
perished vary, some exceeding half a million. After one engage- 
ment the unclaimed heads of Moslems were so numerous that 
the negroes dumped them into a canal which carried them into 
al-Basrah, where they could be identified by relatives and 
friends. 2 Al-Basrah, Wasit, al-Ahwaz and al-Ubullah lay deso- 
late. Not until the caliph's brother al-Muwaffaq had taken 
personal charge of the operations was the backbone of opposition 
broken. In 883 al-Mukhtarah, the fortress built by the leader, 
was stormed and he himself slain. "Thus ended one of the 
bloodiest and most destructive rebellions which the history of 
Western Asia records." 3 It was in the course of this war that 
Egypt, one of the first and fairest provinces, fell away from the 
caliphate under the rule of ibn-Tulun. 
The atnTr The restoration of Baghdad as capital under al-Mu'tadid 
fa'poro*' (892-902), after ephemeral Sarnarra had functioned as such for 
over half a century, changed the scene but not the current of 
events. The real power continued to slip from caliphal to military 
hands. The period saw the rise of 'Abdullah ibn-al-Mu'tazz, who 
after contesting the caliphate with his second cousin al-Muqtadir 
had the unique distinction of holding office under the title al- 
Murtada for one day only (December 1 7, 908), after which he 
was deposed and killed. The one-day caliph was more of a poet 
and belletrist than a politician. Of his many works cited by al- 
Fihrist* and ibn-Khallikan 5 only a few have survived. 

The twenty-four years of al-Muqtadir's reign (908-32) were 
marked by the rise and fall of thirteen vizirs, some of whom 
were put to death. 6 To add to the confusion the caliph's Turkish 
mother constantly interfered in state affairs. One of these vizirs 
was ibn-Muqlah, a founder of Arabic calligraphy. 7 Another was 

1 Mas'adi, vol. viii, pp. 31, 58-61* * Takfm* vol. iii, pp. 1 785-6. 

* Noldckc, Sketches from Eastern Histo^tt. J. S. Black (London, 1892), p. 174. ^ 
4 P. 1 16 1 Vol i, p 462. * Fakhrt, pp. 360 seq t 

» Miskawa>h, vol. i, pp. 185 seq.% Sabi*, Wuzara\ cd. Amcdroz, pp. 109, 326, 
359*6o. 



CH. xxxn SUNDRY DYNASTIES IN THE EAST 4*9 

f AH ibn- f Isa, who in an age of corruption and oppression under 
a regime of cruelty and torture stands alone in his integrity and 
ability. In the two vizirates of 'Ali, which lasted five years, he 
materially improved the finances of the state by rigid economy 
and set an example of high efficiency which found no imitators. 1 
It was during the caliphate of al-Muqtadir that both the Fatimid 
'Ubaydullah (909) in North Africa and the Umayyad r Abd-al- 
Rahman III (929) in Spain assumed the dignity and insignia of 
the cahphate, thus creating the unusual phenomenon of three 
recognized rival caliphs in the Moslem world at the same time. 
The weak and incapable al-Muqtadir (lit. the mighty [by the 
help of God]) left the affairs of the state in the hands of his chief 
of bodyguard Mu'nis al-Muzaffar, 2 a eunuch on whom he be- 
stowed a newly created title, a ?mr al-umard* (the commander of 
the commanders). Mu*nis soon became- the real ruler. He de- 
throned al-Muqtadir and appointed his half-brother al-Qahir* 3 
After a brief restoration al-Muqtadir met his death at the hands 
of Berber soldiers who carried his head in triumph to their 
leader, Mu'nis * Al-Qahir (932-4) fared no better than his pre- 
decessor. When deposed the second time he was blinded and 
was last seen begging for alms in the streets of Baghdad. 5 Two 
of his successors, al-Muttaqi (940-44) and al-Mustakfi (944-6), 
followed him through the same process into the realm of dark- 
ness — all through the influence of the amir al~umara* At one 
time Baghdad presented the spectacle of three personages who 
had once held the highest office in Islam but were now deposed, 
blinded and objects of public charity. The amir al-umara of 
al-Radi (934-40) went so far as to have his name joined with 
the caliph's in the Friday prayer — a novel procedure in Islamic 
his tor>'. 7 Al-Radi w f as one of the few caliphs of the period to 
escape deposition, but he did not escape death at the hands of 
the soldiery. By the Arab annalists he was considered "the last 
of the real caliphs", by which they meant the last to deliver the 

1 See Harold Bowcn, The Life and Times of* Ali Ibn '/s&, "tk* Good Viner" 
(Cambridge, 1 928) 

* M The victorious " Miskawayh, vol. i, p 76, Tabari, vol. iii, p. 2199. 

* Miskawayh* vol. i, p. 193, ibn-al-Atlrfr, vol. viii, pp. 147.8. 

* Ibn-al-Athir, vol. vm, p 179 

* Miskawayh, vol. i, pp. 291*2, ibn-al-Athir, vol. via, pp. 209, 211, 332-3; Sakhri, 
P- 37 5 r Mas'Qdi, vol viu, pp. 287 seq. 

* Miskawayh, vol. ii, p 72; Mas'Gdi, vol. viii, p. 409. 
T Ibnul-Athlr, vol. viii, p 241, 



470 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 

Friday oration and conduct certain affairs of state, 1 He was also 
the last whose poetry has been preserved. With him vanished the 
last vestiges of power and dignity that were left to his office. 
The generalissimo, a?nir aUumara % was now well established as 
the actual ruler of the Moslem state. 2 
s. The An even darker chapter in the history of the caliphate was 
dyiwfy d opened in December 945, when the Caliph al-Mustakfi (944-6) 
received in Baghdad the victorious Ahmad ibn-Buwayh and 
made him his amir ai-umara with the honorific title of Mu'izz- 
al-Dawlah (he who renders the state mighty). Ahmad's father, 
abu-Shuja* Buwayh, claimed descent from the ancient Sasanid 
kings, probably, as in most such cases, to bolster up dynastic 
prestige. 3 He was the chief of a warlike horde consisting mainly 
of Daylamite highlanders from the mountainous region on the 
southern shore of the Caspian Sea and had been for some time 
in the service of the Samanids. His three sons, including Ahmad, 
gradually worked their way southward, occupying I§bahan, then 
Shiraz with its province (934) and in the following two years the 
provinces of al-Ahwaz (present-day Khuzistan) and Karman. 
Shiraz was chosen as capital of the new dynasty. At the advance 
of Ahmad into Baghdad (945) the Turkish guard fled, but the 
lot of the caliph did not improve under the tutelage of his new 
masters, the ShI'ite Persians. Though his official position was 
simply that of atmr al-umara\ Mu f izz-al-Dawlah insisted that 
he be mentioned along with the caliph in the khufbah. He wen 
had his name stamped on the coinage. 4 

1 Fakhrt t p 3So, Tanukhi, p 146. 

* A genealogical table of Baghd&d caliphs under the military regime: 
16. Al-Mu'tatfid (S92-902) 

i " — I 1 

17. Al-Muktafi 18. Al Muqtadir 19. Al Qahir 

(902-S) (ooS-32) (932-4) 



20. AJ-Ra^i 21. Al-Muttaqi 

22. Al Mustakfi (934-40) (940-44) 

(944-^) 

* Cf. ibn IChalhkun, vol. i, p. 98, Fahhrt t p 376, ibn«al«AthTr, vol. via, p 197; 
Mustawh-i-Qazwmi, vol, i, pp 413-14; Fnednch Wilken, Mtrchond's Gtschtehtt 
der Sultane aus dem GesckUckte Bujek (Berlin, 1S35), P« T 3 (P«s text), P* 5§ (**"•) 
(extract from MirkhwUnd, Jtawfat a!~$af& % ). 

* Miskau*>h, vol. 11, p 158, ibn-al-Athir, vol vut, p. 337; Wiiken, p. 21 (text), 
p. 66 (tr ) C * MisKauayh, vol u, p 396, 1 bn -Khali ik an, vol, 11, p. 159. 



CH. XXXII SUNDRY DYNASTIES IN THE EAST < 47K 

In January 946, the unfortunate al-Mustakfi was blinded and 
deposed by Mu*izz-al~Dawlah, who chose as the new caliph 
al-Muti* (946-74). Shi'ah festivals were now established, par- 
ticularly the public mourning on the anniversary of al-fjusayn's 
death (tenth of Muharrarn) and the rejoicing on that of the 
Prophet's alleged appointment of f Ali as his successor at Ghadir 
al-Khumm. 1 The caliphate now passed through the period of its 
deepest humiliation with the commander of the believers a mere 
puppet in the hands of a schismatic commander of the com- 
manders. The Buwayhids, however, were not the first in the 
history of Islam to assume the title of sultan, as is sometimes 
claimed* 2 They satisfied themselves, according to the testimony 
of their coins, with amir or malik affixed to such honorific sur- 
names as Mu'izz-al-DawIah, 'Imad-al-Dawlah (prop of the state) 
and Rukn-al-Dawlah (pillar of the state), appellations which 
were simultaneously bestowed on the three sons of Buwayh by 
the caliph. After them similar pompous surnames became the 
fashion. The dignity of aviir al-umara was also held by several 
of Mu'izz* Buwayhid successors, even though it had become 
nothing more than an honorific fiction. 

Throughout their century or so of supremacy (945-1055) the 
Buwayhids made and unmade caliphs at will, AJ-'Iraq was 
governed as a province from the Buwayhid capital, Shlraz in 
Faris. In Baghdad they maintained several magnificent palaces 
under the collective name ddr aUmamlakah (the abode of the 
kingdom). 3 Baghdad was no longer the hub of the i Moslem 
world, for not only Shlraz but Ghaznah, Cairo and Cordova 
were now sharing its international pre-eminence. 

The Buwayhid power reached its zenith under *Adud-al- 
Dawlah (the supporting arm of the state, 949-83), a son of 
Rukn* 'Adud was not only the greatest Buwayhid but also the 
most illustrious ruler of his time. Under his sceptre he united in 
977 the several petty kingdoms that had risen under Buwayhid 
rulers in Persia and al-*lraq, creating a state that approached in 
size an empire. r Adud-al-Dawlah married the daughter of the 
Caliph al-TaT and had the caliph marry his daughter (9S0), 

1 A spring between MaHah and al-Madmnh where Shfrte tradition asserts the 
Propbct declared, "Whomsoe\er I am lord of, his lord is *Ah also". lbn-Sa*<l, vol. v, 
p. 2351 Mas'udi, T<mbtk y pp 255-6. In memory of this declaration the Shfltes ob- 
served a feast on the iSth of dhu aMhijah. 

* Cf. above, p. 464; below, p. 474. * * Khatlb, vol. x, pp. 105-7. 



472 THE UMAYYAD AND C ABBASID EMPIRES paut 



hoping thereby to have a descendant of his assume the caliphate. 1 
'Adud was the first ruler in Islam to bear the title skdhanshak} 
Although he kept his court in Shiraz he beautified Baghdad, re- 
paired canals which had become filled up and erected in several 
other cities mosques, hospitals and public buildings, as reported 
by the meritorious historian Miskawayh, 3 'Adud's treasurer.* 
For his charitable enterprises *Adud appropriated funds from 
his state treasury. One interesting building of his was the shrine 
{mashhad) on the presumed tomb of *Ali. But the most signifi- 
cant was the famous hospital in Baghdad, al-Bimaristan al- 
f Adudi, which he completed in 978-9 and endowed with 100,000 
dinars. The hospital had a staff of twenty-four physicians who 
also functioned as a medical faculty. 6 Poets such as al-Muta- 
nabbf sang * Adud's glory and authors, including the grammarian 
abu- f AH al-Farisi, who wrote for him the Kitab al-IddJi (book 
of explanation), dedicated to him their works. 6 In his cultivation 
of the arts of peace r Adud found an able collaborator in his 
Christian vizir Nasr ibn-Harun, who with the caliph's author- 
ization erected and repaired churches and monasteries. 7 

The precedent for literary and scientific patronage set by 
*Adud-al-Dawlah was followed by his son Sharaf-ai-Dawlah a 
(983-89). In imitation of al-Ma'mun, Sharaf constructed one 
year before his death a famous observatory. Another son of 'Adud, 
his second successor, Baha'-al-Dawlah 9 (989-1012), who in 991 
deposed the Caliph al-Ta'i* whose vast wealth he coveted, had an 
enlightened Persian vizir in the person of Sabur ibn-Ardashlr. 
Sabur built in 993 at Baghdad an academy with a library of 
10,000 books, 10 which the Syrian poet al-Ma*arri used when a 
student in that city. The Ikhwan al-Safa', be it also remembered, 
flourished under the Buwayhid regime. But the state itself was on 

1 Miskawayh, vol. n, p 414; Yaqut, Udaba*, vol vi, p 266. 

9 Shortening of shahdnshak, Pers for king of kings, modelled after the ancient 
Iranian title of royalty The Arabic correspondent, mattk al'mut&k, was perhaps 
first assumed by 'A^ud's son Baha*-al-Dawlah and was especially favoured by the 
later dynasties of Turkish origin, 

3 Vol 11, pp 404-8 Sec ibn al-Athlr, vol ix, p. 16. * Qiftf, p 33 ? « 

1 Ibn-abi-Usaybi*ah, vol. i, pp 310, 238, 244; Qiffc, pp. 235-6, 337-8, 438. 

« Ibn-Khalhkan, \ol u, p 159 7 Miskawayh, vol u, p 408 

» "The honour of the state " Ibn al-Athlr, vol. ix, pp. 16 17; HudhrSwari, £>hayl 
(supplement to Miskawayh, TcjSnb, vol hi), cd Amcdroz, pp. 136 seq 

* "The splendour of the state." Ibn-al-Athlr, vol ix, pp. 42 seq\ Rudhrawan, 
PP 153 

10 Ibn al-Athlr, vol ix, p. 71; ibn-Khalhkan, vol. 5, p. 356 



CH. xxxii.'- SUNDRY DYNASTIES' IN/ THE EAST < 473 

its downward course. The wars between Baha\ Sharaf and their * 
third brother, Samsanval-Dawlah, 1 the dynastic and family v 
quarrels carried on among their successors and the Buwayhid 
Shrtte proclivities, which were deeply resented in Sunnite Bagh- 
dad, led to the fall of the dynasty. In 1055 the Saljuq Tughril 
Beg entered Baghdad and put an end to Buwayhid rule. The 
last of the dynasty in aKIraq, al-Malik al-Rahira (the merciful 
king, 1048-55), ended his days in confinement. 

The subjoined tree shows the genealogical relationship of the 
'Abbasid caliphs under Buwayhid supremacy (945-1055): 

16. Al-Mu'tadid 

1 . 

1 i 1 

Ijr. AJ-Muktofi IS. Al-Muqtadir 19. AI-QSfair 



i I i l 

32. Al-Mvstakfi sa Al-R^i* **- AI-Muttaqi 23. AirMufT (946-74) 



(944-6) 



24. AtJfW (974-91) 



25. Al-Qadi* (991-1031) 

26. Al-QFih (1031-75) 

The advent of the Saljuq Turks ushers in a new and notable 
era in the history of Islam and the caliphate. At their appearance 
from the east in the early part of the eleventh century the caliph 
held but 5i shadow of his former power and his empire had been 
almost entirely dismembered. The Umayyads in Spain and the 
Shfite FStimids in Egypt and North Africa were established 
beyond any hope of displacement from Baghdad. North Syria 
and upper Mesopotamia, as noted before, were in the hands of 
turbulent Arab chieftains, some of whom had succeeded in 
founding dynasties. Persia, Transoxiana and the lands to the 
east and south were parcelled among Buwayhid and Ghaznawid 
princes or held by sundry petty dynasts, each waiting for an 
opportunity to fly at the throat of the other. Political and 
military anarchy prevailed everywhere. Shf ite-Sunnite confusion 
was the order of the day. Islam seemed crushed to the ground. 
^ Into this distracted realm a chieftain named Saljuq had 
entered about 956 at the head of his clan of Turkoman Ghuzz 
(or Oghuz), Coming from the Kirghiz steppes of Turkestan, 
v * "The-svord of the state.*' Ibn-al-AthSr, vol. ix,pp. 16-19, 32-5; Sudhrawan, pp. 



474 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES partti 



these nomads settled in the region of Bukhara, where they 
fervently embraced Sunnite Islam. Slowly but surely Saijuq and 
after him his sons fought their way through the realms of the llek 
Khans and Samanids. 1 A grandson of Saijuq, Tughril, 2 ventured 
with his brother as far as Khurasan. In 1037 the two brothers 
wrested Marw and Naysabur from Ghaznawid hands. Balkh, 
Jurjan, Tabaristan and Khwariznii as well as Hamadhan, al-Rayy 
and Isbahan were speedily added. The Buwayhid house tumbled 
before them. On December 18, lOSSjTughril Beg at the head of his 
wild Turkoman tribes stood at the gate of Baghdad. Al-Basaslri, 
the Turkish general and military governor of Baghdad under the 
last Buwayhids, left the capital 3 and the Caliph aI-Qa*im (1031- 
1075) hastened to receive the Saijuq invader as a deliverer, 
luphnim After an absence of a year Tughnl returned to Baghdad and 
power was rece j vec j with elaborate ceremonies. Wearing the mantle and 
holding the cane of the Prophet, the caliph took his seat on a 
platform behind a curtain which was lifted at the approach of 
the conqueror. Tughril sat on an adjoining platform and com- 
municated with the caliph through an interpreter. The con- 
queror was made regent of the empire and hailed as "king of the 
East and of the West". 4 His official title was to be al-sultan (he 
with authority, sultan). 6 The caliphate now passed under a new 
and more benevolent tutelage. 

Taking advantage of the temporary absence of Tughril on 
an expedition to the north, al-Basasiri, who had m the meantime 
espoused the Fatimid cause, returned in 1058 at the head of his 
Daylamite and other troops and reoccupied the capital. The 
Caliph al-Qa'im was forced to sign a document renouncing his 
rights and the rights of all other 'Abbasids in favour of the rival 
Fatimid al-Mustansir (1035-94) in Cairo, to whom he now sent 

1 Mustaufw-Qazwmi, pp. 434 6, tr. pp. 93-4; Joannes A. Vullers, Mirchondt 
histona Seldsckuhdarmn (Giesscn, 1S37), pp I seq. (cxt from R&xvdat al*$afa% 

* His, father's name was Miku'il, his brother's Daiviid (David) and his uncle's 
Musa, ibn-al-Athir, \ol ix, p 322 Such mmes, noticeable among early Sal)uqs,show 
Christian, probably Nestonan, influence. See Qaz\um f Athar t p 304. 

8 Ibn-Khalhkan, vol. i, pp. 107*8, ibn-Taghri-Birdt, cd. Popper, vol. ii, pt 2, 
p. 225. 

4 Ibn-al-Athir, \oh ix, p. 436, ibn-Taghn-Birdi, op. ciU p. 233, 'Jmad al-Din 
(al Isfahani), abr. al-Bundari, TawdrtU Al Saijuq \ cd M. Th. Houtsraa (Leaden, 

s Al-Riiwandi, Rahat a!-$udur t ed. Muhammad Iqbal (London, 192 1), p. 105. 
T»ghnl was the first Moslem ruler whose corns bore tlus title. Stanley Lane-Poole, 
Catahgue of Oriental Coins in tht British Museum t ed R S Poole, \ol. in (London, 
pp. 2S-9, With the Saljuqs "sultan" became a regular so\ creign title* 



CH. xxxtl SUNDRY DYNASTIES IN THE EAST 



375 



the emblems of the caliphate, including the mantle and other 
sacred relics Al-Qa'im's turban and a beautiful window from 
lib palace were also sent as trophies to Cairo. 1 On his return, 
however, Tughnl reinstated al-Qa'im and made al-BasasTri pay 
for his disloyalty with his life (1060). The Daylamite troops were 
disbanded and the Buwayhid power was for ever crushed. 

The reigns of Tughnl (1037-63), his nephew and successor 
Alp Arslan (1063*72) and the latter's son Malikshah (1072-92) 
cover the most brilliant period of Saljuq ascendancy over the 
Moslem East. As fresh Turkish tribesmen swelled their armies 
the Saljuqs extended their conquests in ail directions until once 
more Western Asia was united into one Moslem kingdom and 
the fading glory of Moslem arms revived. A new race from 
Central Asia was now pouring its blood into the struggle of 
Islam for world supremacy. The story of these barbarian infidels, 
setting their feet on the necks of the followers of the Prophet and 
at the same time accepting the religion of the conquered and 
becoming its ardent champions, was not a unique instance in the 
chequered annals of that religion* Their cousins the Mongols of 
the thirteenth century, as well as their other kinsmen the Otto- 
man Turks of the early fourteenth century, repeated the same 
process. In the darkest hour of political Islam religious Islam 
has been able to achieve some of its most brilliant victories. 

In the second year of his reign Alp Arslan (hero-lion) captured 
Ani, the capital of Christian Armenia, then a Byzantine pro- 
vince. 2 Soon after that he resumed hostilities with the everlasting 
Byzantine foe. In 1071 Alp won the decisive battle of Manzikart 
(Malazkird, Malasjird), north of Lake Van in Armenia, and 
took the Emperor Romanus Diogenes prisoner. 3 Saljuq nomadic 
tribes, the first Moslems to gain a permanent footing in "the 
land of the Romans", began now to settle in the plateau regions 
of Asia Minor, which henceforth became part and parcel of 
dar al-Islam (abode of Islam). These Saljuq nomads laid the 
basis of the Turkification of Asia Minor. It was a cousin of Alp, 
Sulayman ibn-Qutlumish by name, who was later put in charge 
of this new territory, where he established (1077) the sultanate 
of the Rum 4 Saljuqs. Far-off Nicaea (Niqiyah, Tun Izmq) was 

1 See below, p 622. * Ifcn al-Athir, voL x t pp. 25 sep. 

* Xbtd pp. 44 seq.; 'ImSd al Dm, pp. 38 seq ; Vasihev, Byxaitir.* Empire, vol i, 

* Ar, rum m the equivalent of "Romans". See above, p. 199. 



476 



THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 



first made the capital, and it vas from that city that Qilij Arslan, 
son and successor of Sulayman, was driven by the hordes of the 
first Crusade. After 1084 Iconium (Quniyah, Konieh), the richest 
and most beautiful Byzantine city in Asia Minor, became the 
Saljuq capital in that land. In the meantime the Saljuq dynasty 
of Syria (1094-1117), founded by Tutush, son of Alp, in 1094, 
was contributing its share towards checking the advance of the 
first Crusade. Aleppo had been held since 1070 by Alp. 1 There 
he had checked the advance of the Fatimid power, from which 
he also recovered Makkah and al-Madinah. 
Saijflq The first two Saljuq sultans did not live in Baghdad but 
jjf JJJ* exercised their authority through a military resident. Alp never 
xemth visited or saw the caliph's capital. 2 His seat of government was 
Isbahan; Marw and al-Rayy were seats of his predecessor. It was 
not until the winter of 1091, shortly before the end of Malik- 
shah's reign, that the Saljuq seat of government was moved to 
the capital of the caliphs. The caliph became more than -ever a 
puppet who moved at the will of the sultan, a puppet bedecked 
in all the regalia of high office and propped on the imperial 
throne by foreign hands. The name of the sultan was mentioned 
with that of the caliph in the Friday sermon. In 1087 the Caliph 
al-Muqtadi (i075-94)married the daughter of Sultan Malikshah, 
and when a son was born Malikshah planned, but unsuccessfully, 
to combine in his grandson the caliphate and the sultanate on a 
common throne. 3 

It was Malikshah (1072-92) under whom Saljuq power reached 
its meridian. "His domain extended in length from Kashghar, 
a town at the extreme end of the land of the Turks, to Jerusalem, 
and in width from Constantinople to the Caspian Sea." 4 In 
paying boatmen who once ferried him across the Oxus he issued 
drafts on his agent in Antioctu* But Malikshah was more than 
a ruler of an extensive empire. He built roads and mosques, 
repaired wails, dug canals and spent large sums on the caravan- 
serais dotting the pilgrimage route to Makkah. According to his 
biographer all the roads of the great empire were safe— safe 
enough for caravans, even for one or two men, to travel peace- 
fully and without special protection from Transoxiana to Syria.* 



1 lbn-al«AtMr, voL x, pp. 43-4* 

* Ibid. pp. 589-90. 

* Ibid. p. 589. 



* Ibn-KhalHkan, vol. ii, p. 443- 

* ML p. 587. 

* Ibid. p. 587. 



ch, xxxir SUNDRY DYNASTIES IN THE EAST 



477 



The sanitary measures introduced into Baghdad at this time and 
credited by ibn-al-Athir 1 to the Caliph al-Muqtadi were more 
likely initiated by this Saljuq sultan. These measures included 
the diversion of the dirty water of the public baths from the 
Tigris into special cesspools and the allotment of special places 
for cleaning and curing fish. An anecdote preserved in ibn- 
Khalhkan 2 throws light on Maliicshah's character. On visiting 
a mosque in Tus the sultan asked his vizir, Nizam-al-Mjilk, who 
was in his company, what it was that he had prayed for while in 
the mosque. The latter replied that he had prayed God to grant 
the sultan victory over his brother, with whom he was then at 
war. "As for me u > remarked Malikshah, "that was not what I 
prayed for. I only asked God to give victory to him of the two 
better fitted to rule the Moslems and more beneficial to his 
subjects." 

The guiding hand throughout the administration of Alp, 
Arslan and Malikshah was that of their illustrious Persian vizir, \ 
Nizam-al-Mulk (the organization of the kingdom), one of the ] 
ornaments of the political history of Islam. If we are to believe J 
ibn-Khallikan, "for the twenty years covering the reign of 
Malikshah, Nizam-al-Mulk had all the power concentrated in 
his hand, whilst the sultan had nothing to do but sit on the throne 
or enjoy the chase." 3 

Although untutored and probably illiterate like his father and 
grand-uncle, Malikshah at the suggestion of Nizam-al-Mulk 
called in 1074-5 a conference of astronomers at his newly erected 
observatory and commissioned them to reform the Persian calen- 
dar,* The result was the remarkable Jalaii calendar (tarfM), 
so styled after Malikshah, whose full name included Jalal-al- 
Dln (the majesty of religion) abu-ai-Fath. This calendar, in the 
judgment of a modern scholar, is "somewhat more accurate 
than ours*'. 

Ni7am-al-Mulk was himself a cultured and learned man. 6 
From his pen we have one of the most remarkable Moslem 
treatises on the art of government, the Siyasat-namah* which he 
composed as a result of a competition suggested by Malikshah. 

» Vol. x f p. 155. * Vol ii, p. 5S& 9 Vol. i, p. 255. 

4 Ibn*al-Athlr, vol. x, pp, 67-8, Site of observatory uncertain, possibly in I^bahan, 
al-Uayy or Naysabut. See above, p. 377. 

* Ibn-at-Athtr, vol. x t p. 104; *Ixnad*ai-Dln, p. 30. 

• Ed. Charles Schefer (Taxis, 1891), tr. Schefer (Paris, 1893). 



473 THE UMAYYAD AND *ABBASID EMPIRES part m 



Ihe sultan requested his statesmen to give him in written 
form the benefit of their opinions as to the nature of good 
government Among other notable works in Persian produced 
during this period were those of Nasir-i-Khusraw (f ea. 1074), 
the celebrated traveller and Isma'ili propagandist, and of 'Umar 
al -Khayyam (f 1 1 23-4), the great astronomer-poet who en- 
joyed the patronage of Nizam and collaborated in the revision 
of the calendar* But the basis of this Persian vizir's glory is his 
establishment of the first well-organized academies for higher 
learning in Islam. 1 Particularly renowned was his Nizamlyah, 
founded 1065-7 at Baghdad. One of its chairs was once adorned 
by al-Ghazzali. 

Dmntepra- The aged Nizam, as we learned before, was one of the earliest 
Sa£aq the P rommcnt victims of an Isma'ili Assassin. With his death in 
realm 1092 the period of glory that covered the reigns of the first 
three SaJjuqs ended. For a brief but brilliant span these three 
sultans had brought together most of the far-flung lands that 
had once formed the Islamic state. But the season of glory that 
Baghdad and Islam enjoyed under them was only an Indian 
summer. After the death of Malikshah civil wars among his 
sons and subsequent disturbances weakened the central Saljuq 
authority and led to the break-up of the house. The Saljfiq 
empire, built on a tribal basis by a people nomadic in their habits 
and form of organization, could be held together only by some 
dominant personality. The system of military fiefs regularized in 
1087 by Nizam-al-Mulk, according to which grants became and 
remained hereditary, led to the immediate establishment of semi- 
independent states These separate subdivisions attained virtual 
independence in different parts of the wide kingdom, while the 
main line, the Great Saljuqs of Persia, maintained a nominal 
suzerainty down to 11 57. One of the chief subdivisions of the 
family was that of the Persian 'Iraq (1117-94). The Saljuqs of 
al-Rum in Iconium were superseded after 1300 by the Ottoman 
Turks — last great representatives of militant Islam — whose tradi- 
tion relates their origin to the Ghuzz tribe, to which the Saljuqs 
also belonged. After penetrating into Europe as far as Vienna 
(1529) and establishing an empire almost as extensive as that of 
the Arab caliphs, the Ottoman Turks have since the first World 
War confined their authority to Asia Minor or Anatolia. 
1 Sec above, p. 410. 



J- 



CH. xxxil SUNDRY DYNASTIES IN THE EAST 479 

The one permanent contribution of the Saljuq and Ottoman 
Turks to Islamic religion was a mystic colouring. This is well 
represented by the several dervish orders which flourished oa 
Turkish soil and maintained ideas of early shamanistic origin 
with an admixture of indigenous beliefs of Asia Minor and 
schismatic Christian doctrines. The futuwak 1 organizations m 
which Moslem Arab chivalry sought to express itself took among 
the Turks a new form, that of the akkts* Originally these akhi 
organizations may have been economic guilds. It was in akhi 
hospices that ibn-Battutah a was entertained while travelling in 
Asia Minor. 

It may be of interest in this connection to note that the double- 
headed eagle which originated in the brain of some ancient 
Sumerian priest and passed on very early to the Babylonians 
and Hittites was some three thousand years later adopted as an 
emblem by the Saljuq Turks who settled in Hittiteland (Asia 
Minor). From the Saljuqs it passed on to Byzantium, whence it 
reached Austria, Prussia and Russia. 

The Saljuq domination over the caliphate, which began with Baj 
al-Qaim in 1055, lasted till 1194 in the reign of al-Nasir. 3 ^ 
Throughout the greater part of this period the Crusades dragged Cn 

1 See below j p 4S1 

4 Vol it, pp ^60,318 AkhiXsntAhr for "brother" as ibn-Baftuiah explained but 
Tur. for "knightly" or "noble " Consult Franz Tneschner m Islamtca, vol iv (1929), 
PP i"47» vol \, pp 285-333, J. Deny m Journal asiattque y ser. II, vol. xvi (iQio), 
pp 1S23. 

* Caliphs under Saljuq domination* 

26. AlQVim (1031-75) 
Mu^ammtd 

27. Al-Muqtadi (1075-94) 

2$ Al-Musta?hir (1094-1135) 

29. Al-Mustarshid (inS-35) 

30. AMttshid (U35-S) 

31, Al Muqtaft (1136-60) 

\ 

32 Al-Mustan»d (11 60-70) 

f 

33, Al-Mustaqtt' (2170-S0) 

34, AWT&sir (1180-1225) 



480 THE UMAYYAD AND f ABBASID EMPIRES part in 

wearily in Syria-Palestine, but neither Saljuqs nor 'Abbasids 
interested themselves in the distant affair. To the main body of 
the Moslem community the Crusades, viewed from headquarters, 
were but an insignificant episode. When on the fall of Jerusalem 
(1099) a Moslem delegation arrived in Baghdad to seek aid 
against the invading Christians tears were shed and kind sym- 
pathy was expressed, but no action was taken. 1 The caliph al- 
Mustazhir (1094-1118) referred the delegation to Sultan Barki- 
yaruq (1094-1 104), Malikshah's second successor and drunkard 
son, 2 with whom the decline of the sultanate started, and the 
negotiations ended there. In 1108 a second appeal came, now 
from Tripoli beset by the Crusaders. The delegation was headed 
by the chief of the beleaguered city, but its mission was as futile 
as the preceding one. Three years later, when the Franks 
captured certain vessels from Egypt carrying goods consigned 
to merchants in Aleppo, al-Mustazhir, on the urgent request of 
an Aleppine delegation, which smashed the pulpit and interfered 
with the conduct of prayer in the mosque which the sultan was 
attending, bestirred himself and sent a handful of troops which, 
of course, accomplished nothing. 3 Thus did "the commander of 
the believers" and his Saljuq sultan stand passively by while the 
most spectacular drama in the history of Christian-Islamic re- 
lations was being enacted 

Later, during the caliphate of al-Muqtafi (1136-60), when 
the Crusades raged furiously, the hard-pressed Moslem leader 
Zangi 4 made urgent appeals to Baghdad, which in response to 
popular demand yielded a few thousand recruits Meanwhile 
Zangi*s warlike son Nur-al-Din and the famous Salah-al-Dm 
(Saladin) were turning their arms successfully not only against 
the Christians but also against the schismatic Fatimids in Egypt. 
By 1 171 Salah-al-Din had put an end to the Fadmid dynasty 
and, as a loyal Sunnite, substituted the name of the 'Abbasid 
caliph al-Mustadi' in the khutbah in Egypt and Syria. Thereby 
was the nominal supremacy of the *Abbasid calip} s once more 
recognized in these lands. 

1 Ibn-aUAthlr, \ol x, p. * Ibn-KhalUkan, vol i, p 154. 

* Ibn-al Athir, vol. x, pp 338 9, lbn al QaUnist, Dhayl y p. 173 

* Founder of the Atabcg d> nasty of al Mawsil and Sjna The atabtgs (Tur. of a, 
"father" +beg, "prince") vere originally guardians or tutors of the young Saljuq 
pnnces and finally replaced them in supreme power. Abu Sbamab, al Rawdataynji 
Akttbir at Dau.latayn* vol 1 (Cairo, I2S*), p. 24. 



CH.XXXU SUNDRY DYNASTIES IN THE EAST ^ * 48*. 

To the successor of al-Mustadf , al-Na$ir, Salah-al-DIn sent 
after the decisive battle of Ijlttin (1187) several Frankish 
prisoners and a part of the booty, including a bronze cross over- 
laid with gold said to contain some of the wood of the true cross. 
The caliph buried this cross in Baghdad. 1 

Al-Nasir, whose rule from 1180 to 1225 was the longest hr 
f Abbasid annals, 2 made a faint and final attempt to restore the 
caliphate to something like its ancient self. The endless internal 
broils among the Saljuq princes and the fresh recognition ac- 
corded the * Abbasid caliphate by the hero Salah-al-Dln gave aU 
Nasir the semblance of an opportunity. He proceeded to impose 
his will on the capital, making a display of high living and spon- 
soring a programme of lavish building. Under his patronage 
flourished a special order of sworn brotherhood, futtlwah, a sort 
of knighthood of chivalry, whose organization he reformed. The 
brotherhood traced its origin to 'Alt and comprised men of birth 
and distinction, mostly descendants of the Prophets son-in-law. 
Members (fityari) were initiated in a special ceremony and wore 
distinctive garments. 3 Yazld ibn-Mu'awiyah was one of the first 
in Islam to win the title fata al-Arab, the paladin of the Arabs, 
which at that time had no technical significance. 

Al-Nasir's attempts, however, were but the flicker of an ex- 
piring flame. His first serious mistake was made when he insti- 
gated Takash, ruler of Khwarizm (1172-1200) and member of 
the Turkish dynasty of the Khwarizm Shahs, 4 to attack the 
Saljuqs of the Persian 'Iraq, 5 who had succeeded the Great 
Saljtiqs of Persia in ruling Baghdad. The battle between Takash 
and the Saljuq Sultan Tughril (1 1 77-94) was fought in 1 194 and 

1 Ibn-al-Athir> vol* xi, p. 353; abu-Shamah, vol. ii, pp. 76, 139. 

* Cf. Mustawfi-i-Qazwini, vol, i, p. 369. The caliphate of al-Qd'im (1031-75) was 
the second longest among the 'Abbasids. The Fatfmid nl-Mustansir (1035-94) 
nominally holds the record in Moslem annals, but as ibn-al- Athtr (vol. xii, p. 2S6} 
points out this caliph was only seven years old when he was installed. As For *Abd- 
il* Rahman III (912-61), of Cordova, he did not prochhn himself caliph until 929. 

3 Fakhn % p. 434; ibn-al-Athur, vol. xii, p. 26S; ibn-Jubayr, p. 2S0. See Hermann 
Thorning, Hatrige zur JCenntniss dts isfamischtn Vereittsvtesens auf Gnmd von 
Basf Madad et-Tau/tq (Berlin, 1913); IT. Hitter in £>er Islam, vol. x (1920I, pp. 
244-5°- 

* The founder of this dynasty, destined for over a hundred years to play the leading 
role in the history of Middle Asia, was a slave from Ghaznah who served as cup- 
hearer for the Saljuq Mahkshah and was appointed by him to the governorship of 
KhwSricm. Juwayni, pt. 2 (Leydcn, 1916), p. 3; ibn-al-Athlr, vol. x, pp. 1S2-3. 

* Al-*Iraq aKAjami (i.e. Media), so called under the Saljuqs to distinguish it from 
nl**Ir»q al**A«*bt. See above, p. 330, n. a. 



482 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part in 

resulted in the defeat of Tughril. With him the Saljuq line in, 
al-*Iraq and Kurdistan came to an end. Al-Nasir expected the 
victorious shah to vacate the conquered territory, but Takash 
schemed differently. After the Saljuq fashion he issued coins 
bearing his name as sultan and proposed to hold the secular 
power in Baghdad itself, leaving to the caliph only nominal sove- 
reignty. The dispute continued under his energetic son 'Ala'* 
al-Dln Muhammad (1200-1220). Having reduced (1210) the 
greater part of Persia, subdued Bukhara with its sister Samar- 
qand and seized Ghaznah (12 14), this Khwarizm Shah resolved 
to put an end to the *Abbasid caliphate. He planned to install 
in its place an 'Alid one. In his consternation al-Nasir (the de- 
fender [of the faith!) 1S SJU d to have sought in 1216 the aid of a 
new ally whose star was just rising over the distant east, Chinglz 
Khan 1227), redoubtable head of pagan Mongolian 

hordes. 1 Before this appalling swarm of some sixty thousand 2 
barbarians, augmented by levies from peoples subjected en 
route, 'Ala'-al-Din had no recourse but flight. His place of refuge 
was an island in the Caspian Sea, where he died in despair in 
1220. 3 

In the meantime the Mongols, riding fleet horses and armed 
with strange bows, were spreading havoc and destruction wher- 
ever they went. 4 Before them the cultural centres of eastern 
Islam were practically wiped out of existence, leaving bare 
deserts or shapeless ruins where formerly stately palaces and 
libraries had lifted their heads. A crimson stream marked their 
trail. Out of a population of 100,000 Harat (Herat) was left with 
40,ooo. 5 The mosques of Bukhara, famed for piety and learning, 
served as stables for Mongolian horses. Many of the inhabitants 
of Samarqand and Balkh were either butchered or carried into 
captivity. Khwarizm was utterly devastated. At the capture of 
Bukhara (1220) Chinglz (Genghis) is reported by a late tradition 

1 See W, Bartbold, Turkestan, 2nd ed ,tr. H. A. R, Gibb (Oxford, 1928), pp. 399- 
400. Chinglz had two Moslems on his staff as he advanced westward. Long before 
his time Moslem merchants had carried on trade with the nomadic tribes of 
eastern Mongolia. See above, pp 343-4* 

8 The estimates, all probably exaggerated, vary from 60,000 to 70,000. 

1 Mustawfi-i-Qazwini, vol. i, p. 498. 

* Jimayni, pt. I, pp. 17 seg.\ lbn-al-Athir, vol. xil, pp 234 seg. 

1 Cf. Yaqut, Bulddn t vol. iv, p. 958. In 1220, about a >ear before the disastrous 
event, YaqQt visited Harat, which he described as the largest and richest city he had 
ever seen. 



CH. xxxn SUNDRY DYNASTIES IN THE EAST 1 483 



to have described himself as "the scourge of God sentto men as 
a punishment for their sins". 1 Ibn-ai-Athlr,* a contemporary 
authority, shudders at the narration of these horrors and wishes 
his mother had not borne him. Even a century later, when 
ibn-Bartutah 3 visited Bukhara, Samarqand, Balkh and other 
Transoxianan cities he found them still largely in ruins. As for 
Baghdad, its turn was soon to come. 

Thus did the invincible founder of the largest empire the 
world has ever seen make his sweep across the realm of Islam. 
The people he led had by the first half of the thirteenth century 
shaken every kingdom from China to the Adriatic, Russia was 
in part overrun and central Europe penetrated as far as eastern 
Prussia. It was only the death of Chingiz* son and successor in 
1241 that saved Western Europe from these Mongolian hordes. 4 

The Caliph al-Nasir spent the few remaining years of his long 
reign, as did his son al-£ahir (1225-6) and grandson al-Mus- 
tansir (1226-42), in a state of constant alarm. On one occasion 
these Mongols, or Tatar as they are called in the contemporary 
sources, advanced as far as Samarra. This made the terror- 
stricken population of Baghdad scramble to their defences. But 
the danger passed for the moment. This was only a lull before 
the fatal storm. 

x Juwaym, pt. I, p. 81. 8 Vol xii, p 233. * Vol. 111, pp 25-7, 52, 58-9. 

4 Confused with the Kalmucks, of whose descendants 175,000 were deported to 
Siberia by the Soviet Union and 600 were found in 1949 in a displaced persons* 
camp in Western Germany. Of these 250 were permitted two years later to settle on 
a farm land in New Jersey, where they confuted a garage into a Buddhist temple. 
Cf. below, p. 676, n J* 



CHAPTER XXXIII 



THE COLLAPSE OF THE *ABBASID CALIPHATE 



IF anything parallels the astounding rapidity with which the 
sons of the Arabian desert conquered in the first Islamic century 
most of the civilized world, it is the swift decadence of their 
descendants' domination between the middle of the third and the 
middle of the fourth centuries. About 820 more extensive author- 
ity was concentrated in the hands of one man, the caliph in 
Baghdad, than in those of any other living person; by 920 the 
power of his successor had so diminished that it was hardly felt 
even in his capital city. By 1258 that city itself lay in ruins. With 
its fall Arab hegemony was lost for ever and the history of the real 
caliphate closed. 

Among the external factors the barbarian (in this case Mongol 
or Tartar) onslaughts, though spectacular in themselves, were 
in reality only contributory to the final downfall. Even the rise, 
mushroom-like, of the numberless dynasties and quasi-dynasties 
in the heart of the caliphate and on its periphery was in itself a 
symptom of the disease rather than the cause of it. As in the 
analogous case of the Roman Empire of the West, the sick man 
was already on his deathbed when the burglars burst open the 
doors and snatched their share of the imperial heritage. 

More important than the external factors in bringing about 
the dissolution of the caliphate were the internal ones. The reader 
who has followed the preceding chapters with care has doubtless 
already discerned those factors and noticed their operation 
throughout several centuries* Many of the original conquests 
were only nominal. The possibility of decentralization and dis- 
memberment always lurked in the nature of those hasty and 
incomplete conquests. The method of administration was not 
conducive to stability and continuity. Exploitation and over- 
taxation were recognized policies, not the exception but the rule. 
Lines of cleavage between Arabs and non-Arabs, between Arab 
Moslems and Neo-Moslems, between Moslems and dhimmis, re- 

484 



CH. XXXtH COLLAPSE OF THE *ABBASID CALIPHATE 485 

mained sharply marked. Among the Arabians themselves the 
old divisive feeling between north and south persisted. Neither 
the Iranian Persians, nor the Turanian Turks, nor the Haniitic 
Berbers were ever welded into a homogeneous whole with the 
Semitic Arabs. No consciousness of kind knit these diverse ele- 
ments closely together. The sons of Iran were ever mindful of their 
ancient national glory and never reconciled themselves entirely 
to the new regime. The Berbers vaguely expressed their tribal 
feeling and sense of difference by their readiness to embrace 
any schismatic movement. The people of Syria long expected 
the rise of a Sufyani to deliver them from the *Abbasid yoke. 1 
Within the fold of religion itself centrifugal forces, no less potent 
than the political and military, were active, producing Shl'ites, 
Qarmatians, Isma'Hites, Assassins and the like. Several of these 
groupings represented more than religious sects; the Qarmatians 
staggered the eastern part of the empire with their blows, and 
soon afterward the Fatimids seized the west. Islam was no more 
able to unite its devotees into a corporate whole than was the 
caliphate to incorporate the lands of the Mediterranean with 
those of Central Asia into a stable unit. 

Then there were the social and moral forces of disintegration. 
The blood of the conquering element became in course of cen- 
turies diluted with that of the conquered, with a subsequent loss 
of their dominating position and qualities. With the decay of the 
Arab national life, Arab stamina and morale broke down. Gradu- 
ally the empire developed into an empire of the conquered. The 
large harems, made possible by the countless number of eunuchs; 
the girl and the boy slaves (g/iilmd?t) t who contributed most to 
the degradation of womanhood and the degeneration of man- 
hood; the unlimited concubines and the numberless half-brothers 
and half-sisters in the imperial household with their unavoidable 
jealousies and intrigues; the luxurious scale of high living with 
the emphasis on wine and song — all these and other similar 
forces sapped the vitality of family life and inevitably produced 
the persistently feeble heirs to the throne. The position of these 
heirs was rendered still more feeble by their interminable 
disputes over a right of succession which was never definitely 
determined. 

Nor should the economic factors be ignored or underrated. 
1 Above, p. aS6. 



486 THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES part m 



The imposition of taxes and the government of the provinces for 
the benefit of the ruling class discouraged farming and industry. 
As the rulers grew rich the people grew proportionately poor. 
Within the states grew statelets whose lords habitually fleeced 
their serfs. The depletion of man-power by the recurring bloody 
strife left many a cultivated farm desolate. Inundations in lower 
Mesopotamia periodically wrought havoc, and famines in various 
parts of the empire added their quota of disaster- The frequent 
spread of epidemics — plague, smallpox, malaria and other 
fevers — before which medieval man stood powerless, decimated 
the population in large areas. No less than forty major epidemics 
are recorded in the Arabic annals of the first four centuries after 
the conquest. National economic decay naturally resulted in the 
curtailment of inteDectual development and in the stifling of 
creative thought* 

Hoiagu in In 1253 Hulagu, a grandson of Chingiz Khan, left Mongolia 
Baghdad at t j ie head Q f a h U g e armv intent upon the destruction of the 
Assassins and the caliphate. The second wave of Mongol hordes 
was on. It swept before it all those petty princedoms which were 
striving to grow on the ruins of the empire of the Khwarizm 
Shahs. Hulagu sent an invitation to the Caliph al-Musta^sim 1 
(1242-58) to join in the campaign against the I sma'ili Assassins. 
The invitation received no response. By 1256 the greater number 
of the Assassin strongholds, including the "mother convent" 
Alamut, had been captured without difficulty and the power of 
that dreaded order crushed to the ground. 2 Even the babes were 
ruthlessly slaughtered. In September of the following year, as he 
was winding his way down the famous Khurasan highway, the 
conquering invader sent an ultimatum to the caliph demand- 
ing his surrender and the demolition of the outer city wall. The 
reply was evasive. In January 1258 the mangonels of Hulagu 
were in effective operation against the walls of the capital. Soon a 

1 "He who holds fast" to God. The last caliphs: 

34. Al-Nas> (tiSo-1225) 

35. Al-Zahir {1225-6) 

! 

36. AI-Mustansir (1226-42) 

t 

37. Al-Mu5»ta*sim (1242-58) 

* Rashld-al-Din, ed. and tr. Quatremere, vol. i, pp. 166 xeq. 



CR.X3CXH1 COLLAPSE OF THE *ABBASlD CALIPHATE „ 

breach was effected in one of the towers. 3 The Vizir ibn-al- f AI- 
qami accompanied by the Nestorian catholicos — Hulagu had a 
Christian wife — appeared to ask for terms. But Hulagu refused 
to receive them. Equally ineffective were warnings citing the fate 
of others who had dared violate "the city of peace" or undo the 
'Abbasid caliphate, Hulagu was told that "if the caiiph is kilted 
the whole universe is disorganized, the sun hides its face, rain 
ceases and plants grow no mor^".* But he knew better, thanks 
to the advice of his astrologers. By the tenth of February his 
hordes had swarmed into the city and the unfortunate caliph 
with his three hundred 3 officials and qadis rushed to offer an 
unconditional surrender. Ten days later they were all put to 
death. The city itself was given over to plunder and flames; the 
majority of its population, including the family of the caliph, were 
wiped out of existence. Pestilential odours emitted by corpses 
strewn unburied in the streets compelled Hulagu to withdraw 
from the town for a few days. Perhaps he intended to retain 
Baghdad for his residence and, therefore, the devastation was not 
as thorough as in other towns. The Nestorian patriarch received 
special favours. Certain schools and mosques were spared or re- 
built. For the first time in its history the Moslem world was left 
without a caliph whose name could be cited in the Friday prayers. 

In 1260 Hulagu was threatening northern Syria. Here he 
captured in addition to Aleppo, where he put to the sword some 
fifty thousand people, Hamah and yarim. After dispatching a 
general to the siege of Damascus he felt himself constrained by 
the death of his brother, the Great Khan, to return to Persia** 
The army left behind, after subjugating Syria, was destroyed in 
1260 at *Ayn Jalut (Goliath's spring) near Nazareth by Baybars, 
the distinguished general of the Egyptian Mamluk Qutuz * The 
whole of Syria was now reoccupied by the Mamluks and the 
westward advance of the Mongols was definitely checked. 

1 Fa&Ari f p. 454; Rashld-al-Dln, vol 5, pp. 284-5. 

* JPakAri s p. 190, Rtishid-al-Bln, vol. x, p 260. Fakkri^ written in 1301 and dedi- 
cated to Fakhr-al-Dln. *!sa, governor of al-MawsU under the Mongols, contains 
eye-vritness material on the fall of Baghdad. 

* Three thousand in RashSd-al-DTn, voL i, p, 298. 

* The Great KMn of Marco £olo was another brother QubHay (f 3294), the 
Kubla Khan of Coleridge. It was QQbTJay who trznaforttti the capttal from Qara- 
qorum in Mongolia to Peking. Consult Rashld-ai-Dm, vol. i, p. 128, vol. ii, ed. 
E» Bloehct {Leyden^ igti), pp. 350 stq. 

+ * Abu-al-Fida*, vol, 111 » pp 209*14? R ishTd-al-Din, vol. i, pp. 326 49; Maqria, 4 
- 4 StftSk, tr. Quatrem6re as Sultans ntamhu&* % vou i (pt. 2), pp, 96 seq* 



488 



-THE UMAYYAD AND 'ABBASID EMPIRES partiii 



Later, Hulagu returned and attempted to make an alliance 
with the Franks for the conquest of Syria but he failed in his 
purpose. 

As founder of the Mongol kingdom of Persia, which extended 
from the Amu Darya to the borders of Syria and from the 
Caucasus Mountains to the Indian Ocean, Hulagu was the first 
to assume the title Il-Khan. 1 This title was borne by his suc- 
cessors down to +he seventh, Ghazan Mahmud (1295-1304), 
under whom Islam, with Shfite proclivities, became the state 
religion. Under the Il-Khans or Hulaguids Baghdad was reduced 
to the position of capital of the province called al-*Iraq al-*Arabi. 
The great Il-Khan, as Hulagu was often entitled, favoured the 
Christian element among his subjects. In times of peace he 
delighted to make his home at Maraghah, east of the salt Lake 
Urmiyah, where many edifices, including the famous library and 
observatory, were built by him. There Hulagu died in 1265 and 
with him were buried, in accordance with Mongol custom, 
beautiful young maidens. He and his successors, like the Saljuqs 
before them, were quick to appreciate and utilize the administra- 
tive genius of the Persians and to surround themselves with such 
cultivated savants as al-Juwayni (f 1283) and Rashid-al-Dm 
(t 1318), the historians of the period. The seventy-five years of 
Il-Khanid rule in Persia were rich in literary achievement. 

Hard pressed between the mounted archers of the wild 
Mongols in the east and the mailed knights of the Crusaders on 
the v est, Islam in the early part of the thirteenth century seemed 
for ever lost. How different was the situation in the last part of 
the same century! The last Crusader had by that time been 
driven into the sea, The seventh of the Il-Khans, many of whom 
had been flirting with Christianity, had finally recognized Islam 
as the state religion — a dazzling victory for the faith of Muham- 
mad. Just as in the case of the Saljuqs, the religion of the 
Moslems had conquered where their arms had failed. Less than 
half a century after Hulagu's merciless attempt at the destruc- 
tion of Islamic culture, his great-grandson Ghazan, as a devout 
Moslem, was consecrating much time and energy to the revivi- 
fication of that same culture. 

* Tur «/, "tribe" +Tur khdn % "Iord"»lord of the tribe, subordinate chief, indi* 
eating the feudal homige owed to the Khaqa™ (Great Khln) in remote Mongolia, 
north of the Gobi Desert, later in Peking 



CH. xxxm COLLAPSE OF THE *ABBASID CALIPHATE " 489 



It was not the Mongols, however, who were destined to restore 3 
the military glory of Islam and unfurl its banner triumphantly j 
over new and vast territories. This was left to their kinsmen, the 
Ottoman Turks, 1 the last champions of the religion of Arabia. 
Their empire under Sulayman (1 520-66) stretched from Baghdad 
on the Tigris to Budapest on the Danube, and from Aswan, near 
the first cataract of the Nile, almost to the Strait of Gibraltar. 
When in January 15 16 Sulayman's father, Salim, destroyed the 
Mamluk army in North Syria, 2 he took among his prisoners a 
nonentity who under the name al-Mutawakkil represented a 
line of nominal 'Abbasid caliphs who for about two and a half 
centuries had been maintained there as puppets of the Mamluk 
sultans. The line was begun in 1 261 by an uncle of al-Musta'sim, 
who had evidently escaped the massacre at Baghdad and was 
installed in Cairo by the fourth Mamluk ruler, Baybars (1260- 
1277), with great pomp as caliph under the name al-Mustansir. 3 
Al-Mustansir was soon after killed in a rash attempt on behalf of 
Baybars to recover Baghdad. He was followed by another scion 
of the 'Abbasid house, who in 1262 was installed with similar 
ceremony. Sultan Salim carried the Caliph al-Mutawakkil with 
him to Constantinople but allowed him to return to Cairo, where 
he died in 1543. With him the shadowy 'Abbasid caliphate of 
Egypt may be said to have ended. There is nothing in the con- 
temporary sources to support the claim, often advanced, that 
the last * Abbasid surrendered his title of caliph with all rights 
and privileges pertaining thereto to the Ottoman conqueror or 
to his successor in Constantinople * 

* So called after their eponymous founder, 'Uthman, born ca* 1258. 

* Sec below, pp. 677, 705. 

5 Abu*al-Kda', vol. in, p. 222. See below, p. 676. 
4 Sec above, p. 1S6; below, p. 705. 



PART IV 

THE ARABS IN EUROPE: 
SPAIN AND SICILY 



CHAPTER XXXIV 
CONQUEST OF SPAIN 



THE Moslem campaign in the Iberian Peninsula, the south- < 
western gate of Europe, was, as noted before, the last and most * 
dramatic of the major military operations undertaken by the 
Arabs, It marked the height of the African-European expansion 
of the Moslems, just as the conquest of Turkestan marked the 
apogee of the Asiatic- Egyptian expansion. 

In its swiftness of execution and completeness of success this 
expedition into Spain holds a unique place in medieval military 
annals. The first reconnaissance was made in July 710, when, 
with four hundred foot and one hundred horse, all Berbers, 
Tarif, 1 a client of Musa ibn-Nusayr, the celebrated governor 
of North Africa under the Umayyads, landed on the tiny 
peninsula which is almost the southernmost tip of the European 
continent. This peninsula, now Tarifa, has since borne his name, 
Jazlrat (isle of) Tarlf, 2 Musa, who had held the governorship 
since about 700, had driven the Byzantines for ever from the 
territory west of Carthage and had gradually pushed his con- 
quests to the Atlantic, thus acquiring for Islam a point d'appui 
for the invasion of Europe. Encouraged by Tanf s success and 
by the dynastic trouble in the Visigothic kingdom of Spain and 
actuated more by the desire for booty than for conquest, Musa 
dispatched in 711 his Berber freedman Tariq ibn-Ziyad into 
Spain with 7000 men, most of whom were Berbers. Tariq 
landed near the mighty rock which has since immortalized his 
name, Jabal (mount of) Tariq (Gibraltar). 3 The ships, so the 
tradition states, were provided by a certain semi-legendary 

1 Whether he wis Arab or Berber is uncertain. Cf. Maqqart (Leyden), vol. i, 
p. 159; ibn^Khaldun, vol. iv, p. 117; ibn-'Idhari, ed. Dozy, vol. ii, p. 6; tr. Fagnan,' 
„ vol. ii, p. 7; Ahhbar Majntuak fi Fatft al-Andafus, ed. Lafuente y Alcantara 
' (Madrid, 1867), p. 6 (text)^p. 20 (tr»). 
. * Mentioned by aMdrisi, Dhikr cUAndahs (extracts from Nuzhat al-Mushtdg), 
ed. and tr. Don Josef A. Conde (Madrid, i?99)> PP- u> 35> 44* 
* Idrisi, p. 36. 

493 



494 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY PARTlv 

Julian, 1 count of Ceuta, 2 where the strait is only thirteen miles 
wide. 

With his forces supplemented, Tar q, at the head of 12,000 
men, was met on July 19, 711, by the armies of King Roderick 
at the mouth of the Barbate River 3 on the shore of the lagoon 
of the Janda.* Roderick had deposed his predecessor, the son 
of Witiza, and usurped the throne. 5 Though numbering 25,000 
men the Visigothic army was utterly routed owing to the 
treachery of the king's political enemies, headed by Bishop 
Oppas, a brother of Witiza. What became of Roderick himself 
remains a mystery. The usual version in both Spanish and 
Arabic chronicles is that he simply disappeared. 

After this decisive victory the march of the Moslems through 
Spain almost amounted to a promenade. Only towns dominated 
by Visigothic knighthood offered effective resistance. Tariq, 
with the bulk of the army, headed by way of Ecija towards 
Toledo, the capital, sending detachments against neighbouring 
towns. The strongly fortified Seville in the south was avoided. 
One column seized Archidona, which struck no blow. Another 
captured Elvira, which stood close to the spot where Granada 
now stands and proved an easy prey. A third, consisting of 
cavalry under Mughlth al-Rumi (the Roman, Greek), attacked 
Cordova. After holding out for two months this future capital of 
the Moslems was delivered to the besiegers through the treachery 
of a shepherd, we are told, who pointed out a breach in the wall. 8 

1 At. Ulyan, Baladhuri, p. 230 = Hitti, p. 36$; Yulyan in Ahhbar, vol. i, p. 4; 
ibn-'Jdhari, vol. h, p. 6; Maqqari, vol. i, p. 159; lbn-'Abd-aM^akam, «<1 Torrey, 
p. 206; Yutiyan in ibn-al-AthTr, vol. iv, p. 444, According to the reconstruction of 
Francisco Codera, Estudtos critieos dc historic draU cspanola t ser, 2 (Saragossa, 
1003), p. 47, his real name was Urban or Olban. The story of the violation of his 
beautiful daughter Flonnda by Roderick, which is usually offered in explanation 
of Juh'an*s co-operation with the Arabs, is purely legendary. In fact the entire story 
of the conquest has been richly embellished by both Spanish and Arab chroniclers. 

4 Sp., from Ar. Sabtah, originally from L. Scptem (seven), its full name being 
ad Septcm Fratrcs, The city crovmed the ancient Abyla, one of the range "Septem 
Fratrcs" (seven brothers). Idrisi, p. 12. 

8 This small river is now called Salado. The Arabs called it Wadi Bakkah 
(Lakkah), corrupted into Guadilbcca and therefore confused with Guadclete. 
Cf. Stanley Lane-Poole, with the collaboration of Arthur Oilman, The Moors in 
Spain (New York, 1911), pp. 14, 2 3* 

4 Referred to in Arabic chronicles simply as al-Buhayrah (the lake). 

* Roderick ~ Ar. Ludhriq, Lasriq, Rudhriq; Witiza = Ghay{asah, Ghltt'shah, etc 
Maqqari, vol. i, pp. 160, 161; ibn-'Abd-al-IJakam, p. 206; ibn-'Idhari, vol. ii, 
p. i>; ibn-Khaldun, vol. iv, p. 1*7; Akhbar, p. 8; Mas'udi, vol. i, p. 359. 

* Ibn-'Idhari, vol. ii, pp. IO-II; Akhbdr t p. 10. Cf. Maqqari, vol. i, pp. 164-$. 



49 6 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY pa*tw 



Malaga offered no resistance. At Ecija the fiercest battle of 
the campaign was fought> ending favourably for the invaders. 
Toledo, the Visigoths 1 capital, was betrayed by certain Jewish 
residents. Thus dfd Tariq, who in the spring of 71 1 had started 
as leader of a raid, become by the end of the summer the master 
of half of Spain. He had destroyed a whole kingdom. 
Mosa jealous of the unexpected and phenomenal success of his 

lieutenant, Musa, with 10,000 1 troops, all Arabians and Syrian 
Arabs, rushed to Spain in June 712. For his objective he chose 
those towns and strongholds avoided by Tariq, e.g. Medina 
Sidonia and Carmona. Seville, the largest city and the intel- 
lectual centre of Spain and once its Roman capital, held out 
under siege until the end of June 713. But the most obstinate 
resistance was met at Merida, After a year's beleaguerment, 
however, this city was taken by storm on June I, 713.* 

It was in or near Toledo that Musa met Tariq. Here, we are 
told, he whipped his subordinate and put him in chains for re- 
fusing to obey orders to halt in the early stage of the campaign. 1 
But the conquest went on. Soon Saragossa (Csesarea Augusta, 
Caesaraugusta) in the north was reached and the Moslem troops 
advanced into the highlands of Aragon, Leon, the Asturias and 
Galicia. In the autumn of the same year the Caliph al-Walid 
in distant Damascus recalled Musa, charging him with the 
same offence for which Musa had disciplined his Berber sub- 
ordinate^ — acting independently of his superior. As governor of 
Ifrlqiyah, Musa had none but the caliph for his superior 
A Leaving his second son, 'Abd-aPAzIz, in command of the 

triumphal ncw jy acquired territory, Musa slowly made his way overland 
procession tQwarc j Syria. On his march he was accompanied by his officers, 
four hundred Visigothic princes, wearing crowns and girdled 
with gold belts, and followed by an endless retinue of slaves and 
prisoners of war loaded with enormous treasures of booty.* The 

1 Tabari, vol. ii, p. 1 253. Other sources make the number 18,000. 

* Ibn-'Idliari, vol. ii, pp. 15-16; ibn al-Athir, vol. iv, p 447; Maqqari, vol. i, 
pp. 170-71. Cf. ibn-al-QutJyab, Ttfrtkk Iftitab cd-Andalus (Madrid, 1S6S), pp. 
9-10; tr. Julian Ribera as Ilistcria de la conqutsta de £sf>atia (Madrid, 1926), 
pp. 6-7; tr. O. Houdas as "Histoire dc la conquete de rAndalousie" in Recutil 
de iactis ti de traductions, etc. (Paris, 18S9), vol. i, p. 226. 

* Ibn-*Abd«al-I£akam, p. 210; ibn-'Idhari, vol. ii, pp. 17-18. 

* Ibn-'Idhari, vol. ii, pp. 21-2; ibn-'Abd-al-Hakam, pp. 210-11; ibn-al-QuJIyah, 
p. 10: pseudo ibn-Qutaybah, Qiffat Faifc al-Andalus (taken from al-Imamah 
xV'cI'Siydsah and issued as supplement to ftm-al-Qutivah), pp. 138, 140 seq. See 
above, p 235. 



♦CH. XXXIV 



CONQUEST OF SPAIN 



497 



triumphal passage of this princely train through northern Africa 
from west to east forms a favourite theme with Arab historians. 
Its description brings to mind the picture of the ancient vic- 
torious marches of Roman generals. The news of the impressive 
procession travelled to Damascus faster than the procession itself. 
On reaching Tiberias Musa found orders awaiting him from 
Sulayman, brother and heir of the sick al-WaHd, to delay his 
advent to the capital. The caliph-to-be hoped thereby to have 
the arrival grace his accession to the throne. 1 

In February 715 Musa entered Damascus with his Visigothic 
princes bedecked in their jewellery and was evidently received 
with favour by al-Walid. The official reception, held with great 
dignity and pomp in the courtyard of the magnificent Umayyad 
Mosque, is one of the high-water marks in the history of tri- 
umphant Islam. For the first time hundreds- of Western royalty 
and thousands of European captives were seen offering homage 
to the commander of the believers. Musa presented the caliph, 
among other trophies, with the superb table {maidah) whose 
workmanship legend assigns to genii in the service of King 
Solomon. From Jerusalem this unique piece of art, legend 
asserts, was carried away by the Romans into their capital, 
whence it was later taken by the Goths. Each Gothic king vied 
with the preceding one in decorating this table with precious 
stones. The treasure was kept in the cathedral at Toledo and was 
captured by Tariq, probably from the bishop who was fleeing 
with it from the capital. Tariq, so the story goes, had secreted one 
of its legs when Musa seized the table from him in Toledo, and 
now in the presence of the caliph dramatically produced the 
missing part as proof of his own exploit. 2 

The same fate which befell many another successful Arab 
general awaited Musa. Al-Walid's successor subjected him to 
abject humiliation. Besides disciplining him by making him 
stand until exhausted in the sun, he confiscated his property and 
deprived him of all authority. The last we hear of the aged con- 

1 Cf. *Abd-alAVat»d al-Marrakushi, al-Mxfjih fi Tclkhts Ahhhdr aLMaghrib, 
2nd edu, R. Dozy (Lcydcn, i88t), p. S; tr. E. Fagnan as Histaire des Almokadts 
(Algiers, 1893), p. 10. 

* Ibn-KhalHksn, vol. iii, pp. 26-7; ibn-al-Athir, vol. iv, pp. 448-9; Maqqari, 
vol. i, pp. 167, 172; lbn-'Abd-al-IIakam, p. 211; Nabdhah min Akhbar Fath al- 
Atta*a/us (cxt* at-Itis&lah al-Shartfiyai il* al-Aafdr al-Andolustyak and pablkhed 
as a «aipplcmcnt to ibn-al-Quflyah, Madrid, 186S), pp- 193, 213. 'Jec Arabian Nights, 
no. 272. 



498 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY part iv 



qucror of Africa and Spain is as a beggar in a remote village of 
al-rjHjaz, Wadi al-Qura. 1 
The Spain was now a province of the caliphate. The Arabic name 

e^Ei 5t assumed was al-Andalus.* Musa's immediate successors had 
only small territories in the north and east of the peninsula to 
conquer and comparatively few revolts to quell. Within the short 
space of seven years the conquest of the peninsula, one of the 
fairest and largest provinces of medieval Europe, was effected. 
The conquerors were there to stay — for centuries at least. 

The reasons for this seemingly unprecedented triumph are not 
hard to discern even from the above sketchy account. In the first 
place, the line of national cleavage between the Visigoths (West 
Goths) who entered Spain in the early part of the fifth century as 
Teutonic barbarians and the Spanish-Roman population was 
not yet entirely obliterated. The Goths had to struggle for a long 
time to displace their predecessors, the Suevi and Vandals, who 
were likewise invading Germanic hordes. The Visigoths ruled as 
absolute, often despotic, monarchs. They clung to the Arian form 
of Christianity until one of them, Recared, in 587 accepted 
Catholicism, therehgion of the natives. As Catholics the people 
had hated the rule of the heretical Goths. The natives included a 
considerable class of serfs and slaves, who were naturally dis- 
satisfied with their hard lot. That this enslaved class should have 
contributed its share to the success of the invasion and co- 
operated with the invaders is not surprising. Then there was the 
Jewish clement in the population which was estranged from the 
bulk of the nation through active persecution by the Gothic 
royalty. Attempts at their forced conversion were consummated 
by a royal decree issued in 612 enjoining all Jews to be baptized 
under penalty of banishment and confiscation of property. That 
explains why several of the conquered towns were left in charge 
of Jews as the Moslem invaders marched through Spain. 

We should, moreover, remember that political disagreements 
among the royalty and nobility of the Goths themselves, coupled 
with internal strife, had undermined the state. Toward the end 
of the sixth century the Gothic nobles had grown into territorial 
lords. The Moslem invasion coincided with the accession to the 

1 Maqqari, vol. i, p. 1 80 Cf. ibn-Khallikan, vol in, p 27. 
* FtymologieaUy this word is connected with the name of the Vandals, who had 
occupied the land before the Arabs. 



W*xsnr ^ ; . ' ' CONQUEST OF SPAIN 4$9 

: throne of a usurper from among: the nobility who was readily 
"betrayed* by the kinsmen of his deposed predecessor. On the 
conquest of Toledo, Achila, the deposed son of Witi za > who had 

* naively cherished the notion that the Arabs were fighting his 
battle 'for hini, contented himself with the recovery of his 

"estates in Toledo. Here he continued to live in great pomp. His 
uncle, Bishop Oppas, was installed over the metropolitan see of 
the capital* As for Julian, the part he played in t&e conquest 

Twas greatly exaggerated. 

, The fall of Saragossa removed one of the last barrio between 
Spain and France. But there remained the Pyrenees* Musa 
never crossed them, though certain Arab chroniclers credit him 
with the feat and with having even entertained the hope of 
traversing "the land of the Franks" and joining ha n ds through 
Constantinople with the caliph in Damascus. 1 Though wild and 
fantastic, the dream of fighting their way through Europe may 

" have, flashed through the brains of the Arab invaders, whose 

"knowledge of the geography of Europe could not have been 

*Abd-al-Rahman al«Thaqafi,* who, in 717 or 718, was the first 

- s to cross the range. 
t Lured 1 by the rich treasures of the convents and churches of 
France and encouraged by the internal dissension between the 

vcKief officers of the Merovingian court and the dufc es °f Aqui- 

: Jainc {L.> Aquitania), al-IJurr started the raids which were 
continued- by his successor al-Samh ibn-Malik ^1-Khawlani. 

1 In 720/under the Caliph f Umar II, al-Samh seized Sep timania, 
which ,was a dependency of the defunct Visigoth^c kingdom, 
and captured Narbonne (Ar. Arbunah), which w£S converted 
later Into a < huge citadel with an arsenal and def ots f° r pro- 

"visions. and arms. But his attempt in the following year at 

~ Toulouse, the seat of Duke Eudes of Aquitaine f resulted in 
Mure, thanks to the effective resistance offered* H ere al-Samh 

( buffered martyrdom", 3 i.e. fell in battle against n^n-MosIems. 

4 The firat great victory by a Germanic prince ov" er Moslems 

\ ha3 been won; The subsequent movements of the Arabs beyond 

; ^fe,Pytenees were not successful. 

I 1 M^t^ai/voL I, p. 175; ibn-Khaldun, vol. iv, pp. 117-18. 

V*JW Jdhlri, vol. H, pp. 24-5; ibn-al-Athir, vol. x, p. 373. _ 
V;. * Al-DaVH. Bughytst MM/anis fi Ta'rikh Rijal el*Andelu!> cd. Francisco 
' ^Co&j&and JuEin Ribera (Madrid, 1SS4-S), p* 303. 



5oo 



THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY PARTiv 



The last and greatest expedition northward was led by 'Abd- 
al-Rahman ibn-*Abdullah al-Ghafiqi, successor of al-Samh as 
amir over Spain. f Abd-al-Rahman advanced through the 
western Pyrenees* which he crossed in the early spring of 732. 
Having vanquished Duke Eudes on the banks of the Garonne, 
he stormed Bordeaux, setting its churches on fire. After burning 
a basilica outside the walls of Poitiers he pushed northward to 
the vicinity of Tours. As the resting-place of the body of St* 
Martin, the apostle of the Gauls, Tours was a sort of religious 
capital for Gaul. Its votive offerings undoubtedly presented the 
chief attraction to the invaders. 1 

Here, between Tours and Poitiers, at the junction of the Clain 
and the Vienne, 'Abd-al-Rahman was met by Charles M artel, 
mayor of the palace at the Merovingian court, whose aid Eudes 
had besought. Charles, as the surname Martel (the hammer) 
which he later won signifies, was valiant and bold. He had 
subdued many enemies and obliged Eudes, who exercised in- 
dependent authority in Aquitaine, to acknowledge the nominal 
sovereignty of the northern Franks. Though not king in name 
Charles, an illegitimate son of Pepin of Heristal, was king in 
fact. 

For seven days the Arab army under f Abd-al-Rahman and 
the Frankish forces under Charles, mostly foot soldiers clad in 
wolfskins and wearing long matted hair hanging down over 
their shoulders, stood facing one another anxiously awaiting 
the moment of joining battle. Light skirmishes dragged on. At 
last, on an October Saturday of 732, the Arab leader took the 
initiative in the attack. The Frankish warriors, who in the heat 
of the fight had formed a hollow square, stood shoulder to 
shoulder, firm as a wall, inflexible as a block of ice — in the 
words of a Western historian. 2 The light cavalry of the enemy 
failed against them. Without giving way they hewed down with 
their swords all attackers. Among the victims was *Abd-al- 
Rahman himself. Darkness at last separated the combatants. 
At the dawn of day the stillness of the hostile camp caused 
Charles to suspect a ruse. Spies were sent out to ascertain the 
facts. Under cover of night the Arabs had quietly deserted their 
tents and vanished. Charles thus came off victorious. 

1 See Dabbi, Bughyah, p 353, 
* Andre* Duchesne, Htstor'cc Francorum scnptotcs % vol. i (Pari$» 1636), p. 7S6. 



ch.xxxiv CONQUEST OF SPAIN 501 

Eater legends embellished this day of Poitiers or Tours, 
greatly exaggerating its historic importance. To the Moslems, 
.who, however, have very little to say about it, it has become a 
baUf al-shukada , 1 pavement of martyrs. To the Christians it 
meant the turning-point in the military fortunes of their eternal 
foe. Gibbon, 3 and after him other historians, would see in Paris 
and London mosques, where cathedrals now stand, and would 
hear the Koran instead of the Bible expounded in Oxford and 
other seats of learning, had the Arabs won the day. To several 
modern historical writers this battle of Tours is one of the 
decisive battles in history. 3 In reality it decided nothing. The 
Arab-Berber wave, already almost a thousand miles from its 
starting-place in Gibraltar, had reached a natural standstill. It 
had lost its momentum and spent itself. Internal discord and 
jealousy between its two component racial elements were begin- 
ning to tell on the morale of *Abd-aI-Rahman's army. Among 
the Arabs themselves, as we shall immediately see, there was no 
unanimity of feeling and purpose. It is true that the Moslems 
uere checked at this point, but their raids continued elsewhere. 
Avi 734, for instance, they seized Avignon; nine years later they 
pillaged Lyons; and not until 759 did they relinquish their hold 
onNarbonne, the strategic base of their operations. But although 
this defeat near Tours was not the actual cause of the Arab 
halt, it does mark the farthest limit of the victorious Moslem 
arms, One hundred years after the death of the Prophet the 
domain of his successor in Damascus had become a world- 
empire extending from China to Gaul. 4 

The strife between the two factions in the Moslem ranks of 1 
Spain affords the key to the history of the period between the 
battle of Tours in 732 and the heroic advent of the Umayyad 
. l Abd-al-Rahman I in 755, It was the same old feud between 

v l Akhb5r f p 25, Maqqari, vol. 1, p. 146, 1. 3. BaJat is a loan-word through Synac 
fon^Latm or Greek ptatea or palaitum, The word is common m place names, 
especially in Spain (fdnsi, pp 32, 50) In this instance the field was referred to as 
psreraent" because the battle was fought on a paved Roman road. Cf John 

x Dnhrt and Fall, ed. Bury, vol, vi, pp, 15 seg See also Lane Poole, pp 

<• 'Edwind Creasy, The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, new ed (New 
Vn*' ^ 159 se * ' ^ 4 P ' Scott, History of the Moorish Empire in Europe 
tpihdelpha, 1904), vol J, p 306 Cf Henry Coppce, History of the Conquest of 
r ^nsfy&tjrat Moors (Boston, iSSr), vol. n, pp. 19 sec. 
I Set abo\ e, p 21c, 



$02 



THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partiv 



North Arabians, frequently referred to as Mudarites, 1 and South 
Arabians or Yamanites. The Yamanites everywhere were in- 
oculated with Shfite ideas? the Mudarites maintained Sunni 
orthodoxy. At the establishment of the 'Abbasid dynasty the 
Yamanites, as f Alids, naturally sympathized with the new regime; 
the others remained loyal to the fallen house of banu-Umayyah. 
The Berbers, who after the Spanish conquest flooded the penin- 
sula from Africa, where many of them had embraced the Kbari- 
jite doctrine and espoused its cause against both Umayyads and 
'Alids, now constituted a most disturbing factor. They complained 
that their nationals carried the brunt of the fighting but were 
nevertheless allotted the arid central plateau, whereas the Arabs 
appropriated for themselves the most smiling provinces of 
Andalusia. 

Discontent soon led to open revolt. The flame of Berber 
insurrection which had raged for years (734-42) from Morocco 
to al~Qayra%van nov? spread to Spain and threatened the handful 
of Arab colonists with extermination. In 741 the Caliph Hisham 
dispatched an army of twenty-seven thousand Syrians to quell 
the African revolt. 2 The remnant of this army, about one-third 
of it, crossed the strait under the leadership of Balj ibn-Bishr 
al-Qushayri. The Syrians turned colonists and, with their ambi- 
tions and interests marked by unswerving loyalty to the Umayyad 
cause, introduced a new problem into an already complicated 
situation. Balj seized the government and established his men in 
the capital, Cordova. After that the turbulent Syrians were 
dispersed. The division of rjims was settled in Seville; that of 
Palestine in Medina Sidonia and Algeciras; that of Damascus 
in the district of Elvira; and that of Qinnasrln in the district 
of Jacn. 3 As an index of the prevailing anarchy in this period 
suffice it to note that in the short interval between 732 and 755 
no less than twenty-three governors succeeded one another in 
Spain. Under such conditions not much progress could be made 
into the land of the enemy in the north, though several campaigns 

1 The Mudar and Rabfah, both of North Arab origin, were often included under 
the collective term Ma'add. See above, p. 280. 

* Jkhbdr^ p. 31. Cf ibn al-Qutiyah, pp. 14-15; ibn- r Idhari. vol. i, pp. 4 
vo! ii, p. 30, Marnxkushi, p. 9 

* Ibn-al'Quftah, p. 20, ibn-'Idhari, vol. ii, p. 33; ihn-Khaldun, vol. iv, p. 119; 
ibn-al-Athtr, vol. v. pp 204*5, tbn-n1-KhitIb. MS in R. Dozy, Recherche! sur 
Vhxstotrc ti la hitlrature dc VEsp^gne, 3rd cd. (Fans, iSSi), vol. i, *pp. U, pp. 

Vl .VIII 



fc CH. xxxiv CONQUEST OF SPAIN 503 

- were conducted in the course of which certain governors f 'suffered 
martyrdom". 1 

The government of the peninsula was in the hands of an amir 
who ruled almost independently, though nominally under the 
governor-general of al-Maghrib (i.e. North Africa and Spain) 
residing in al-Qayrawan. In certain instances the amir received 
his appointment from, and held it directly under, the caliph in 
Damascus. 'Abd-al-'Aziz, son of Musa ibn-Nusayr and first 
amir of al-Andalus, chose Seville (IshbiUyah) for his seat of 
government. He married the widow of King Roderick, Egilona, 
whose name now became umm- (mother of) f Asim, This new 
Christian wife, according to Arab chroniclers, 2 persuaded her 
husband to wear a crown, after the usage of Visigothic royalty, 
and to make the entrance into his audience chamber so low that 
none could get in without bending in obeisance. She also insisted 
on having such a low door to her palace chapel that 'Abd-al^AzIz 
himself had to bend on entering as if in an act of worship* 
Rumours centring on these innovations, exaggerated to the 
point of making of the Moslem amir a convert to Christianity, 
reached the Caliph Sulayman and resulted in the murder of the 
first governor of Moslem Spain. The tragic event took place near 
Seville in 716 at the monastery of Santa Rufina, presumably 
used then as a mosque. The head was dispatched to Damascus, 
where it was exhibited to 'Abd-al-'AzIz* aged and distressed 
father. 

Three years afterward al-Samh ibn-Malik al-Khawlani, the 
fourth in this list of ephemeral amirs, transferred the seat of 
government to Cordova s (Qurtubah), destined to become 
for centuries the brilliant residence of the Western Umayyad 
dynasty* It was al-Samh who rebuilt the bridge in Cordova over 
the Guadalquivir* on the remains of an older Roman structure, 
made a fresh survey of the land and instituted a new system of 
taxation. Shortly after al-Samh the governorship became a bone 
of bloody contention between the Mudarites and Yamanites. 
The two parties finally hit upon what they considered a brilliant 

* Ibn-Khaldun, vol, iv, pp. 1 18*19; Maqqan, vol. i, pp 145-6 

l * Akkbdr, p. 20; ibn-'Abd-al-Hakam, p. 212; ibn-al-Qjiiyah, p. It; ibn-al- 
Athlr, vol. v, p. 14; ibn-*Idhari, vol. ii, pp. 22-3; Maqqan, vol. i t p. 178. Cf. pseudo- 
ibtv-Qu{aybah, pp. 169 scg. 

* Nahdkah t pp. 206-?; ibn-al-Qujiyah, pp. 12-13. Cf. ibn-'Jdhari, vol. ii, p 25, 
Mnqqari. vol i, p 100. 

K * From Ar, al-Wadi al-Kablr, the big valley 



504 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY PAaxiv 

idea; choosing alternately one of their number each year to rule 
the land. 

The first choice of the Mudarites was Yusuf ibn-*Abd-al- 
Rahman al-Fihri, 1 a descendant of 'Uqbah, the founder of 
al-Qayrawan. The Caliph Marwan II confirmed (746) the ap- 
pointment. 2 At the end of the year, however, Yusuf refused to 
give turn to the Yamanite candidate and continued to rule for 
about ten years, 3 Toward the close of 755, as he was in the north 
busy subduing a revolt, word was received that an Umayyad 
youth by the name of *Abd-al-Rahman ibn-Mu r awiyah had 
lately landed on the coast south of Granada and was on his way 
to capture the amlrate. A new and important chapter in the 
history of Spain was being ushered in. 

1 Akhbar, pp 57 seq.\ ibn-al-Athir, vol. v, pp. 286-7. 
1 Cf. pscudo-ibn-Qutajbah, p. tSS 

* Tbn-al-Abbar, oi-Jftvllah at-SijorS* {Notices svr qutlquts mcnuscrtrj araoes), 
eo I)ozv (Leyden, 1847-51), p 54. ibn-al-AthTr, vol. \, p 376 



CHAPTER XXXV 
THE UMAYYAD AMlRATE IN SPAIN 



WHEN in 750 the 'Abbasids signalized their accession by a 
general massacre of the members of the house of Umayyah, 1 
one of the very few who escaped was 'Abd-al-Rahman ibn- 
Mu'awiyah, 2 a grandson of Hisham, the tenth caliph of Damas- 
cus. The story of the narrow escape of this twenty-year-old youth 
and of his five years' wandering in disguise through Palestine, 
Egypt and North Africa, where more than once he barely 
escaped the vigilant eyes of 'Abbasid spies, forms one of the 
most dramatic episodes in Arabic annals. The flight began from 
a Bedoum camp on the left bank of the Euphrates where c Abd- 
al-Rahman had sought refuge. One day the black standards of 
the 'Abbasids suddenly appeared close by the camp. With his 
thirteen-year-old brother, 'Abd-al-Rahman dashed into the river. 
The younger, evidently a poor swimmer, believed the pursuers* 
promise of amnesty and returned from midstream, only to be 
slain; the elder kept on and gained the opposite bank, 8 

As he trudged on his way southward 'Abd-al-Rahman was 
joined in Palestine by his faithful and able freedman Badr. In 
North Africa he barely escaped assassination at the hands of its 
governor, a relative of Yusuf al-Fihri. Wandering from tribe to 
tribe and from town to town, friendless and penniless, the pro- 
scribed fugitive finally reached Ceuta (755). His maternal uncles 
were Berbers from that neighbourhood and offered him refuge. 
Thence he sent Badr across the strait to negotiate with the Syrian 
divisions from Damascus and Qmnasrin which were settled in 
Elvira and Jaen. Many of the leaders, who were former proteges 
of the Umayyad house, welcomed the opportunity to rally under ^ 
the leadership of one who bore a name with which all Syrians 
conjured. The Syrians won the Yamanites over to their cause, 

t See above, pp 2$5*6, 450 

* Corrupted l>> Xht old Christian chroniclers iftto Bcnemaugius, 

* AkH&r, pp 52-4; ibn al-Athlr. \ oh v, p 377. 

SOS 



506 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY PARTIV 



not so much because the latter loved *Abd~al-Rahman as because 
they hated their titular governor, Yusuf. A ship 'was sent to trans- 
port the new leader. Tall ana 1 lean, with sharp, aquiline features 
and thin red hair, 1 this scion of the banu-Umayyah, imbued with 
the spirit of adventure and trained in the best tradition of the 
house, soon became master of the complicated situation. In vain 
did the weak-kneed Yusuf try to satisfy the new pretender with 
rich gifts and promises, including his daughter's hand. One 
southern city after another opened its gates without resistance. 
Archidona, 2 where the Jordan division had established itself, 
the province of Sidona, in which the Palestine division had 
settled, and Seville, where dwelt the Arabs of rjims, welcomed 
the prince with open arms. 3 
Cordova As 'Abd-al-Raliman with his partisans pushed on toward 
captured Qordova t Yusuf advanced in the direction of Seville. Before the 
impending battle it was noticed that the prince had no military 
standard of his own, whereupon the Yamanite chieftain of 
Seville, abu-al-Sabbah al-Yah§ubi, improvised a banner by 
fastening a green turban round the head of a spear. 4 Thus 
originated, we are told, the standard of the Umayyads in Spain. 

The morning of May 14, 756, found the two opposing armies 
engaged in battle on the banks of the Guadalquivir. Though 
most of the men on both sides were on horses, which were still 
scarce in Andalusia, *Abd-al-Rahman, realizing that some of his 
followers were afraid he might desert, insisted on changing his 
mount for an old mule belonging to abu-al-Sabbah. 6 The issue 
of the combat was not long in doubt. Yusuf with his chief 
general sought safety in flight. Cordova was captured and a 
general amnesty was declared. e Abd-ai-Rahman had no little 
difficulty in stopping the pillage of the capital and in putting 
the harem of the defeated governor under his magnanimous 
protection. 

Moslem The mastery of Cordova, however, did not necessarily mean 
c^ob- mastery of Moslem Spain. The fugitive governor continued 

- daied and to foment trouble in the north until he was finally slain near 

1 Ibn- f ldhlri, vol, u, p. 50, ibn-al-Athlr, vol. vi, p. 76. 

1 The capital of the mountainous province of Rcgio (Ar. Rtt)7uh); YaqQt, vol. i t 

* Ibn-al Athir, vol v, p. 37S. ibn-*Idhlri. %o!. li, p. 4H; Maqqari, vol. i, p. 212. 

* Akkbdr, p 84 Ct, ibn-al QGtfyivh, p. 2$ 

* Athbar, pp. 88*9, ibn~&I-Aihir, vol. v, p. 37 S. 



tn.T&xv , THE UMAYYAD AMfRATE IN SFAINh> * ! 5 [50* 

Toledo. 1 This city was not reduced till 764, Yamanitc knd 
Shfitc revolts, fostered by *Abbasid agents, were successive. 
Berber insurrections took ten years to suppress* The Berbers 
never forgave their Arab superiors for appropriating to them- 
selves the hon's share of the conquered land. Former staunch 
supporters of the new amir now turned enemies and had to be 
summarily dealt with. The Sevillan sheikh whose banner and 
mule had led 'Abd-al-Rahman to victory lost his head in an up- 
rising* Badr, 'Abd-al-Rafcman's right-hand man, was banished 
to a frontier town after losing all his propertv 

Enemies within had their confederates without. In 761 the 
'Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur had the temerity to appoint one 
al-*A!a* ibn-Mughlth as governor over Spain. Two years later 
ai-*Ala 4 was decapitated and his head, preserved in salt and 
camphor and wrapped in a black flag and the diploma of 
appointment, was forwarded to al-Mansur while on a pilgrim- 
age to Makkah. 2 Al-Mansur, who on another occasion called 
*Abd-al-Rahman "the falcon of Quraysh", 3 now exclaimed, 
"Thanks be to Allah for having placed the sea between us and 
such a foe!" 4 *Abd-al-Rahman is said even to have equipped a 
fleet to wrest Syria from 'Abbasid hands but was forced by 
domestic problems to stay at home. 

In 777 a formidable confederacy of Arab chiefs in the north- j 
east headed by the governor of Barcelona and a blue-eyed son- J 
in-law of Yusuf al-Fihri invited Charlemagne, who might have J 
been considered an ally of the 'Abbasid caliph 5 and therefore a 
natural enemy of *Abd-al-Rahman, to an alliance against the 
new amir of Spain. Charlemagne advanced (778) through the 
north-eastern Spanish marches as far as Saragossa, 6 but had 
to withdraw when that city closed its gates in his face and 
domestic enemies threatened his authority at home. On its 
"dolorous route" of retreat through the defiles of the Pyrenees, 
the Frankish army was attacked in its rear by Basques and other 
mountaineers from whom it suffered disastrous loss in men and 
baggage- 7 Among the leaders who fell was Roland, whose heroic 

* Ibn*al-Abbar, ffuflah^ p. 55. * Ibn-aVQutfyah, p. 33. 

* Ibn-*Idhari, vol it, p. 6i; Maqqari, vol. 1, p* 213, 

* Ibn-al.Qutiynh, pp. 33-4; Maqqari, vol. i, p* 215. 

* E. L£vi-Proven$al, ttistotre <& V£sfxsg*t6 musulmanc > vol. i (Paris, 1950), p. 121. 
w * <rf£M*ir,p. 113. 

*,32gmhard, Chcrhn*agm, sd. and tr. Halphen, pp» 29*31; iba-Khaldun, voL iv $ , 
J pp. 123*4; ibn-al-Athir, vol. \i, pp. 7-$, 



5 oS THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partiv 

defence has been immortalized in the Chanson de Roland, not 
only a gem of early French literature but one of the most strik- 
ing epics of medieval times. In effect, f Abd-al-Rahman proved 
himself the equal of the mightiest sovereign in the West as he 
bad proved himself the equal of the greatest ruler in the East. 1 
An In the process of subduing his multitudinous adversaries 

irdepend- <Abd-ai~Rahman developed a well-disciplined, highly trained 
amiroie army of 40,ooo or more mercenary Berbers, imported from 
Africa, on whose loyalty he could now depend for the maintenance 
of his throne. The favour of such a body he knew how to keep by 
generous pay. In 757 he discontinued the khutbah hitherto 
delivered in the name of the 'Abbasid caliph, but did not assume 
the cahphal title himself. He and his successors down to c Abd- 
al-Rahman III contented themselves with the title of amir, 
though ruling independently. Under f Abd-al-Rahman I Spain 
had thus been the first province to shake off the authority of the 
recognized caliph in Islam. 

With his realm consolidated and temporarily pacified, r Abd- 
al-Rahman turned to the arts of peace, in which he showed 
himself as great as in the art of war. He beautified the cities 
of his domain, built an aqueduct for the supply of pure water to 
the capital, initiated the construction of a wall round it and 
erected for himself the Munyat* al-Rusafah outside Cordova in 
imitation of the palace built by his ancestor Hisham in north- 
eastern Syria. To his villa he brought water and introduced 
exotic plants, such as peaches and pomegranates. To a lonely 
palm tree in his garden, said to be the first imported 
from Syria, he addressed some tender verses of his own com- 
position. 3 

Two years before his death in 788 *Abd-al~Rahman rebuilt 

the great Mosque of Cordova 4 as a rival to the two sanctuaries 

of Islam in Jerusalem and Makkah. Completed and enlarged by 

his successors, the Mosque of Cordova soon became the Ka'bah 

of Western Islam. With its forest of stately columns and its 

spacious outer court this monumental structure, transformed into 

1 Consult Ooppee, vol 11, pp 167-8 

3 A loan word from Gr. (also Coptic) meaning "garden". 

3 Ibn al Abhor, llullah^ p 34, ibn a! Attur, \ol vi, p 77, Maqqan, \ol u, p. 37, 
Nicholson, Lttrrary History, p 418 The first date-palms were introduced by the 
Phoenicians The Arabs brought in new varieties which they propagated from 
ofMioots, whereas the earner culture was based entirely on growing dates from seed. 

* Ibn *Idhan, vol. u, p 6o, cf p 245, Maqqan, vol 1, p 212. 



a ^hf^^caSy^^thc recbnquest^^ in 1236; 

jfias^sut^ed to .the present day under the popular name ; "£a 
M£zquita"?(^ the great mosque the capital 

could already ; boast a bridge, over the Guadalquivir, later 
enlarged to seventeen arches. Nor were the interests of the 
founder of the Umayyad regime limited to the material welfare 
of his people. In various ways he diligently strove to fashion 
into a national mould Arabians, Syrians, Berbers, Numidians, 
Hispano -Arabs and Goths — a rather hopeless task; and- in 
more than one sense did he initiate that intellectual movement 
which made Islamic Spain from the ninth to the eleventh 
centuries one of the two centres of world culture. 

The dynasty established by *Abd-al-Rahman I, styled al~ 
Dakhil (the newcomer) by Arab chroniclers, was to endure 
for two and three-quarter centuries (756-1031), It reached its 
height under the eighth amir, *Abd-ai-Rahman III (912-61), 
the greatest in the long line and the first, to assume the title of 
caliph (929). I# fact the reign of the Caliph \bbd-al-Rahman 
marks the zeni th of the Arab epoch in the peninsula. Throughout 
the Umayyad period Cordova continued to be the capital and 
enjoyed a period of incomparable splendour as the Western rival 
of Baghdad,! 

The Umayyad caliphate began to wane after the death of the 
talented regent al-I^I ajib al-Mansur (1002), the "Bismarck of the 
tenth century" and possibly the greatest statesman and general 
of Arab Spain, and entirely disappeared in 103 1, On its ruins 
arose sundry petty kingdoms and principalities, many of which 
were always at daggers drawn with one another and all of which 
finally succumbed to the growing power of the native Christians, 
particularly those of the north. With the fall of Granada in 1492 
the last vestige of Moslem rule vanished for ever from the 
peninsula. ... 

t":Thc main task of *Abd-al-Rahman al-Dakhil's successors 
continued to be the pacification of the land and the solution of 
the knotty problems arising from the dual character of the 
population, as Christians and Moslems and from the jealousies 
between , old Arab Moslems and newly converted Spanish 
: ; Mp^lems;.From the beginning the policy followed by the Arab 
-^n^erm^m'thc treatment of their subjects in Spain was not 
:f^daxi^t^jy^Berent from that pursued in other conducfed . 



THE ARABS IN EUROPE; SPAIN AND SICILY PA*TXV 



lands, 5 Poll tax (jtsyaK), levied on Christians and Jews only, 
varied between twelve, twenty-four and forty-eight dirhams a 
year, according to the economic status of the payer. Women and 
children, the aged and destitute, as well as monks and people 
afflicted with chronic diseases, were of course exempt. Land tax 
(kftardj), averaging about twenty per cent, of the yield, was also 
collected from these dhimmis, but, unlike the poll tax, remained 
unaffected by the conversion of the taxpayer. Territories acquired 
by the sword, together with the landed property of the churches 
and of the lords who fled Spain at the time of the conquest, were 
confiscated and parcelled out among the conquerors as indivi- 
duals; but the serfs were left on those lands as cultivators and 
were required to hand four-fifths of the produce to the new 
Moslem lords. Out of this confiscated territory, however, one- 
fifth was appropriated by the state, which exacted from its serfs 
only one-third of the crops. Certain state lands were later divided 
into fiefs among Syrians and Arabs imported to quell revolts. 

"No bondage in Islam" did not necessarily apply to a slave 
on becoming Moslem. Christian communities were left un- 
molested in the exercise of their faith and under their own 
ecclesiastical laws and native judges, whose jurisdiction, of 
course, did not include cases involving Moslems and offences 
against the religion of Islam. In general, therefore, the Moslem 
occupation of Spain entailed no new unbearable hardships to 
the natives. "In some respects", declares Dozy, 8 "the Arab con- 
quest was even a benefit to Spain." It broke the power of the 
privileged group, including the nobility and clergy, ameliorated 
the condition of the servile class and gave the Christian land- 
owner such rights as the alienation of his property which he was 
denied under the Visigoths. 
RcncRfides Nevertheless, Christians flocked to Islam. In mountain and 
in amw j^rai regions they maintained the old national pattern and 
traditional culture, but in the cities they did not. As Neo-Moslems 
they constituted a social class by themselves, called by the Arabs 
Muwalladun (sing. Muwallad % adopted, affiliated) and by the 
Spaniards Mu/adies. In course of time these neophytes became 
the most discontented body in the population. Their ranks were 

1 See above, pp 170-71. 

1 Httlairc <Us Afusulrtatts d'EsfagnC) cd £v Levi Provencal (I^cyden, 1932), 
vol, i, p. 27s, tr. Francis G. Stokes, Spanish J slam (London, 1913), p. 236. 



CH.XXXV THE UMAYYAD AMI RATE IN SPAIN 511 

recruited mainly from serfs and freedmen and their descendants 
who cultivated the soil or toiled as day labourers. Some of them, 
though professing Islam, were "secret Christians"; 1 but they all 
knew well the clear and inexorable law of apostasy from Jsl am, 
which prescribed death. The Moslem Arabs treated all MuwaU 
lads as inferior, though some of them were of noble descent. By 
the end of the first century after the conquest these Muwallads 
had become the majority of the population in several cities, 
where they were the first to take up arms against the established 
order. 

1 Eulogius, "Mcrnonalesanctonun", Bk. Ii in A. Schottus. ffisf antes illustrate^ 
vol iv (Frankfort, 160SJ, p 20 * 



CHAPTER XXXVI 
CIVIL DISTURBANCES 



In Cordova, the southern suburb, refened to as al-rabad} was 
overwhelmingly populated with such Neo-Moslems, renegades 
from the Christian point of view. Sections of them were under 
the influence of students and teachers of theology and law 
(faqiks), about four thousand of whom flourished in the capital. 
As long as Hisham I (788-96), the pious and scholarly son 2 and 
successor of 'Abd-al-Rahman, ruled there was no immcdjate 
cause for trouble. But the reign of HishanVs successor, al-y akam 
I (796-822), who was gay and addicted to the chase and wine, 
changed the situation. Objection was made not only to the levity 
of al-Hakam but also to his bodyguard, composed mainly of 
negroes and other foreign mercenaries who knew no Arabic. 3 
The trouble began in 805 when one day as the amir was passing 
in the streets the mob attacked him with stones while the theo- 
logians applauded. Seventy- two of the ringleaders who were 
later found implicated in a conspiracy to depose al-IJakam 
were apprehended and crucified. Uprisings in the renegade 
quarter followed one another, culminating in a serious outbreak 
m 814 4 urder the leadership of a Berber faqVu Al-rjakam was 
shut up in his palace by the furious mob, but his cavalry finally 
succeeded in cutting down the insurgents. The suburb was dealt 
with ruthlessly. Its leaders, to the number of three hundred, were 
nailed to crosses, head downwards. The whole population was 
ordered to evacuate Spain in three days and the quarter was 
levelled to the ground. It was forbidden for anyone to build 

1 Ibn-'Idhan, \ol. h, pp 73. 77; ibn a!-AthTr, vol, vi, pp 209 seg,; *f#d, vol. li, 
p 365, ibn-Khaldfm, \ol iv, p t2G 

* ILn al-Athtr, \ol vi, pp toi-2, ibn al Qu^ijah, p 42. 

3 Hence their sobriquet al khurs t the dumb ones, ibn-Khaldun, \o1 i\, p. 127; 
Maqqan, \oI. 1, p 220 

* A.H. 202 (817-18) m ibn-*ldhan, \ol. u, p 77. Cf, ibn al Qutfjah, pp 51-2. 

5" 



CH. xxkvi , J " CIVIL DISTURBANCES $t$ 

there again.* Eight thousand families found asylum in Morocco, 
particularly in Fas (Fez), which Idrls II, a descendant of 
'Ali, was then building as his new capital. 3 Others, compris- 
ing fifteen thousand individuals, 3 landed at Alexandria. Here 
the refugees succeeded ia making themselves masters of the 
town until 827, when they were forced to flee by a general 
of the Caliph al-Ma*mun. For a new abode the exiles chose 
Crete, a part of which still belonged to the Byzantine empire* 
They reduced the whole island and their leader founded a 
dynasty which lasted until Crete was reconquered by the Greeks 
in 961. * 

Some Spanish Moslems, it should be noted, were invaluable 
allies to the Arabs and allowed themselves to be used against 
their former co-religionists. Such was the case of f Amrus ibn- 
Yusuf, who in 807 was appointed by al-yakam as governor of 
Toledo, the proud "royal city*' 5 which in the eyes of the con- 
quered natives was politically and ecclesiastically the most im- 
portant town. Toledo had been restless under Moslem yoke; its 
renegades and Christians were in a chronic state of revolt. In 
honour of a visit from the fourteen-year-old crown prince \Abd- 
al-Rahman, son of al-^akam, 'Amrus at the suggestion of 
al-JJakam arranged for a banquet to which he invited hun- 
dreds of notable Toledans. In the courtyard of his newly erected 
castle stretched a long ditch, whence had come the clay used 
in constructing that stronghold. Beside the ditch 'Amrus now 
planted an executioner* As each guest entered the courtyard the 
sword fell upon his neck, The corpses were dumped into the 
ditch. For several years after this "slaughter of the ditch"/ 
turbulent Toledo remained tranquil. 7 But other cities such as 

1 In memory of this sensational episode al-IJakam won the sobriquet aMtaba<J 
(the suburban)* Ibn*al-Abbar, ffullah, p. 38* 

* The quarter ^hcre they settled is still called Udtvat al>Anda!us f the bank of the 
Andalusians. 

* Ibn-al-QiijIyah, p. 51* 

4 Ibn-al-Abbar, (luUak, pp. 39 40; Maqqari, vol, i, p. 2 J 9; Marrakusht, pp. 13-14; 
Kindi, IVufah, pp. 161 -5, 184; Ya'qubi, voh ri, p. 56^ Yaqut, vol. i, p. 337. See 
above, p» 202. 

* Orbs regia inlsidorus Paccnsis, "Del chronicon", in Espana s a grade: fhtctro 
£$3$rtipkt&-hirt0ric0 de la tgtesia de £spena t ed, Fr. Henrique Florcz, vol, vm 
[Madrid, 1753), p, 297; rtadmat al-rtuluk (the rity of kings) in Qarwlm, Aikdr, 
p, 366. t 

* * iVaq'at cl ftufrah, ibn-al-Athir, vol, vi, p. 135; iba-Kruldun, vol. h% p. 126, 
Mba al-Qutfyah, pp. 45.9; ibn-'Idhari, vol. ii t pp. 71-2. 



> < 

Si4 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY part iv 

Merida remained in a state of revolt until the reign of 'Abd-al- 
Rahman II, 1 an energetic artisan of Umayyad Spanish unity 
and a zealous patron of music and astronomy. 

As an amir f Abd-al-Rahman II (822-52), later surnamed 
al-Awsat, a was influenced by four personages: a woman, a 
eunuch, a theologian and a singer. The woman was his favourite 
wife, Sultanah (queen) Tarub, a consummate intriguer. The 
eunuch was his gifted slave Nasr, the royal chamberlain, son of 
a Spaniard and a favourite with the queen. 3 The theologian 
was none other than the Berber ringleader of the /^//-renegade 
mutiny of Cordova, Yahya jbn-Yahya fl-849) of the Masmudah 
tribe, a student of the Imam Malik ibn-Anas in Baghdad and 
the man responsible for the introduction of the Maliki rite into 
al-Andalus.* So firmly established did this rite become that the 
people there were wont to declare: "We know no other works 
but the Book of Allah and the Muzvatta of Malik".* The 
singer was a Persian tenor, Ziryab, who hailed from Baghdad. 

Ziryab 6 was one of those musicians who had graced the 
court of Harun al-Rashld and his sons, where he had distin- 
guished himself not only as an artist but also as a man of science 

1 Umay> ad amirs of Cordo\a 

1. 'Abd-al-Rahman I (756-8S) 

2. Hisham I (78S-96) 

3. Al-tfakam I (796-822} 

4. 'Abd-al-Rahman II (S22-53) 

5. Mufcnmmad I (S52-86) 



6. Al-Mundmr (886 S) 7. 'Abdullah (888-912) 

Muhammad 

8. *Abd-al-Rahman III (912-29, caliph 929-61) 

Me. the middler, for coming between 'Abd al Rahman I and *Abd-al-Rahman 
III. lbn*al-Abbar, #utlah y p 61; ibn-Khaldun, \oI. iv, p. i2£. 
s Maqqan, vol 1, pp. 224-51 below, p $16* 

* Ibn-Khalhkan, vol. in, p 173. Cf. ibn-al*Quti)an, p 34. Malik, according to 
ibn-Khalhkan, dubbed Yah) a "the wise man ['dqtl] of al-Andalus", becauso he 
remained m his scat listening to the imam's lecture while an elephant was passing 
along tlie street and all the other students rushed out to see it. 

* Maqdisi, p. 236. 

* Pcrs. r^r, "gold" + &b t "water"; nickname of abu al-Hasan *Ali ibn*Nafi'. % Iqd % 
vol. ni, p. 241, calls Ziryab a black slave. 



"CH* XXXVI 



CIVIL DISTURBANCES 



and letters. Thereby he aroused the jealousy of his equally 
renowned teacher, Ishaq al-Mawsili, and fled first to north- 
western Africa, Anxious to make of Cordova a second Baghdad, 
*Abd-al-Rahman f who maintained an opulent court and imitated 
the lavish prodigalities of Harun, rode out (822) of his capital 
in person to welcome the young minstreL x Ztryab lived with his 
new patron, from whom he received an emolument of 3000 
dinars annually and real estate in Cordova worth 40,000 dinars, 
on terms of closest intimacy. He soon eclipsed all other musicians 
in the land. Besides being credited with knowing the words 
and tunes of 10,000 songs t which like other musicians he 
believed the jmn had taught him during the night, Ziryab 
shone as a poet and as a student of astronomy and geography. 3 
What is more important, he proved himself so polished, witty 
and entertaining that he soon became the most popular figure 
among the smart set of the time, even an arbiter of fashion, 
Hitherto hair had been worn long and parted on the forehead, 
now it was trimmed low on the brow; water had been drunk 
out of metal vessels, now out of glasses; certain dishes, including 
asparagus, had been unpopular, now those same dishes became 
favourites — all because of Ziryab's example. 3 

Toward the close of 'Abd-al- Rahman's reign the lure of the 
language, literature, religion and other institutions of the con- 
querors — including the harem system — had become so strong 
that a large number of urban Christians had become Arabi- 
cized though not actually Islamized* Dazzled by the glamour of 
Arab civilization and conscious of their own inferiority in art, 
poetry, philosophy and science, native Christians soon began 
to ape the Arab way of living. These imitators now became so 
numerous as to constitute a social class by themselves and ac- 
quired the epithet Mozarabs. 4 Spain, be it remembered, was one 
of the last countries of Europe to be Christianized; some of its 
country districts were still pagan at the time of the Moslem 
conquest and its Visigothic Arianism agreed in its Christology 
with Moslem doctrine. A contemporary Christian writer of 
Cordova deplores the fact that the Christian laymen shun the 
works of the Latin Fathers and are "intoxicated with Arab 

1 Cf,ibn-KhaIdun,vl/^fl</^m^ t p 357, quoted by Maqqaxi, \ol.i, p 222. 

* Maqqarf, vol. ii> p 87, ibn-al QuiFyah, p 68 
$ Maqqari, vol u t pp 87-S. 

* Ttom An nusic % n^ } he who adopts the Arabic language and customs. 



5i6 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN "AND SICILY PARTnT 

eloquence". 1 As early as 724 or thereabout John, bishop of 
Seville, is said to have made an Arabic recension of the Bible 
for the convenience of Arabicized Christians and the Moors. 2 

As a reaction against this tendency toward Arabicization, a 
curious movement now started among the Christian zealots of 
Cordova which resulted in the voluntary martyrdom of several 
men and women. The leading spirit was an ascetic priest, 
Eulogius, supported by his wealthy friend, later his biographer* 
Alvaro. 3 Nothing could have crystallized the sentiment of the 
movement better than the execution on the feast of Ramadan 
(850) of another Cordovan priest, Perfectus by name, for having 
reviled Muhammad and cursed Islam. 4 Headed by the bishop of " 
Cordova the populace lost no time in declaring Perfectus a saint 
and in attributing miracles to him; for did he not before his 
decapitation correctly prophesy the immediate death of Nasr, 
the eunuch chamberlain in charge of execution? Nasr, it seems, 
had entered into a conspiracy with Tarub to poison her royal 
husband; Tarub*s motive was to secure for her own son 'Ab- 
dullah the succession to the throne to the prejudice of Mu- 
hammad (the eldest of 'Abd-al-Rahman's forty-five sons), who 
was born of another wife. *Abd-al-Rahman got wind of the 
scheme, and when Nasr brought a phial claiming that it held a 
wonderful remedy the monarch ordered him to try it first on 
himself. 6 

Not long after the Perfectus episode a monk named Isaac 
appeared before the qadi on the pretext of wishing to be con- 
verted to Islam and began to heap curses on Muhammad. Like 
Perfectus he was beheaded and soon became a saint.* Now the 
race began. Clergy and laity went out of their way to blaspheme 
Islam with the simple intention of receiving the inescapable 
penalty that they well knew went with such an offence. Eleven 
thus "suffered martyrdom" in less than two months. 
Flora ftnd Instigated by 'Abd-al-Rahman, the bishops hesitatingly held 
Eulogius a council which, against the protests of Eulogius, forbade Chris- 

1 AlvaTO, "Jndiculus luminosus", in Espana scgrada, vol. xi, p. 274. 

* Primer a eroniea general, estorut de Espana que nand6 eomponer Alfonso el 
Scbto, cd. Ramon Menendcr Pidal (Madrid, 1906), vol. i t p 326. 

3 "Vita \cl passio Beatissimi Martyris Eulogij", in Espana sagrada, vol. x, 
pp. 543-63; "Vada y martyrio dc S. Eulogio", in Espana sagrada, vol. x. pp. 4U seg, , 

* Alvaro, "Indiculus", in Espana sagrada, vol. xi, pp. 225-6. 

* Ibn-al Qufiyah, pp 76*7; ibn-Khaldiin, vol. iv, p. 130. 

* Alvaro, "Indiculus", in Espana sagrada, vol. xi, pp. 237«8. 



ch. xxxvj < * CIVIL DISTURBANCES 5*7 

tians henceforth to aspire to this holy death. But it was all to no 
avail. At last came the turn of a beautiful young follower of 
Eulogius, Flora, daughter of a Christian mother and Moslem 
father. Together with a youthful nun, Mary, who was a sister 
of one of the previously decapitated monks, Flora had suc- 
cumbed to the temptation of blaspheming the Prophet and was 
merely committed to jail by a compassionate qadi. Here Eulo- 
gius, who had also been cast in jail and had cherished a pure 
and spotless love for Flora, employed all the persuasive rhetoric 
at his command to encourage the girl he loved and her com- 
panion, as the two wavered in their sacrificial ardour, to go to 
the scaffold. The virgin would-be martyrs did not recant; they 
suffered the supreme penalty on November 24, 85 i. 1 This 
hysterical desire for self-immolation did not subside until 
Eulogius himself in 859, then bishop of Cordova, was executed 
by Muhammad I (852-86), who had inaugurated a policy of 
severe repression. The total included some forty-four martyrs. 

Other disturbances, not so fantastic though more serious in 
character, were in store. In the first place, neither Muhammad 
nor his two sons and successors, al-Mundhir (886-8) and 'Ab- 
dullah (888-912), represent the best tradition of tolerance and 
energy associated with the house of Umayyah. Then there were 
the usual difficulties attendant on the accession to the throne, 
which according to Moslem dynastic practice went to the eldest 
or the ablest in the reigning family. After a rule of less than two 
years al-Mundhir was poisoned at the instigation of his successor 
by a lancet used by the surgeon in bleeding him. 2 In the meantime 
Muwallad and Mozarab revolutions were continuing through- 
out the domain and several states were breaking loose and 
asserting their independence under Berber or Spanish Moslem 
rule. Such separatist movements, sponsored by Neo-Moslems 
who posed as nationalist champions in provinces which in theory 
were subject to Cordova, continued to engage the attention of 
the Umayyad amirs till the beginning of the tenth century. 

In the south the mountainous state of Regio, 3 with its capital 

1 Espana sagrada, vol. x, pp 4 1 7- 1 8; Alvnro, "Vita Eulogij", in %M. pp. 547 seg. 

* Ibn-'Idhari, vol. h\ pp. 160-61 , 122, vol. i, introduction by Dozy, pp. 44-6. 
Cf. ibn-aVQu£yah, p. 102; lbn-Khaldun, vol. iv, p. 132; Akhhar i p. 150. 

» Ar. Rayyah, which ibn-Khaldun (vol. iv, p. 132, cf. p. 134) , among others, 
makes a town and confuses with Malaga. Malaga was the capital of Regio under 
the Visigoths and after the reign of 'Abd-al-Ra^man III. See Idrisi, p. 28* 



THE ARABS IN EUROPE* SPAIN AND SICILY *akt 



at Archidona, entered in 873 into treaty relations with Mu- 
hammad, who practically recognized its independence subject 
to a yearly tribute. The natives were mostly Islamized Spaniards. 
In the northern marches independent Aragon under the banu- 
Qasi/ an old Visigothic family which had embraced Islam, 
incorporated within itself in the middle of the ninth century 
Saragossa, Tudela and other important frontier towns. 8 The 
banu-Qasi were in league with their neighbours to the west, the 
kings of Leon. Throughout the land around Toledo, a city 
which was more often in rebellion than in peace, the Berber 
banu-dhu-al-Nun, at the head of bands of brigands, carried fire 
and sword. In Seville, which as the chief centre of Roman 
culture under the Visigoths had a population mostly descended 
from Romans and Goths, the banu-I^ajjaj became all-powerful. 8 
These rulers of Seville and its district were descended in the 
female line from Sarah, granddaughter of Witiza and wife of 
an Arab. The historian ibn-al-QutTyah (son of the Gothic 
woman) was also descended from Sarah. 4 In the Galician south- 
west a daring renegade of Me>ida and Badajoz, c Abd-al-Rah- 
man ibn-Marwan al-Jilltqi 5 by name, founded an independent 
principality whence, with the aid of Alfonso III, king of Leon 
and natural ally of all rebels against the Arab government, he 
spread terror far and wide. At the south-western corner of the 
peninsula, which is the modern Algarve 6 of Portugal, another 
renegade established himself as master towards the close of 
Muhammad's reign. In the south-east Murcia (Ar, Mursiyah), 
under another renegade prince, shook off Arab suzerainty. But 
the most dangerous and implacable of all rebels was one 'Umar 
ibn-Iiafsun. 

'Umar was a Moslem descendant of a Visigothic count. Start- 
ing his colourful career about 880 as an organizer of a band 
of brigands with headquarters in an ancient castle on Mount 

1 Bcmkazzi in Sebastian, "Chronicon", in Espaiia sagrada t vol, xiii, p 487 

* Ibn-al Qutlyah, pp 85, 113-14 Qasi is mistaken for "Musa" in ibn Khaldun, 
vol iv, p 134, %\here his descendants are termed "Lub", Lope Cf. ibn-'Idhari, 
\ol 11, pp 175 6 

* Ibn-*Idhan, vol h, pp 128 seq.\ lbn-Kbaldun, vol. iv, p. 136. 

* Ibn-al Qutlyah, pp 4 6 

* I e the Gabaan. Sec ibn-'Idhan, vol. 11, pp 102, 104, ibn»al Qutlyah, pp 89 9°J 
ibn al-Athir, vol mi, pp 127-8, Dabbi, p. 359, ibn-Kbaldun, vol iv, p. 131; Yaqut, 
Buldan t vol. u, p no 

6 From Ar. al zharb % the v.est. 



1 f ' * 

?i CIVIL DISTURBANCES , _ ^-519 

Bobastro, 1 *Umar, after serving temporarily in the royal army at 
Cordova, rose with the support of the mountaineers of Elvira (II- 
bTrah) to a position of leadership in the Spanish south against 
Moslem rule. His rebellion engaged the attention of three amirs, 
Muhammad, al-Mundbir and 'Abdullah* To the southern 
Christians and malcontents 'Umar became the champion of a 
long-suppressed nationality. To the Arabs, however, he was "the 
accursed", "the rogue". 2 After many vicissitudes of fortune he 
succeeded in isolating Cordova and opened negotiations with the 
Abbasids 3 and the Aghlabid ruler of Africa with a view to re- 
ceiving an appointment for himself as governor of Spain. Failing 
in this ambitious plan, he professed about the year 899 the re- 
ligion of his forbears, which he had long concealed in his heart, 4 
adopting Samuel as a baptismal name. Again and again did 
Samuel shake the Umayyad throne to its very foundation. The 
authority of the successors of Abd-al-Rahman I stood jeopar- 
dized, sadly in need of a restorer. 

1 Ar, Bubashtar; ibn-al-QiUlyah, p. 90; Akhb&r f p. 150. Cf. ibn-*IdhSri, \ol. ii, 
pp. roS, 120, 204, ibn-al*AthJr, vol. vii, p. 295. 

* Ibn-'Idh&ri, vol. ii, pp. 117, 120, 123. CL vol. u, p. 367. 

* Ibn-Khaldiin, vol. iv, p. 135. * Ibu-'Idhiri. vol. ii, \ 143. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 
THE UMAYYAD CALIPHATE OF CORDOVA 



Cahph When 'Abd-al- Rahman III succeeded his grandfather, 
Rahman "Abdullah, in 912, he was barely twenty-three years of age. 
ei-N&sir 'Abdullah had instigated one of his own sons to kill the other, 
'Abd-al-Rahman's father, Muhammad, on a mere suspicion of 
disloyalty. 1 Later he connived at the murder of his other son, the 
fratricide, leaving himself childless. At the accession of 'Abd-al- 
Rahman the vast Moslem state organized by his first namesake 
had shrunk to Cordova and its environs. 

The young amir proved himself the man of the hour. His were 
those qualities of resoluteness, daring and candour which char- 
acterize leaders of men in all ages. Slowly but surely *Abd-al- 
Rahman reclaimed the lost provinces, one after the other. With 
characteristic energy, which he displayed throughout his long 
reign of half a century (9i2-6i), 2 he extended his conquests on all 
sides. Ecija was the first to surrender and that on the last day of 
91 2. 3 Elvira followed suit. Jaen offered no resistance. Archidona 
agreed to pay tribute. Seville opened its gates toward the close of 
913. Regio, whose mountain fastnesses had shielded the bold 
followers of ibn-rjafsun, was reduced step by step. The redoubt- 
able leader himself remained defiant in his impregnable Bobastro 
until death came in 917 to put out of the way that formidable 
enemy of thirty-seven years' standing. Only Toledo remained 
unsubdued, but in 932 the proud former capital succumbed to 
famine and siege. The whole land was thus pacified and the state 
consolidated under the sway of a beneficent absolute ruler. 

In the meantime external enemies were threatening. Among 
these the most dangerous were the Moslem Fatimids to the south 
and the Christian kings of Leon to the north. 'Ubaydullah al- 
Mahdi, the founder of the Fatimid dynasty in Tunisia in 909, had 

1 Ibn 'Jdhari, %oI i, introduction by Dozy, pp 47-50, ibn*al-Abbar,^g//a>&, p 91. 
* Ibn-al-Abbar, Hullak i p 99, is right in claiming for 'Abd al ♦Rahman III the 
longest reign m Islam down to his time. See above, p. 481, n. 2. 
s Ibn 'Idhari, \ol 11, p 165. 

520 



CH, xxxvn - OMAYVAD CALIPHATE OF CORDOVA . , &l w 

negotiated an alliance with ibn-yafsun and sent emissaries and 
spies across the straits, As they claimed descent from Fatimah, . 
daughter of the Prophet and wife of t Ali, the Fatimid caliphs 
would acknowledge no authority in Islam other than their own. 
The Cordovan ibn-Masarrah (883-931), the pseudo-Empe- 
doclean philosopher who introduced into the West an esoteric 
system of writing whose words bore an inner and mysterious 
meaning which only the initiates could understand, may have 
been commissioned to establish a Fatimid party in Spain through 
his organized fraternities. Realizing that his position in Spain 
could not be safe while an enemy flourished in Africa, *Abd-al- 
Rahman, whose suzerainty was recognized in Morocco as early 
as 917 or 918, obtained possession of Ceuta in 931 and ultimately 
secured homage from a great part of the Barbary coast- 1 His 
enlarged and renovated fleet, 3 second to none in the world of that 
age, with Almeria 3 as chief harbour, disputed with the Fatimid 
navy the supremacy of the western Mediterranean. In 956 a 
Spanish fleet of seventy ships devastated parts of the African 
coast in retaliation for a raid made on the Spanish shore by the 
Sicilian fleet at the command of the Fatimid caliph. 4 

While these operations against domestic and foreign foes were 
in progress 'Abd^al-Rahman, whose mother was a Christian 
slave, was often engaged in the holy war against the Christians 
of the north who had hitherto never been subdued. Here the land 
of the Basques 6 occupied the centre, bridging the Pyrenees. To 
** the east lay the still embryonic kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon. 
To the west stretched those territories which developed into the 
kingdoms of Castile and Leon. As early as 914 the undaunted 

1 ImvKhaldun, vol. iv, pp. 137*8, quoted in Maqqan, vol. i, p. 227. 

1 The Spanish Moslem fleet had several encounters frith the Scandinavian pirates 
known in England as Northmen (Norsemen), 'with the Normans of France and 
with the Banes, to alt of whom the Arabs applied the generic term Majus (tire- 
worshippers). The first occasion on which the Majus attempted a landing was in 
$44, in the reign of ^Abd-al-Rabman II, when with their eighty ships they anchored 
before Isisbon and then occupied Seville. In 858-61, in the reign of Muhammad I, 
they attempted several landings on the coasts of the peninsula* Imval^Q&tlyah, 
p 63; ibn 'Idhari, vol. ii t pp. 89-90, 99; Mas'fidi, vol. i, p. 364; ibn-al-Athlr, vol. vri, 
pp. 11-12, 58; Dozy, £tckcrches % vol. ii, pp. 250-3^. 
t % From Ar. al-Mariyah (watchtower). 

* Ibn*lChaldun, ^ol. iv, p. 46; tr de Slanc, IBstoirt des Brrhfrts tt des dynasiitt 
musufmatifs de VAjriqut septentrioncU^ ed. Paul Casanova, vol. ii (Paris, 1927), 
p. 542- , 

* l, £a<hkans" of pscudo-ibn Qutaybah, pp. 12X, 132; ibn-al-Athir, vol vii, p. 48; 
4 - tbn^Khaldun, vol. iv, p. 140. 



» cn.xxxm UMAYYAD CALIPHATE OF CORDOVA 5*3 * J 

king of Leon, Ordono II, 1 taking advantage of the situation In 
the Moslem kingdom, commenced hostilities by devastating the 
region to the south. Three years later he succeeded in capturing 
one of 'Abd-al-Rahman's generals and nailing his head beside 
that of a wild boar to the wall of a frontier fortress, San Esteban 
dc Gormaz, 2 which the Moslem general was besieging. Pillaging 
forays from these northern enemies were successive. In 920 
f Abd-al*Rahman took the field in person, razed San Esteban 
(S. Estevan), demolished a number of other strongholds 3 in 
that debatable land between Christianity and Islam and at Val 
de Junqueras (vale of reeds) met the combined forces of Ordono 
II and Sancho 4 the Great of Navarre and inflicted on them a 
severe defeat. After overrunning parts of Navarre and adjacent 
Christian lands, 'Abd-al-Rahman returned triumphantly to his 
capital. Four years later he penetrated as far north as Pampe- 
luna, 6 capital of Navarre, which he demolished. Its haughty 
king, the bulwark of Christianity in the east, referred to as "dog" 
by ibn-'Idhari, 6 was reduced to impotence for a long time after 
this. About the same time the other champion of the native 
cause, Ordono, died and the civil discord which followed brought 
a lull in military activity. 

The remaining years of 'Abd-al-Rahman's long reign were 
filled with evidences of wise and able administration. One of the 
first among those was the proclamation that beginning Friday, 
January 16, 929, the ruling sovereign should be designated in all 
public prayers and official documents as caliph, For himself he 
chose the title al-Khalifah al-N&sir li-Din Allah, the caliph- 
defender of the religion of God. 7 It was most appropriate for him 
who brought Moslem Spain to a higher position than it had ever 
before enjoyed to assume the role of a?ntr al-mtfmintn especially 
in view of the low level to which the Eastern caliphate had fallen. 

1 "Aidfin* 1 of Mas'&di, vol. iii, p. 75; Maqqari, vol. {, p. 233; "Ardhun" of ibn- 
'HhSri, voL ii, pp. 179, 187. 

* Or Castro Moros; Ar. Shant Ishtiban, Ashtln or Qashtar Murush. 

* Ibn-'Idhari, vol. n, p, 1S3 seg„ lbn**Abd-Rabbihi, poet laureate of *Abd-al- 
ltafcman, speaks of seventy strongholds reduced in one campaign, % Igd t vol* ii, 

a p 36S. 

* "SbanjaV o* ibn*al-Qutiyah f p. 114; "Shanjah" of Maqqari, vol. i, p. 233; 
'"Sanjah" of ibn-KhaldQn, vol. iv, p. 141, 

* "Banbalunah" in Maqqari, vol* i, p. 234; ibn-'Idhari, vol. ii, pp. 196, 199, 
- • * VoL ii, p. 200. 

* *I?d 9 vol. ii, pp. 368, 369; ibn«*Idhari vol. ii, pp. 162, 2X1*12; ibn-KhaldQn, 
: vol t iv, p. 137, copied by Maqqari, vol. i, p, 227 



524 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partiv 



As defender of the faith the Caliph al-Nasir felt it his supreme 
duty to press the holy war against the Christians, who never 
ceased to cast covetous eyes on their ancestral territory to the 
south. His campaigns continued until the year 939, in which 
King Ramiro II of Leon and Queen Regent Tota 1 of Navarre, 
widow of Sancho the Great, inflicted on him at Alhandega, 2 
south of Salamanca, the first serious check his military operations 
had encountered in twenty-seven years of almost incessant 
warfare. The caliph's huge army was practically annihilated; 
he himself barely escaped with his life. This same Tota later 
appeared at the court of the caliph together with her son, in 
whose name she was ruling Navarre, and with her grandson 
Sancho the Fat, ex-king of Leon, seeking medical advice for 
Sancho and military aid to reinstall him on the throne. 3 The 
royal guests were received in great state, while the Moslem capital 
was treated to the grand sight of Christian royalty knocking in 
supplication at the door of the caliph whose word was law from 
the mouth of the Ebro to the Atlantic and from the foot of the 
Pyrenees to Gibraltar. Through the skill of the Jewish court 
physician and statesman yasday ben-Shaprut, Sancho was 
relieved of his excessive corpulence, which had cost him his 
crown, and through the caliph's efforts he regained in 960 his 
lost authority. 

Ai-Zahra* The caliph's court at that time was one of the most glamorous 
in all Europe. Accredited to it were envoys from the Byzantine 
emperor as well as from the monarchs of Germany, Italy and 
France. 4 Its seat, Cordova, with half a million inhabitants, seven 
hundred mosques 5 and three hundred public baths, yielded in 
magnificence only to Baghdad and Constantinople. The royal 
palace, with four hundred rooms and apartments housing 
thousands of slaves and guards, stood north-west of the town on 
one of the spurs of the Sierra Morena overlooking the Guadal- 
quivir. c Abd-al-Rahman started its construction in 936 with 
money left, so the legend goes, by one of his concubines. His 
first thought was to use the fund for ransoming captives in 

1 "Tulah" in ibn-Khaldun, vol. iv, pp 142*3. 

a From Ar« al'khondaq t the moat. Maqqan, vol. i, pp. 227, 228. 

1 Ibn*Khald\in, vol iv, p. 143, quoted in Maqqan, vol VP 235 

* Ibn-'Idhari, \ol. u, p 229; ibn-KhaldQn, vol iv, pp. 142-3, Maqqari, vol. i, 
p. 227 

* Three thousand in ibn-'Idhan, vol. it, p. 247. Cf. Maqqan, vol, i, p. 355. 



ar. xxxvn UMAYYAD CALIPHATE OF CORDOVA 525 

Christian hands. Since none were found he acted on the sug- 
gestion of his other concubine, al-Zahra' (she with the bright 
face), and erected this palatial mansion which he named after her. 
Marble was brought from Numidia and Carthage; columns 
as well as basins with golden statues were imported or received 
as presents from Constantinople; and 10,000 workmen with 
1500 beasts of burden laboured on it for a score of years. 1 
Enlarged and embellished by al-Nasir*s two successors, al- 
Zahra* became the nucleus of a royal suburb whose remains, 
partly excavated in and after 1910, can still be seen. 

In ai-Zahra* the caliph surrounded himself with a bodyguard 
of "Slavs* 1 which numbered 3750 s and headed his standing 
army of a hundred thousand men. 8 At first applied to slaves 
and prisoners captured by Germans and others from among the 
Slavonic tribes and sold to the Arabs, the name Slav 4 was later 
given to all purchased foreigners: Franks, Galicians, Lombards 
and the like, who as a rule were secured young and Arabicized. 
With the aid of these "Janissaries" or "Mamluks" of Spain the 
caliph not only kept treason and brigandage in check but reduced 
the influence of the old Arab aristocracy. Commerce and agri- 
culture consequently flourished and the sources of income for 
the state were multiplied. The royal revenue amounted to 
6,245,000 dinars, a third of which sufficed for the array and a third 
for public works, while the balance was placed in reserve. 6 
.Never before was Cordova so prosperous, al-Andalus so rich 
and the state so triumphant. And all this was achieved through 
the genius of one man, who, we are told, died at the ripe age of 
seventy-three leaving a statement that he had known only 
fourteen days of happiness. 6 

1 IWIdhari, vol, ii, pp 225, 240, 246-8; ibn-Hawqal, p. 77; ibn*Khaldun, vol, iv, 
p. 144; Mnqqari, vol. i, pp. 344'7; ibn-KhoIHkfin, vol. ii, p. 413. 

* Ibn-'Xdhari, vol. ii, p. 247. 

* Ma$*udi, vol. iii, pp. 74, 78. Mas'udi was a contemporary, though distant, 
author, 

* Ar. SaqaKbah; see above, p. 235 

* Ibn^Idhari, vol, ii, p. 247; ibtvKhallikan, vol. ii, p. 413. Cf. ibn-IJawqai, p. 77, 

* Iba-'Idhari, vol. ii, p. 248. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 
POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 



The reigns of *Abd-aI- Rahman III and his successor al- 
Hakam II (961-76), together with the dictatorship of al-rjajib 
al-Mansur (977-1002), mark the apogee of Moslem rule in the 
West. Neither before nor after this was Moslem Spain able to 
exercise the same political influence in European and African 
affairs. 

Cordova In this period the Umayyad capital took its place as the most 
cultured city in Europe and, with Constantinople and Baghdad, 
as one of the three cultural centres of the world. With its one 
hundred and thirteen thousand homes,* twenty-one suburbs, 2 
seventy libraries and numerous bookshops, mosques and palaces, 
it acquired international fame and inspired awe and admiration 
in the hearts of travellers. It enjoyed miles of paved streets 
illuminated by lights from the bordering houses 3 whereas, 
"seven hundred years after this time there was not so much as 
one public lamp in London", and "in Paris, centuries subse- 
quently, whoever stepped over his threshold on a rainy day 
stepped up to his ankles in mud". 4 When the University of 
Oxford still looked upon bathing as a heathen custom, genera- 
tions of Cordovan scientists had been enjoying baths in luxurious 
establishments. The Arab attitude toward the Nordic barbarians 
found expression in the words of die learned Toledan judge 
Sa'id 6 (f 1070), who thought that "because the sun does not 
shed its rays directly over their heads, their climate is cold and 
atmosphere clouded. Consequently their temperaments have 
become cold and their humours rude, while their bodies have 

1 Ibn-'Idhari, vol. h, p. 247. Cf Maqqari, vol. i, p. 356. 

* Maqqari, vol. i, pp. 299, 304. Cf. ibn-*Idhuri, vol n, pp. 247*8. 

* Maqqari, vol. i, p. 298, 11. 2-3. These lights were evidently fastened to the front 
dooTS or corners 

4 John \V. Draper, A Htstory of the Intellectual Development of Europe^ rev. ed. 
(London, 1910), vol. 11, p. 31. 

* Tabaqdt, pp. 8-9. 

526 



CH. xxxvm J POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS 



grown large, their complexion light and their hair long* They 
lack withal sharpness of wit and penetration of intellect, while 
stupidity and folly prevail among them**' Whenever the rulers of 
Leoni Navarre or Barcelona needed a swrgeon t an architect, a 
master singer or a dressmaker, it was to Cordova that they 
applied. The fame of the Moslem capital penetrated distant 
Germany where a Saxon nun styled it "the jewel of the world'*. 1 
Such was the city which housed the Umayyad ruler and his 
government. 

The organization of the government in the Western caliphate < 
did not differ radically from that of the Eastern. The caliphal . r 
office was hereditary, though army officers and nobles quite often t 
elected him whom they favoured. When there was a (idjib (cham- 
berlain) he stood above the vizirs, who communicated through 
him with the caliph. Below the vizirs came the kuttab (secre- 
taries), who together with the vizirs formed the dlwan. The 
provinces, which apart from Cordova were six in number, were 
each ruled by a civil and military governor called wait. Some 
important cities were also under waits. Justice was administered 
by the caliph, who as a rule delegated the authority to qddi$ % at 
the head of whom stood the qdft al-qitdah in Cordova. Criminal 
and police cases were heard by a special judge, safyib al-shurtak. 
Another special judge in Cordova, sdliib al-masalim, heard com- 
plaints against public officials. The usual sentences involved fine, 
scourging, imprisonment, mutilation and, in case of blasphemy, 
heresy and apostasy, death. An interesting officer was the niu/t- 
tasib (Sp. almotaein)) who, besides directing the police, acted as 
overseer of trade and markets, checked weights and measures 
and intervened in cases of gambling, sex immorality and im- 
proper public dress. 2 

The state depended for its revenue mostly on duties imposed on J 
imports and exports. Spam under the caliphate was one of the 
wealthiest and most thickly populated lands of Europe. The capital 
boasted some thirteen thousand weavers and a flourishing leather 
* industry. From Spain the art of tanning and embossing leather 
was carried to Morocco and from these two lands it was brought 
, to France and England, as the terms cordovan, cordwainer and 

\ 1 Hrotsvitha in Script&rts tvrum Germamcarum; Hrctsvitka optrc, ed. Paul us 
' dctymtcrfeld (Berlin, 1902), p. 52, 1. 12. 

AJ*Saqstf, Ft Atf&b et*#is&ak 9 ed. Colin and Levi-Proven^al (Paris, 1931), pp. 
* t %**$4 LW-Piavensftl, UEspagn* musulmane ou X 6 *** Steele (Fans, 1932}, pp, 79-96. 



THE ARABS IN EUROPE; SPAIN AND SICILY FARTiv 



morocco indicate. Wool and silk were woven not only in Cordova 
but in Malaga, Almena and other centres, 1 Sericulture, originally 
a monopoly of the Chinese, was introduced by Moslems into 
Spain, where it thrived. Almerfa also produced glassware and 
brasswork, Paterna in Valencia was the home of pottery. Jaen 
and Algarve were noted for their mines of gold and silver, Cor- 
dova for its iron and lead 4 and Malaga for its rubies. Toledo, 
like Damascus, was famous all over the world for its swords. 3 
The art of inlaying steel and other metals with gold and silver 
and decorating them with flower patterns, which was introduced 
from Damascus, flourished in several Spanish and other European 
centres and left a linguistic heritage in such words as damascene, 
damaskeen, French damasquiner and Italian damaschino* 
Agncui- The Spanish Arabs introduced agricultural methods practised 
turc in Western Asia. They dug canals, 4 cultivated grapes and intro- 
duced, among other plants and fruits, rice, 5 apricots, 6 peaches, 7 
pomegranates, 8 orangcs * sugar-cane, 10 cotton 11 and saffron. 1 * The 
south-eastern plains of the peninsula, especially favoured by 
climate and soil, developed important centres of rural and urban 
activity. Here wheat and other grains as well as olives and sundry 
fruits 1 * were raised by a peasantry who worked the soil on shares 
with the owners. 

This agricultural development was one of the glories of Moslem 
Spain and one of the Arabs 1 lasting gifts to the land, for Spanish 
gardens have preserved to this day a "Moorish" imprint. One 

1 Maqqari, vol. i, pp. 102, 123-4. 

% Lisiuvai-Dm ibn al-Khatfb, al-J^atah fi Akklar Gharndfah (Cairo, 1319), 
vol. i, p. 15; al'Lamfrak aUBadriyah fi al-DawIah ahNa^riyah, cd. al-Kha^Ib 
(Cairo, 1347), p. 13. 

8 For more on industry and metals consult ibn-^awqal, pp. 78*9; Isjakhri, p. 42; 
Maqqari, vol. i, pp 90 92, 123. 

* The Sp. word for canal is a£equia> from Ar. al sdqiyah. 

* Sp crro*, from Ar. cl-aruzt, originally Skr. Cf. below, p. 665. 

* Sp albarttoquc (whence Eng. apricot), from Ar. al-barquq, ^hich came from 
JL. through Gr. 

7 Sp. alhirchigo t from As,firsiq t firsih t from L., a variety of peaches. 
s Ar. rumm&tj which lias survived in Sp. romania^ a drink made of pomegranate 
juice. 

* See above, p. 351. The Arabs introduced into Europe the bitter, or Seville 
orange. The sweet, or common orange was introduced later by the Portuguese 
from India. 

10 Cf. below, p. 667. 

11 Sp. algod6n t O.Sp. coton (whence Eng. cotton), from Ar. al-qufn* 
lt Sp. czafrdn, Pg. afqfroo, from Ar. al-zdfardn, 

u Ibn-al-Khatib, Iftafah, vol 5, pp 14-15, 27, 37; Lam^ah, p. X3; Maqqari, 
vol. i, pp. 94-6: ibn-Battutah, vol. iv, pp. 366-9. 



CH.XXKVilI POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS 5*9 

of the best-known gardens is the General ife (from Ar. jannat 
al-anf, the inspector's paradise), a Nasrid 1 monument of the 
late thirteenth century whose villa was one of the outlying build- 
ings of the Alhambra. This garden, "proverbial for its extensive 
shades, falling waters and soft breeze ", s was terraced in the 
form of an amphitheatre and irrigated by streams which, after 
forming numerous cascades, lost themselves among the flowers, 
shrubs and trees represented today by a few gigantic cypresses 
and myrtles. 

The industrial and agricultural products of Moslem Spain 
were more than sufficient for domestic consumption. Seville, 
one of the greatest of its river ports, exported cotton, olives and 
oil; it imported cloth and slaves from Egypt and singing girls 
from Europe and Asia. The exports of Malaga and Jaen included 
saffron, figs, marble and sugar. Through Alexandria and 
Constantinople Spanish products found markets as far away as 
India and Central Asia. Especially active was the trade with 
Damascus, Baghdad and Makkah. The international nautical 
vocabulary of the modern world contains not a few words, for 
example admiral, arsenal, average, 3 cable, corvette, 4 shallop 
(sloop), 5 tariff, which testify to the former Arab supremacy on 
the seas. An interesting echo of brisk maritime activity in the 
Atlantic, (bahr al-zutumat, classical Mare Tenebrarum, the sea 
of darkness) is found in an obscure story preserved in al-Idrisi, e 
who tells of eight "beguiled" cousins who set off from Lisbon on 
an expedition of exploration which carried them after thirty-five 
days of sailing west and south to strange islands. 7 

The government maintained a regular postal service. It 
modelled its coinage on Eastern patterns, with the dinar as the 
gold unit and the dirham as the silver unit. 8 The copper fals 9 
of early Islam was likewise current. Arab money was in use in 
the Christian kingdoms of the north, which for nearly four 
hundred years had no coinage other than Arabic or French, 

The halo that surrounded the court of *Abd-al-Rahman III i 

.did not cease to shed its lustre on that of his son and successor 41 

g 

* See below, p. 549. * Ibn-aMChatib, Lambah, p. 100. 
In the sense of duty upon goods, Prom Ar. 'awariyak* 

* Ar. ghurah, war vessel, through Sp. corheta. 

* hx.jalhah, boat, through Sp. ckclupa. 

* f P* 51*2. 1 Perhaps the Canary and Cape Verde Islands. 

* Ibn*al-Kha|ib, I^ah, voJ. i ( p. 37. » From Gr. pkollit, from L. 



53o THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY PaRTIY 



al-JJakam II al-Mustansir (961-76), considered by aI-Mas f udi 1 
the most judicious (ahkam) of all men. Early in al-Hakam's 
reign there appeared at the Moslem capital Ordono the Wicked, 
seeking reinstatement in the Lconese throne which he had lost 
through the intervention of f Abd-al-Rahman. The ex-king was 
escorted to al-Zahra* by Walid ibn-Khayzuran, the Christian 
judge of Cordova, and 'Abdullah ibn-Qasim, 2 the metropolitan 
of Toledo, and instructed by them in the details of proper court 
etiquette. Dressed in white and wearing a head-gear adorned 
with jewels, Ordono, at the head of his nobles, made his way 
through the serried ranks of Moslem soldiers lining the ap- 
proaches to the imperial residence. Struck with awe, the 
Christians began to cross themselves. In the audience chamber 
sat the caliph on his throne with the members of his household 
and chief officers on both sides and behind. With abject genu- 
flections the Christian prince advanced, bare-headed, kissed the 
hand of the commander of the believers, calling himself his 
slave, implored his aid and retired walking backwards to the 
door. The same procedure was observed by his noble com- 
panions. Walid acted as interpreter. The caliph promised aid 
under certain conditions, but the visit proved fruitless. 3 
Educa. The real glory of this period, however, lies in fields other than 
acuity political. Al-Hakam was himself a scholar and patronized learn- 
ing. 4 He granted munificent bounties to scholars and established 
twenty-seven free schools in the capital. 6 Under him the uni- 
versity of Cordova, founded in the principal mosque by f Abd- 
al-Rahman III, rose to a place of pre-eminence among the 
educational institutions of the world. It preceded both al-Azhar 
of Cairo and the NizamTyah of Baghdad and attracted students, 
Christian and Moslem, not only from Spain but from other 
parts of Europe, Africa and Asia. Al-rlakam enlarged the 
mosque which housed the university, conducted water to it in 
lead pipes and decorated it with mosaics brought by Byzantine 
artists, spending on it 261,537 dinars and i\ dirhams. 6 He 
invited professors from the East to the university and set aside 

1 Vol. i, p. 363. 

* Note the Moslem form of the names of these two Christian dignitaries 

8 Ibn-*Idhari, \ol. u, p. 251; ibn-KhaldOn, vol. iv, p. 145; Maqqari, vol. i, pp. 
24b, 252 6. 

* Jbn-al-AthTr, vol vm, p. 408; lbn-aMChatfb, I^atak t \o\ i, p. 305. 

4 Ibn-*Idhan, vol. u» p. 256 • Ibid. pp. 253, 256-7, 



cf^XXXvm POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS 



Endowments for their salaries. Among its professors were the 
historian, ibn-al-Qutlyah, who taught grammar, and the re- 
nowned philologist of Baghdad, abu-'AIi al-Qali, 1 whose Amdli* 
(dictations) is still studied in Arabic lands. One of the dramatic 
episodes in the life of ai-Qali was the time he was struck with 
stage fright while delivering an extemporaneous oration at the 
pompous reception tendered the Byzantine envoys by the Caliph 
al-Nasin He could not proceed beyond the introductory praise 
to Allah and blessing on Muhammad, whereupon he was im- 
mediately replaced by Mundhir ibn-Sa*Id, who "extemporane- 
ously" delivered a most eloquent address, covering two pages 
and a half in al-Maqqari, 3 all in rhymed prose. 

In addition to the university the capital housed a library of 
first magnitude. Al-rjfakam was a bibliophile; his agents ran- 
sacked the bookshops of Alexandria, Damascus and Baghdad 
with a view to buying or copying manuscripts. The books thus 
gathered are said to have numbered 400,000, their titles filling 
a catalogue of forty-four volumes, in each one of which twenty 
sheets were devoted to poetical works alone. 4 Al-flakam, prob- 
ablythe best scholar among Moslem caliphs, personally used 
several of these works; his marginal notes on certain manu- 
scripts rendered them highly prized by later scholars. In order 
to secure the first copy of the Aghani^ which aHsbahani, a 
descendant of the Umayyads, was then composing in ai~ f Iraq, 
al-rjakam sent the author a thousand dinars. 5 The general 
state of culture in Andalusia reached such a high level at this 
time that the distinguished Dutch scholar Dozy, 6 followed by 
other scholars, went so far as to declare enthusiastically that 
"nearly every one could read and write". All this whilst in 
Christian Europe only the rudiments of learning were known, 
and that by the few, mostly clergy. 

AI-Hakam was succeeded by his son Hisham II al-Mu'ayyad 'Ami 
, (976-1009), a boy of twelve. Hisham's mother, a beautiful and^ a 
able Basque named Subh 7 (dawn, aurora), was the real power 

"* Ibn-KMliktin, vol. i, pp. t3 0 "3*; Yaqut, </*fe&T, vol, ii, pp. 351-4; Sam'ani, 
fo£ 439 * a vols. (Bfi)fiq, X324). * Vol. i t pp. 237-40. 

> >! Maqqarf, vol. ?, pp, 249-50, 256; ibn-Khaldun, vol. iv, p. 146. 
K £ Ibn-iCh&jd&n, v&K $v, p. 146; Maqqaii* voJ. z, p. 250. 

A * ' Ihslcin da Musufmans, ecL Ldvi »Provcn jal, Vol. ii, p. 184; Nicholson, Literary 
)Bulcr? t ^ 419; fcafael Altamira in The Cambridge Medieval History , (New York, 
ioai), vol, ill, p» 434, 

' * llwt-'Idhari, vot ii, p. 268; Maqqari, vol, i, p. 259; Marr&kushs, pp. 17, 19. 



532 



THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY PAKTiv 



in state affairs The Sultanah had a protege, Muhammad 
ibn-abi-'Amir, who started life as a humble professional letter 
writer and ultimately became virtual ruler of the kingdom. His 
career provides another illustration of what pluck, talent and 
ambition could accomplish in a Moslem state. Muhammad's 
ancestor, a Yamanite of the Ma'afir tribe, was one of the few 
Arabs in Tariq's army of conquest. Under the patronage of the 
queen, who was said to have been also his mistress, young 
Muhammad rose from one office to another in the court, dis- 
posing, by clever manipulation or force, of superiors on whose 
shoulders he climbed until he became royal chamberlain (Jidjzb) 
and vizir. 1 In that capacity he dealt a final blow to the Slavonic 
bodyguard, substituted for it a new unit of loyal Moroccan 
mercenaries and finally shut up the immature caliph in his 
palace. In order to set aside al-Zahra* the PJ ajib built for himself 
in 978 a magnificent residence east of Cordova on a site not yet 
identified and styled it al-Madinah al-Zahirah (the brilliant 
town). 2 To ingratiate himself with the ulema he burned all books 
in the library of al-Hakam dealing with philosophy and other 
subjects blacklisted by those theologians. The poets he handled 
properly through bounteous subsidies. He then had his name 
mentioned in the Friday prayer and on the coinage, wore robes 
of gold tissue woven with his name — a privilege of royalty — 
and after 992 had his seal replace the caliph's on all official 
documents issued from the chancellery. 3 The only thing he did 
not do was to overthrow the nominal Umayyad caliph and 
establish an 'Amirid caliphate. 

In military affairs ibn-abi-'Arnir proved as successful as in 
peaceful undertakings. He first reformed the army, substituting 
for the ancient tribal organization the regimental system. The 
removal of the Fatimid seat of power farther east to the newly 
built Cairo (969) and the internecine conflicts among the petty 
Christian kingdoms of the north afforded his armies an oppor- 
tunity to march triumphantly along the north-western African 
coast as well as in the northern parts of the Iberian Peninsula. 
His victories led him to assume in 981 the honorific title ai- 
Mansur bi-Allah (rendered victorious through the aid of Allah). 

1 Ibn**Idhan, vol n, pp 267-9, ibn-Khaldun, vol iv, pp. 147-S, ibn al-Ath£r 
vol ix, pp 124-5, ibn ft l KJiatfb, ffiJfaA, vol u, 67 9 
1 Ibn-'ldhan, vol. 11 1 pp 294 7. * Maqqari, vol. 1, p. 258, 



t CK.xxxvni POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS" * 533 

In the spring and autumn of every year aM^ajib al-Mahsur led 
his troops as & matter of course against the Christians of Leon, 
Castile and Catalonia. Here, among other achievements, he 
captured Zamora in 981, sacked Barcelona in his thirteenth 
campaign 1 (985) and in 988 razed the city of Leon with its 
massive walls and high towers, making its kingdom a tributary 
province. He even ventured into the mountainous passes of 
Galicia and in 997 demolished the magnificent church of St» 
Jago (Santiago) de Composteia, 2 a shrine frequented by 
pilgrims from all of Christian Europe Subsequent to this last 
feat his triumphal entry into Cordova was signalized by a 
multitude of Christian captives bearing on their shoulders the 
church doors, which were incorporated in the capital's great 
mosque, together with the church bells, which were utilized as 
lamps in Moslem edifices. Christians with chains round their 
ankles were employed by al-Mansur in repairing the mosque. 
Never except under 'Abd-al-Rahman III did the star of Spanish 
Islam shine with such brilliancy. 

Al-Mansur's wish to die in the field was realized in 1002 on his 
•way back from a campaign against Castile, the fiftieth of his 
expeditions. 3 Buried with him in the coffin was the dust which 
had accumulated on his coat of mail during his numerous 
campaigns and which he had kept for this purpose.* On his tomb 

at Medinaceli (Madlnat Salim) was engraved this epitaph: 

». 

His story in his relics you may trace, 
As tho* he stood before you face to face. 
Never will Tame bring forth his peer again, 
Nor one to guard, like him, the gaps of Spam,* 

1 

But the pointed comment of the monkish annalist better ex- 

1 Ibn*al*Krm|Tb,J# vol.ii, p 71; according to others twenty third campaign, 

* "Shant Yaqub" of Arab authors, ibn-*Idhun, vol n, pp 316-19,, Maqqan, 
rol, \ t pp 270-72; Idria, p. 104 Considered hy Christians the burial place of the 
Apostle James, son of Zebedee, vrho, tradition asserts, introduced Christianity into 
Spain* The tomb v\as spared by aI-Man$ur. 

* Ibn-Khaldun, \aL iv, p 148, makes his campaigns fifty-two, quoted fifty-six 
la Maqqari, vol, i f p. 35s, cf. p. 261, 1 tj, ibn-al-Kha$Ib, Ih&}ak t vol ii f p, 69, 
1 14; ibn al-Athir, vol vui, p. 408, 1. 1$; lbn-al-Abbar, ffultekj p, 149 

1 Tbn aMChatlb, I^afah^ vol. u, p. 72, ibn-al-Athir, vol. ix, p. X25, Marrakushi, 
£ 26 

* Ntcholsori, Ltttraty Htstory^ p. 413; lbtt-al-Khafxb, Ifratck, vol is, p, 73; 
fim il-Abhar, ^uilah i p Ar» rtvg&vr, rendered "gaps of Spain", mean* 
"inarches" or "frontier forts 0 . 



534 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partiv 



presses the sentiment of the Christians: "In 1002 died Almanzor, 
and was buried in hell M . x 
Collapse For eighty years after the death of the r Amirid dictator the 
Umayyad Andalus was torn asunder by Berbers, Arabs, Slavs (Saqdlibak) 
po*er anc j Spaniards, with the prastorian guard playing the same role 
as it did in ancient Rome and decadent Baghdad. His son 
*Abd-al- Malik al-Muzaffar, whom ai-Mansur had appointed as 
his successor, thus making the office hereditary, succeeded in 
maintaining the unity and prestige of the kingdom for six years. 2 
In 1008 al-Muzaffar was poisoned by his brother and successor, 
'Abd-al-Rahman, surnamed Shanjul (Sanchuelo, i.e. little 
Sancho, because his mother was daughter of King Sancho of 
Navarre), who immediately proclaimed himself heir presumptive 
to the Umayyad caliphate, a step which aroused the populace 
and resulted in his execution. 8 For twenty-one years after this, 
caliph after caliph was set up: one as a puppet of the Cordovans, 
another of the Slavs and a third of the Berbers. Even the 
Castilians had a share in unseating one caliph and seating 
another. 4 The real power was in the hands of the military. The 
unfortunate Hisham II was dragged out of his thirty years of 
seclusion but manifested only childish incompetence and was 
forced to abdicate in 1009 in favour of his second cousin Mu- 
hammad II al-Mahdi. c Muhammad's only claim to distinction 

1 "Chronicon Burgensi" in Espana sagrada, vol. xxiii, p. 308, 
1 Ibn-'Idhari, ed. E. Levi-Provencal, vol, in (Paris, 1930), pp. 3-4, 36-7; Maqqari, 
vol. i, pp. 276-7. 

8 Ibn 'Idhari, vol. iii, pp. 43-8, 6674; ibn-Khalddn, vol. iv, pp. 148-50; ibn-al- 
Athir, vol. viu, p. 499. 
4 Ibn-Khaldun, vol. iv, pp. 150-51; ibn-al-Abbar, &ultak t pp. 159-60. 
* Table showing genealogy of Umayyad caliphs in Cordova: 

1. 'Abd-al- Rahman III (912 [caliph 929]-$ 1) 



I 111 I 

2. Al-Hakam II ('Abd-al-Jabbar) (Sulayman) ('Abd-al-Malik) ('UbayduIIah) 

(al-Hakam) 



(Hisham) 



3. Hisham II 
(976-2009, 
j oi 0-13) 



Muhammad II 
(1009, 1010) 



(Muhammad} 



5. Sulayman 
(1009-10, 
1013-16) 



'Abd-al-Rahman V 
(1023) 



6. 'Abd-al- 
Rahman 

IV 
(1018) 



fAbd-al- 
Rafcman) 



9. Hisham 8. Muhanv 
III mad III 

(1027.31) (1023-5) 



CH, XXXVIH - * POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS „. v 53S 

^vas that he held the throne for only a few months, in which he 
found time to raze the Madlnah al-Zahirah of the 'Amirids 1 and 
have the severed heads of a number of leaders of the northern 
marches who refused to acknowledge him converted into flower- 
pots and placed on the banks of the river opposite his palace. 
His manufacture of wine in his palace won him the sobriquet 
nabbadh) wine-maker. 2 Three of the nine Umayyad caliphs in 
this period of anarchy held the throne more than once; one of 
them, Hisham II, was set up and pulled down twice, after which 
he disappeared in a mysterious way that has never been solved. 
An impostor bearing close resemblance to him was installed in 
Seville* 3 One poor wretch, 'Abd-al-Rahman V al-Mustazhir 
(1023), the best of the lot and whose vizir was the learned ibn- 
$azm, hid himself in the bathroom heater, whence he was 
dragged and butchered before the eyes of his successor, Muham- 
mad III al-Mustakfi, 4 who two years later was to meet as hard a 
fate. In 1025 as al-Mustakfi, "whose interest in life centred in 
sex and stomach", 8 sought flight in the guise of a singing girl 
wearing a veil, he fell victim, in an obscure village on the frontier, 
to poison administered by one of his officers* 6 A daughter of 
this caliph was the poetess Walladah, whose beauty and talent 
made her the chief centre of attraction in the court and won 
her undying fame. 

Before coming to its inglorious end the Umayyad caliphate 
was interrupted by another regime, the rjammudid, which 
claimed all caliphal privileges. The founder was one *Ali ibn- 
rjammud (1016-18), who traced his descent from his namesake 
the Prophet's son-in-law, but was himself half Berberized. *Ali 
had held the governorship of Ceuta and Tangier before pro- 
claiming himself caliph in Cordova. He had also conquered 
Malaga, where his eight descendants maintained themselves 
-from 1025 to 1057. 7 Two other rjEammudid pretenders to the 

1 Nuwayri, ed. Caspar Remiro, vol. i, p. 74, 

4 Ibival-Athlr, vol. viii, p. 500 * See below, p. 538. 

4 Ibn-'Idhari, vol. iii, pp. 13S-9; Nuwayri, vol. i, p. 78; ibn-al-Abbar, IfuUah t 
p. 164.; ibn-Bassam, cUJ>hakhtrak ft Ma basin Ahl aljaztrah, pt. x, vol. i (Cairo, 
*939), p. 39. 

'* Ibu-al-Atblr, vol. ix, p. 104, 

* Ibn^Idhriri, vol. Hi, p. 142; ibn-al-Athlr, vol. ix, p. 194; Marrakushi, p. 40; 
Nuwayri, vol. i, p. 84. 

1 Marrakushi, pp. 30*37; ibn-'Idhari, vol iii, pp, 113-17, 119-25; Maqqari, vol. 5, 
pp^2St-i; ibrvKhaldun, vol. iv, pp 152-5; ibn-a!-Attur, vol. ix, pp. 18& scq. The 
5&nsmudids were related to the Idrisids of Morocco. 



536 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY paktiv 

caliphate followed, exercising precarious power in Cordova 
until 1027. 1 

In this year Hisham III aI-Mu r tadd recaptured the throne 
for the Umayyads. But the fifty-four-year-old monarch was no 
match for the troublous situation. Tired of the endless changes 
in their government the Cordovans at last decided to take a 
radical step and abolish the caliphate altogether. Hisham was 
shut up with his family in a dismal vault attached to the great 
mosque. Here in total darkness and half frozen in his scanty 
attire the wretched sovereign, almost suffocating with the foul 
air, sat for hours trying to warm on his bosom his infant 
daughter, whom he dearly loved. In the meantime the vizirs 
were holding a public meeting which proclaimed the abolition 
of the caliphate for ever and the rule of a council of state under 
the leadership of one abu-al-r^azm ibn-Jahwar. Hisham met 
the epoch-making announcement by begging for a light and a 
morsel of bread for his starving child. 2 

1 Ibn *Idhan, vol. in, pp. 124*35 

(Hammud) 



X 'AU (ioi6-x8) 2. Al Qasim (1018-21, 1022-5) 

3 Yafcya (1021, 1025-7 j 
* Ibn 'Idhart, vol in, pp 150-52, Maqqan, vol i, p 2S6, ibn KhiMun, vol, iv, 
pp. 152^; ibn al-Athlr, vol ix, pp 19S 9 Marrakushi, p 41. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 
PETTY STATES: PALL OF GRANADA 



FROM the ruins of the Umayyad caliphate there emerged an 
apparently fortuitous conglomeration of petty states which 
spent themselves in fratricidal quarrels and, after falling in part 
a prey to two Moroccan Berber dynasties, succumbed one after 
the other to the rising Christian power of the north. In the 
first half of the eleventh century no less than twenty such 
short-lived states arose in as many towns or provinces under 
chieftains and kinglets called by the Arabs muluk aUtawaif 
(Sp. reyes de iaifas t party kings). 

In Cordova the Jahwarids headed a sort of republic which 
was in 1068 absorbed by the banu- f Abbad of Seville. 1 Hence- 
forth primacy among Moslem states lay with Seville, whose 
fortunes were always closely linked with Cordova's. Granada 
was the seat of a Zirid regime, which received its name from 
its Berber founder ibn-Zlri (1012-19) and was destroyed by the 
Moroccan Murabits in 1090. This was the only Spanish Moslem 
toTvn in which a Jew, the Vizir Ismail ibn-Naghzalah 2 (f 1055), 
ever exercised virtually supreme power. At Malaga and in 
neighbouring districts the I^ammudid dynasty, 8 whose founder 
and his first two successors ruled as caliphs over Cordova too, 
lasted until 1057. After passing through Zirid hands Malaga 
finally came within the orbit of Murabit power. 4 The thronelet 
of Toledo was occupied by the banu-dhu-al-Nun (1032 M>5), an 
ancient Berber family which had often been in rebellion, until 
destroyed by Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile. 6 In Saragossa 
the banu-Hud held the sovereignty from 1039 until overpowered 

* MftrraWhi, pp 50 51. 

f * NaghriUah, Heb Samuel "bcn-Nagdcla Ibn^Idhan, vol, in, pp 261,264. 
v * The noted geographer al Sharif al Idrxsi was a grandson of Idns II (1042-6, 
*o$3H), the last sa\e one of this line 

* iWldhan, Vol hi, pp 262-6, lbn Khaldun, vol iv f pp 160*61. 

1 * E Lcn^Provencal, Inscriptions arches d y Espagne (Lejden, 1931), pp 65-6 

* Vaqqan, vol. 1, p 28$, ibn-Khaldun, vol iv, p. i6x, ibn-'Idhan, vol m, pp 
W-Bi? jbn aJ-Athlr, vol ix, p. 203. 

537 



538 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY PART IV 

by the Christians in 1141. 1 Among these party kings the cultured 
house of the 'Abbadids in Seville was undoubtedly the most 
powerful. 2 

The The banu-'Abbad (1023-91) claimed descent from the ancient 

of Scvui? Lakhmid kings of al-rJLlrah. Their Spanish ancestor came as an 
officer in the Hims regiment of the Syrian army shortly after 
the conquest 3 and the dynasty started in the person of a shrewd 
qadi of Seville who used as his cat's-paw someone who closely 
resembled the vanished Hisham II. 4 In 1042 the qadi's son 
*Abbad succeeded his father as chamberlain to the pretended 
caliph, the pseudo- Hisham, but lost no time in throwing off the 
mask and openly reigning under the honorific title al-Mu f tadtd 5 
(he who seeks strength [from Allah]), thus putting an end to the 
farce perpetrated by his father. 
Al-^ Al-Mu'tadid was a poet and patron of letters who improvised 

Mutamid e ] e g ant ditties with his boon companions and enjoyed a harem 
of nearly eight hundred inmates. But his court was eclipsed by 
that of his son and successor al-Mu r tamid (he who relics [upon 
Allah], 1068-91), "the most munificent, the most popular and 
most powerful of all party kings". 6 Shortly after his accession 
al-Mu'tamid succeeded in destroying the banu-Jahwar regime 
and in uniting Cordova to his kingdom. Like many of his 
contemporaries, however, he was tributary to a Christian 
monarch, first to Garcia, King of Galicia, and then to his 
successor, Alfonso VL ? AUMu'tamid possessed a sensitive and 
poetical soul. Numerous are the anecdotes told of his life of 
luxury, his gay parties and his romantic adventures in dis- 
guise. He "whose court was the halting-place of sojourners, 
the rendezvous of poets, the direction toward which all hopes 
were turned and the haunt of men of excellence" 8 chose as vizir 

1 Ibn-'Idluri, vol m, pp 221-9, ibn-Khaldun, vol iv, pp 163-4; ibn al-Athlr, 
vol. ix, p 204. 

• For names and dates of Tulers in these minor d> nasties consult Lane-Poole, 
J9>*»ajft«, pp 23 6, de Zambaur, pp 53-7, Dozy, Afusulmans f ed Levi -Provencal, 
\ol m, pp 236 41 

8 Sec above, p 502 Seville was often referred to as Jftims, ibn-Jubayr, pp 25S 9 

4 Ibn-Khaldun, vol iv, p 156, ibn al Athir, vol ix, p 201-2; abn al Khafib, 
Iliatak, vol 11, p. 73 

5 After the 'Abbasid cihph of the same name, Maqqari, vol, i, p. 132. 

• Ibn-Khalhkan, vol li, p 4x2 Cf ibn al Kha^ib, Ihafah. vol u, p 77. 
1 Ibn-Khalhkan, vol n, p 414, ibn a!-Athir, vol x, p 92. 

• Jbn Khalhkan, vol ii, p 412. Cf the eulogy of tuVFath ibn-Khaqan, Qaltftd 
al»'fg)an (BuUq, 1283), pp. 4-5. 



a poet, ibn-'Ammar, 1 and as favourite wife a slave girl of talent 
^ and beauty; rtimad. While strolling one evening with ibn- 

'Ammar along the banks of the Guadalquivir, the monarch 
" observed a gentle breeze ruffling the face of the water and 
s improvised this hemistich, challenging his vizir to complete the 
Verse: 

4 * Behold the wind weaving the waves into mail; 

Ibn^Ammar hesitated. Meanwhile a young woman who hap- 
pened to be washing clothes near by instantly supplied the 
antiphony: 

Oh, were it but frozen— no kntght would it fatll 2 

That was the youthful Ttimad al-Rumaykiyah, the future queen, 
from whose first name her royal husband is said to have adapted 
" his own 3 and whose every whim and fancy he later tried to 
satisfy. Impressed on one occasion by the rare spectacle of 
snowflakes falling in Cordova, Ttimad implored al-Mu'tamid 
for a substitute, and forthwith he ordered the Sierra planted 
with almonds, whose white flowers bloom m the latter part of 
winter. Noticing on another dav some Bedouin dairy women 
carrying their jars and walking in the muddy streets with their 
skirts lifted up, she expressed the wish to imitate their per- 
formance; in no time the courtyard of the royal palace was 
converted into a pool filled with spices and perfumed essences, 
all moistened with rose-water and made into an aromatic 
quagmire ready for the delicate feet of rtimad and her pretty 
attendants. 4 

The last days of al-Mu'tamid were as miserable as his early 
days were gay. After a lull of several years in which the Christian 
monarchs of the north had occupied themselves with internal 
troubles, they were again bestirring themselves against their 
* Moslem neighbours. The kingdoms of Leon and Castile, united 
under" Ferdinand I and his son Alfonso VI, became especially 
dangerous. Alfonso added to his kingdom Galicia and Navarre, 
and as Moslem princes vied with the Christian in winning his 
favour he styled himself "the emperor" like his successor 

** i MartSkushi, pp. 77, 85-90. 

* * Dazft Scnptonirt Arabutn cct <fc Ahbadtdis, voL ti {Leyden, 1852), pp. 15X-2* 
vol m (Lerd&i, 1863), p. 225. 

* Iba-aMvha^b, J^Sfah, vol 11, p. 74. Her surname she acquired from her first 
master, Rumayi. * Dozy, Scrtpterum, vol. h, pp. 152-3; Maqqari, vol. i, p. 287, 



540 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY t»ARTiv 

Alfonso VII, who, in addition to that, claimed to be "king of the 
men of the tfro religions' 1 . Raids from the north now became 
regular and reached as far south as Cadiz, In the meantime 
Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, "My Cid the Challenger", had estab- 
lished himself with his Castilian followers in Valencia and 
began to harass the 'Abbadid domain. As a measure of protection 
against his suzerain Alfonso VI and the Cid, al-Mu'tamid at 
this time committed the fatal error of inviting as an ally from 
Morocco the powerful leader of the Murabits, Yusuf ibn- 
Tashfim 1 To his critics who foresaw the danger and warned him 
of the impossibility of "sheathing two swords in one scabbard", 
al-Mu*tamid replied that he would rather be a camel-driver in 
Africa than a swineherd in Castile. 2 These Berber Murabits, in 
whose veins some negro blood flowed, were now in power from 
Algiers to Senegal. 

Yusuf accepted the invitation. He marched unopposed through 
southern Spain, met Alfonso VI at al-Zallaqah, 3 near Badajoz, 
and with about twenty thousand men inflicted on him, October 
23, 1086, a humiliating defeat. The Christian monarch and but 
three hundred of his horse barely escaped with their lives, leaving 
enough dead to form a tower of heads which was used as a 
minaret by the rejoicing Moslems. 4 The Berber chief shipped 
some forty thousand heads across the straits as a trophy* A 
wave of enthusiasm spread over Moslem Spain, and the proud 
ibn-Tashfm, who could not understand the flowery eulogies of 
the Sevillan poets, returned to Africa in accordance with his 
previous promise. Not long afterwards, however, the Murabit 
chief, who with his Saharan hordes had tasted enough of the 
delicacies of civilized Spain to whet their appetites for more and 
render the barrenness of the desert more distasteful than ever 
before, came back, but this time as a conqueror rather than ally. 
In November 1090 he entered Granada; in the following year 
he took Seville and other leading towns. The whole of Moslem 
Spain was annexed with the exceptionof Toledo, which remained 
in Christian hands, and Saragossa, where the banu-Hud were 

* For the letter of invitation see Maqqari, vol. ii, p. 674. 

* Maqqari, vol. ii, p. 678; Dory, Stnptorum, vol. ii, p. 8; Koran 2 : x68. 

* Sacralias, modern Sagrajas, See Marraltushi, pp. 93-4; ibn-Khaldun, vol. vi, 
pp. 186-7; tr. de Slane, Btrbbres^ vol. ii, pp. 78-Q; ibn-Khallikan, vol ii, p. 415? 
ibn-al-Athir, vol. x, pp. loi-2; ibn-abi-Zar\ Rowd cl Qirf&s, vol. i, pp. 93 seg. 

* Ibn-aMUiaflb, ahfltilal ahMcnvshyah ji Dktkr al-Akhbar el~Marrakush\yak 
(Tunis, 1329), p. 43» estimates the number of Christian victims at 300,000. 



CH- XXXIX "PETTY STATES: FALL OF GRANADA 541 

allowed to subsist. Al-Mu^tamid was sent to Morocco, where he 
lived in chains and utter destitution, sharing his exile with 
I'timad and his daughters, who spent their time spinning to earn 
a living* 1 One day the fallen monarch noticed a procession going 
to the mosque to pray for rain and the old poet in him, still alive, 
improvised these pathetic lines: 

And forth they went imploring God for rain; 
"My tears," I said, "could serve you for a flood." 
"In truth/' they cried, "your tears might well contain 
Sufficiency, but they are dyed with blood," s 

In 1095 this last of the 'Abbadids died in Aghrnat. The period of 
Berber hegemony in Spain had begun. 

The Murabits (Almoravides) were originally a religious 
military brotherhood established in the middle of the eleventh 
century by a pious Moslem in a nbdt (whence Murabit), 3 
fortified monastery, on an island in the lower Senegal. The first 
recruits were mainly from the Lamtunah, a branch of the 
Sanhajah tribe, whose members lived as nomads in the vast 
wastes of the Sahara and, as their descendants the Tawariq 
(Touaregs) of ^outh Algeria still do to the present day, wore veils 
covering the face below the eyes. This strange custom* among 
their men gave rise to the other name Mulatkthamiin (veil- 
wearers), sometimes given to the Murabits. Starting with about 
a thousand warrior "monks", the Murabits forced one tribe after 
another, including some negro tribes, to accept Islam and in a 
few years established themselves as masters of all north-western 
Africa and finally of Spain. 5 Their story serves as another 
illustration in Islam of what can be produced by the marriage of 
the sword to religion. 6 

Yusuf ibn-Tashfin (reigned 1061-1106), one of the builders 
of the Murabit empire, founded in 1062 the city of Marrakush 
fMorocco, Marrakesb), which became his and his successors' 
capital, 7 In Spain Seville, instead of Cordova, functioned as a 

1 Ibn-Khiflikan, vol. 11, p. 419, lbn-Kh "iqan, p 25, lbn aHChaJJb, I/idfaA, vol. li, 
p 83, Dozv, Scrtptorum, vol 1, pp 63-4, vol. 11, p 15L 

* Doxy i Strtpt0rum t vol 1, p 3S3. 

* Jr. marcboui devotee, is a corruption of this word. 

* Consult iba*al-Athtr, vol. he. pp 428 9, ibn-aMCbatfb, ffu!al t p 10 

4 * Thtt Berber tribe of Dallm in Morocco claims descent from nl- Murabits. 

* Ibn-abi Zar\ vol. i, pp. 75-87; ibn-Kbaldim, vol. vi, pp. rSi-2, ibn*al-Athir, 
Trot ix, pp. 42S-7. 

Iba abi Zar\ vol. i, pp. 88 9, ibn*Khaldun, vol. vi, p. 184= de Slanc, vol ii, p 73. 



542 



THE ARABS IN EUROPE; SPAIN AND SICILY part iv 



subsidiary capital. The Murabit sovereigns reserved for them- 
selves all temporal power and bore the title amir al-Muslimln, 1 
but in matters spiritual acknowledged the supreme authority of 
the 'Abbasid caliph in Baghdad, 2 an authority which had been 
discarded at the advent of the Umayyad regime. For more than 
half a century the Murabit power was supreme in north-western 
Africa and southern Spain. For the first time in history a Berber 
people was playing a leading role on the world's stage. 
Coinage The later Murabit dinar bore the title a?mr al-Mush'min on 
the obverse, with a reference to the 'Abbasid caliph preceded by 
the title imam on the reverse. King Alfonso VIII of Leon and 
Castile (il 58-1214) imitated it, retaining its Arabic inscription 
but adapting its legend to the Christian formulas. On it he 
appeared as amir al-Qatulaqm (the commander of the Catholics) 
and the pope in Rome as the imd?n al-lnah al~Masihiyah (the 
leader of the Christian Church). The coin was issued "in the 
name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, one only God n 
in place of the corresponding Moslem formula, and "whosoever 
believeth and is baptized shall be saved" stood in place of the 
denunciation of those who refused to accept Islam. 
Pereecu- Under the Murabits, fresh converts to Islam and heirs to a 
aoa barbarian legacy not yet dead, an outburst of religious fervour 
on the part of theological zealots resulted at the beginning of 
the twelfth century in suffering for many Christians, Jews and 
even liberal Moslems. Under the devout f Ali (1106-43), Yusufs 
son and successor, al-Ghazzali's works were put on the blacks 
list or committed to the flames in Spain and al-Maghrib, 3 because 
of remarks considered derogatory to theologians (Jaqihs), in- 
cluding those of the Malikite school of jurisprudence favoured 
by the Murabits. Al-Ghazzali, however, had headed the list of 
Eastern divines who expressed unreservedly their approval of 
the Andalusian faqilts' legal opinion that Yusuf ibn-Tashfm 
was absolved from any pledges he had made to the party kings 
of Moslem Spain and that it was not only his right but his duty 
to dethrone them. 4 At Lucena, termed by al-Idrisi 6 a Jewish 
city, the inhabitants, who were the wealthiest of their co- 
religionists in the Moslem world, were called upon by the 

1 Ibn*abi-Zar% vol. i, pp 88, 96 ibn-Khaldun, vol. vi, p 18S. 

1 Marralvushi, p 64 * Jbtd p. 123; see vol. i, pp. 28-38. 

* Jbn Khaldun, vol. vi, p. 187. 

* §tfal al-Maghrib,^ Dozy and de Gocje (Lcydcn, 1S66), p. 205. 



CH. sxxix, PETTY STATEo FALL OF GRANADA , 543 

* r 
founder of the Murabit power in Spain to meet Out of their 

pockets the deficit in the public treasury. Under the Umayyads 

the legal status of the Spanish Jews had greatly improved over 

that of Visigothic days and their number had increased. During 

the caliphate of f Abd-al~Rahman III and his son al-Hakam, 

under the influence of whose treasurer I^asday ben-Shaprut 

many Jews came from the East, Cordova became the centre of 

a talmudic school whose foundation marks the beginning of 

the flowering of Andalusian Jewish culture. 1 The Spanish Jews 

used the language and dress of the Arabs and followed the same 

manners. 

The Mozarabs, that element in the population of Spain 
which had assimilated itself in language and ways of living to 
the conquering Moslems but retained its Christian faith, had 
assumed by this time large proportions and therefore became 
the special object of restrictions. In the large cities these Arabic- 
ized Christians lived in quarters of their own, kept under the 
Umayyads their special magistrates 2 and wore no distinctive 
clothes. Usually they bore double names: one Arabic and 
familiar, the other Latin or Spanish and more formal. They 
even practised circumcision and kept harems. Most of the 
Mozarabs were bilingual, their native tongue being the Romance 
patois derived from Low Latin and destined to become Spanish. 
In such cities as Toledo they continued in the uscj of Arabic 
as the written language of law and business for two centuries 
after the Christian conquest by Alfonso VI in to85« 3 This 
Alfonso, like several of his successors, stamped his coins with 
Arabic characters. One of the early kings of Aragon, Peter I 
(f U04), could write only in Arabic script. Even when writing 
Latin the Mozarabs used Arabic letters. Not long after the 
-Moslem conquest parts of the Bible were apparently trans- 
lated into Arabic, 4 and in 946 Isaak Velasquez of Cordova 
translated Luke and presumably the other three Gospels from 
Latin. 5 

1 Ibn'abMJ^aybi'ah, vol. 11, p. 50. 

* The two chief officials were called in Arabic qumis (L. comes, Bp conde) and 
q&dt aLNaSara (the judge of the Christians) 

5 For some of their writings consult Angel Gonzalez Palencia, Let Afozarahes de 
Tokdo en hs stglts XII > XII I ^ 4 \oU. (Madrid, 1926-30). 

* See above, p. 516, 

4 Georg Graf, Dtc Chrtsthch-arabische Lzteralur bis zur JrHnktschen Zat 
(FVeiburg in Brcisgau, 1905), p, 27. 



544 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partiv 



On a fatwa (religious opinion) from his theologians Yusuf 
in 1099 ordered a beautiful church, built in the Visigothic age 
and now possessed by the Mozarabs of Granada, to be levelled 
to the ground. These same Granadans in 1126 were put to the 
sword or banished to Morocco because they had entered into 
communication with a Christian sovereign of the north. Eleven 
years later a second expulsion of Mozarabs left few of them in 
Spain. 

Racially the line of demarcation between Mozarabs and 
Moslems in the urban communities was at this time hard to 
draw. From the beginning, as we have noted before, the real 
Arabians in the army of conquest and among the colonists were 
comparatively few, limited to those in command and in high 
office. The number of women accompanying the army and first 
immigrants was necessarily small. Disease and fighting deci- 
mated the early conquerors and settlers. After the fourth genera- 
tion the Arabian blood must have become greatly diluted by 
intermarriage with native women. Concubines, slaves and 
prisoners of war helped the process of amalgamation, as in other 
conquered lands* The researches of Ribera 1 have shown that 
even the Moslems of Spain, the so-called Moors, were over- 
whelmingly of Spanish blood. In the opinion of this modern 
Spanish scholar the veins of Hisham II, the third Umayyad 
caliph, could not have contained more than a thousandth part 
of Arabian blood. 

My Cid It was in the early Murabit period that the most colourful of 
„ Mozarabs and at the same time most celebrated of the heroes 

Challenger i«. 

of Spanish chivalry, Rodngo Diaz de Bivar, better known as the 
Cid, 2 carried on his military exploits. A descendant of a noble 
Castilian family, Rodrigo entered first the service of Alfonso 
VI but was later (1081) banished by him from the Castilian 
dominions. He then entered upon a knightly career espousing 
now the cause of this faction, now that of another and fighting 
Moslems or co-religionists as the occasion arose. In his behaviour 
he was almost as much Moslem as Christian. While in the 
service of the Hudid dynasty at Saragossa, Rodrigo covered 
himself with glory and won from his Moslem soldiers the title 

1 Jul an Ribera y Terrago, JDisertaciones y cpuscufos (Madrid, 1928), vol. i, 
pp. 12-35, 109-12 
4 Trum Ar. scyytd* colloquial sid, lord. 



CH/XXX1X ^ PETTY STATES: FALL OF GRANADA 54S 

ei Cid Campeador. 1 The crowning achievement of My Cid the 
4 Challenger was his occupation in 1094 of Valencia, which he 
held In defiance of the Murabit attacks until his death in 1099, 
In romance the Cid has lived as the national hero of Spain, the 
exemplar of its chivalry and its champion against the infidel. 
'Spanish ballads surrounded his name with a saintly aureole of 
virtue; Philip ll (f 1 598) even presented it to the pope for canon- 
ization. The epic Cantar de vtio Ctd woven around the Cid's 
name in the middle of the twelfth century is one of the grandest 
<■ and oldest of Spanish poems, one that deeply influenced Spanish 
thought throughout subsequent ages and contributed powerfully 
to the establishment of the native language and the consolida- 
1 tion of the national character. 

The Murabit dynasty in Spain (1O90-1147), 2 as was to be < 
^expected, was short-lived. It fulfilled the fated cycle of Asiatic 5 
and African monarchies with rapidity: a generation of efficient 
"militarism followed by sloth and corruption leading to disin- 
tegration and fall. Its rough Berbers, raised on the privations of 
desert life and suddenly transported to the luxurious regions of 
, Morocco and Andalusia, soon succumbed to the vices of civiliza- 
1 tion and became enervated, even effeminate. They entered Spain 
, at a time when intellectual pleasures among the Arabs had long 
since replaced the love of war and thirst for conquest. This gave 
the African conquerors their opportunity for settling in the land 
and at the same time proved their undoing, since it gave them 
contact with a refined civilization for the assimilation of which 
they were in nowise prepared. In turn they fell an easy prey to 
their more vigorous kinsmen the Muwahhids, Throughout the 
twelfth century and well into the first half of the thirteenth Spain 

* Sp. equivalent of Ar. mubariz, chunjnon See above, pp 88, 173. In Ar 
Campeador was rendered al-KanbTtur, lbn Bassam, "al Dhakhlrah", in Dozy, 
KtcktrchtSi vol 11 1 pp Vj ix; at Qanbftur, m lbnVIdhan, \ol. m, pp 305-6 (supple- 
ment). Cf> Magqan, vol. », p 754. 

* (Tashfin) 
I 

1. Yusuf (1090- 1 106) 

2. *AU (1106-43) 



- 3- Tashfin (1143-6) 

4 Ibrahim (U46) 5. Jsfcaq {l I46-7) 



546 THE AKABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY past it 

was under the successive rule of these two Berber dynasties, whose 
seat was Morocco, 
The As in the case of the Murabit, the Muwahhid dynasty had its 

hJdjT**" inception in a politico-religious movement founded by a Berber, 
This was Muhammad ibn-Tumart (ta. loyZ-ca. 1130) of the 
Masmudah tribe. 1 Muhammad assumed the symbolic title of si- 
Mahdi 2 and proclaimed himself the prophet sent to restore 
Islam to its pure and original orthodoxy. He preached among 
his own and other v,ild tribes of the Moroccan Atlas the doctrine 
of tawhid, the unity of God and the spiritual conception of 
Him, as a protest against the excessive anthropomorphism then 
prevalent in Islam. Accordingly his followers were called ai- 
Muwahhidiin. 3 Small, ugly and misshapen, this son of a mosque 
lamplighter lived the hfe of an ascetic, and opposed music, 
drinking and other manifestations of laxity. When a young man, 
his zeal led him to assault in the streets of Fas (Fez) a sister of 
the reigning Murabit *AH ibn-Yusuf because she went un- 
veiled * 

Fearer In i i$o ibn-Tumart was succeeded by his friend and general 
Mu^Ufrd *Abd-aI-Mu*inin ibn-'Ali, son of a potter of the Zanatah tribe, 
dymrsty who became the caliph-founder of the Muwahhid dynasty, the 
greatest Morocco ever knew, and of an empire second to none 
in the annals of Africa. In accordance with the doctrine that 
theirs was the only community of true believers, these unitarian 
Moslems now carried fire and sword throughout Morocco and 
adjacent lands. In 1144-1146 'Abd-al-Mu'min annihilated the 
Murabit army near Tihmsan (Tlemcen), which he captured to- 
gether with Fas, Ceuta, Tangier and Aghrnat, and after an 
eleven-month siege ot Marrakush m 1 146-1 147 he put an end to 
the Murabit dynasty * The last of the Murabit line, a boy named 
Ishaq lbn-'Ali, grandson of the founder of the empire, was 
executed by the Muwahhid caliph (emir al-mumimii) in spite 
of his childish tears. 3 Marrakesh now became the Muwahhid 
capital. In 1145 r Abd-al-Mtt'min had dispatched into Spain, 

1 Ibn Khaldun, vol. m, p 225, ibr al-Ailvr, vol x. p. 400. Cf ManSkusbt, 
p. 12S, ibn abi Zar\ to). \. p no, ibn KhallAan, vol u, p. 426 

* Ibn a! Khatib, Jfufol, p. ?S; JCUSb Muhcrrmcd tbn~Tvnart t cd. I. Goldzfcer 
(Alters, 1903), pp 2 3. 8 The unitarians, corrupted into Sp AUnohades. 

4 Ibn khaldun, vol vi, p, 22S Cf. tbn-Khalhkan, vol. li, p 43 J* 

5 Marr&kusfci, pp. 145-6, ibn*KhaIlikan 4 vol 1, p. 557; ibn abx-Dlnar, al-Mu*na 
f. Akhhar Ifriqnck xta-Tu*tis (Tunis, 12S6), p, 120. 

* Ibn al*Athsr, vol. x, pp. 412-13. 



548 



THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partiv 



where political corruption, brigandage and dissatisfaction were 
rife r an army which in the course of five years reduced the whole 
Moslem part of the peninsula. The Balearic Isles, attached to the 
Umayyad amirate since 903, alone remained for a few more 
years in the hands of the last representatives of the Murabits. 

Master of Morocco and Spain, 'Abd-al-Mu'min pushed his 
conquests in 1152 to Algeria, in 1 158 to Tunisia and in 1160 to 
Tripoli. Thus for the first time in Moslem history the whole 
coast from the Atlantic to the frontier of Egypt became united 
with Andalusia as an independent empire. The Murabit empire, 
on the other hand, had included, besides Spain, only Morocco 
and part of Algeria. From every pulpit in this immense new 
empire Friday prayers were read in the name of the Mahdi or 
his caliph instead of in that of the *Abbasid caliph as hereto- 
fore. 1 

au After a long and glorious reign f Abd-al-Mu'min died in 

Mmotfr 1 163. Among the greatest and best known of his successors was 
his grandson abu-Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur (n 84-99), who, like 
many other Berber rulers, was the son of a Christian slave. 2 It 
was to al-Mansur's court that Salah-ai-Dln (Saladin) sent with 
valuable presents an embassy headed by a nephew of Usamah 
ibn-Munqidh. Salah-al-Din, who recognized the f Abbasid caliph, 
accredited the embassy to amtr al-Mushmv:, instead oiamtr al~ 
mtttnimn, which at first made al-Mansur hesitate to act. Later, 
however, he is said to have dispatched 180 vessels to assist the 
Moslems against the Crusaders. 3 

The existing architectural monuments of al-Mansur are 
among the most remarkable in either Morocco or Spain. In 
Seville, to which the Muwahhids transferred their capital in 
1 1 70/ his accession was marked by the erection of the tower, 
now known as the Giralda, in connection with the great mosque. 
This mosque, begun in 1172 and completed in 1195, is now 
superseded by the cathedral. In Morocco he built Rib at al-Fath, 
modelled on Alexandria, 5 and in Marrakesh he built a hospital" 
which his contemporary al-Marrakushi 6 thought had no equal 
in the world. 7 

1 For a Muwafthid khutbak see Marrakushi, pp 250-51. 

* Marrakushi, p. 189, ibn»abi-Zar*, vol. i, p 142 ; lbn-abi -Dinar, pp 1 16-17. 

* Ibn-Khallik&n, vol 111, p. 381; ibn-Khaldun, \ol vi, p 246 

* Maqqan, vol. it, p 693. * Ibn-Khalhkan, vol. p. 379. • P. 209. 

* For his other buildings see ibn-abi-Zar*, vol. i, pp 143, 151*2 



CH.XXXIX ' ^PETTY STATES: FALL OF GRANADA 549 

The chief anxiety of the Muwahhid caliphs in Spain was the 
prosecution of the holy war, but they were not particularly 
successful. The disastrous defeat at Las Navas de Tolosa in 
J2I2 resulted in their expulsion from the peninsula. This battle, 
called by the Arabs that of al-'Uqab (hill), was fought about 
seventy miles east of Cordova. The Christian army, in which 
Aragon was represented by its king, Navarre by its king and 
Portugal by a contingent of Templars and other knights, was 
led by Alfonso VIII of Castile, whose own forces included 
French Crusaders. The Caliph Muhammad al-Nasir (1199- 
1214), son of al-Mansur, led the Arab troops, of which only one 
thousand out of "600,000" escaped. 1 AI-Nasir fled to Marrakush, 
where he died two years later. The overthrow of the Muwahhid 
regime in Spain was complete. AH Moslem Spain lay at the feet 
of the conquerors. Gradually it was parcelled out among the 
ever-encroaching Christian sovereigns and local Moslem dynasts. 
Among the latter the Nasrids of Granada formed the most con- 
spicuous group and proved the last representative of Moslem 
authority in the peninsula. 

In Morocco al-Nasir's successors, nine in number and 
all descendants of 'Abd-al-Mu'min, 2 lasted until their capital 
Marrakesh was captured in 1269 by the semi-nomadic Berber 
tribe of banu-Marln, a branch of the Zanatah. 3 
- The founder of the Nasrid dynasty (1232-1492), which traces 1 
its descent to the eminent Khazraj tribe of al-Madmah, was 1 
Muhammad ibn-Yusuf ibn-Nasr, commonly known as ibn-al- 
Ahmar. Hence the other name of the family, banu-al-Ahmar. 
Ibn-Khaldun, 4 who resided for a time at Granada and was 
attached to the court of one of ibn-al-Ahmar's successors, gives 
us a detailed account of the career of Muhammad. After the 
collapse of the Muwahhid regime, as the Castilians were setting 
one Moslem chieftain against another and destroying each in 
turn, Muhammad entered into alliance with the Christians and 
contrived to carve for himself a state around Granada which to 

1 Maqqari, vol. ii, p. 696. Cf. Marrakusm, p. 236, ibn-abi-Zar*, voL i, p. 159. 
A contemporary English chronicler claims that al-Nasir received in 1213 from King 
John, of Magna Charta fame and brother of Cccur de Lion, an embassy offering to 
hold England under tribute to him and to exchange the Christian faith for Islam. 
< 1 For lists consult al-Zarkashi ? - Tartkk al*Daxvtetaytt al-Muwatiktdiyak ttt-aJ* 
^tfaMvak (Tunis, 1289); Lanc-Poolr. Dynasties, pp. 47-8; dc Zambaur, pp. 73, 74. 

* 11 n ali-Zar*, vol. i, pp. 174-5, 
^ * Vol. ir, pp 170-72. See also ibn-al-KhnfU), Lamhtaky pp» sea* 



SSo THE ARABS tN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partiv 

a limited extent revived and continued the glories of Seville and 
for the next two and a half centuries acted as the champion of 
Islam in its defensive struggle against the rising power of 
Christianity. 

Muhammad (1232-73) assumed the title of al-Ghalib (the 
overcomer) and chose Granada for his seat of government. He 
as well as his successors paid homage and tribute to the Castilian 
crown. By the Arabs Granada (Gharnatah), than which no city 
in Andalusia was more favoured in site and climate, 1 was likened 
to Damascus, and in it many Syrians and Jews had settled. 2 Its 
plain {marj) i the Vega, fed by abundant streams, presented a 
rare spectacle of perpetual verdure and beauty, and corresponded 
to the Ghutah of Damascus. 3 At the close of the Nasrid period 
it housed about half a million within its walls. Lisan-al-Din 
ibn-al-Khatlb (f 1374), the hero of al-Maqqari, vizir at the 
Nasrid court and literary historian of the dynasty, has left us a 
number of monographs on the sovereigns and savants of Granada 
which supply us with interesting details about the capital. 
Aihambr* On a hilly terrace on the south-east border of this beautiful 
city al-Gha!ib built on the remains of an earlier Umayyad 
citadel his world-renowned castle called al-rj[amra* (Sp. Al* 
hambra), the red one, from the red stucco used in its construction 
and not from his personal nickname as formerly supposed. 
Enlarged and further embellished by three of his successors, the 
Alhambra became one of the architectural monuments of Spain. 
Standing sentinel over the surrounding plain, hke the Acropolis 
of Athens, this citadel-palace, with its superb decorations and 
arabesque mouldings, still excites universal admiration. In it the 
Nasnds maintained a court which revived for a time the glory 
of Moslem Spain in Umayyad and 'Abbadid days. Their patron- 
age of art and learning attracted many scholars, especially 
from North Africa. Their encouragement of commerce, notably 
the silk trade with Italy, rendered Granada the wealthiest city of 
Spain. Under them the capital became an asylum for Moslems 
fleeing from Christian attacks as well as heir to Cordova as 
home of art and science. But these were the last rays of the setting 
s>un of Spanish Islam. 

1 Cf. ibn-al-Kha|ib, I^ak % vol i, p. 13 

* Maqqan, vol i, pp. 109, 721. Cf ibn-Jubiyr, pp 16-17. See above, p. 502. 

* Jbn-aKKhajjb, Lamhah t p. 13; see abo\e, p. 231. 



CH. XXXIX PETTY STATES: FALL OF GRANADA 



The period of Christian reconquest (reconguista) started as 
early as thfc v fall of the Umayyad caliphate in the eleventh 
century. In fact, Spanish historians consider the battle of 
Covadonga in 718, in which the Asturian chieftain Pelayo 
checked Moslem advance, as marking the actual beginning of 
reconquest. Had the Moslems in the eighth century destroyed 
the last vestiges of Christian power in the mountainous north, the 
subsequent story of Spain might have been entirely different. 
Impeded at first by constant friction among the Christian chiefs 
6f the north, the process of reclamation was greatly accelerated 
by the final union of Castile and Leon in 1230. By the middle 
of the thirteenth century the reconquest, with the exception of 
Granada, was practically completed. Toledo fell in 1085; Cor- 
dova followed in 1236 and Seville in 1248. 

After the middle of the thirteenth century two major processes 
were in operation: the Christianizing of Spain and its unification. 
Christianizing the country was different from reconquering and 
unifying it. The only part of the peninsula where Islam had 
struck root was that where the earlier Semitic, Carthaginian, 
civilization had once flourished. The same was true of Sicily, a 
fact not without significance. In general the line of cleavage 
between Islam and Christianity coincided with the ancient line 
between the Punic and Occidental civilizations. By the thirteenth 
century many Moslems throughout the land had become subject 
to the Christians either by conquest or treaty, but had otherwise 
preserved their laws and religion. Such Moslems were designated 
Mudejars. 1 Many of the Mudejars were now forgetting their 
Arabic," adopting exclusively the Romance tongue and becoming 
more or less assimilated to the Christians. 

Progress toward the final unification of Spain was slow but 
sure. At this time the Christian territory was made up of but two 
kingdoms, Castile and Aragon. The marriage in 1 469 of Ferdinand 
of Aragon to Isabella of Castile united permanently the crowns 
♦jrf these two kingdoms. This union struck the note of doom for 
Moslem power in Spain, The Nasrid sultans, as they were called, 3 
were by no means able to cope with the increasing danger. The 
last of them were involved in dynastic troubles which rendered 

*Ifrom Ar* mudajjan, one allowed (by the Christian conquerors) to remain 
where he is on condition that he pays tribute. 
* Ibn-Khaldun, vol, iv, p. 172. 



>H xxxrx •> ?ETTY STATES: FALL OF GRANADA <53 

their position still more precarious. Of the twenty-one sultans 1 
whdruledfrom 1232 to 1492. six ruled twice and one, Muhammad 
VIII al-Mutamassik, ruled thrice (1417-27, 1429-32, 1432-44), 
giving an average of about nine years for each of the twenty- 
eight reigns* Final ruin was hastened by the recklessness of the 

^nineteenth sultjan, *Ali abu-al-Hasan (Sp. Alboacen, 1461-82, 
1485—5), who not only refused to pay the customary tribute 
hut commenced hostilities by attacking Castilian territory. In 
reprisal Ferdinand in 1482 surprised and took ai-tlammah, 3 
which stood at the foot of the Sierra de Alhama and guarded 
the south-western entrance into the Granadan domain. At this 
juncture a son of abu-al-Hasan, Muhammad abu- f Abdullah, 
instigated by his mother, Fatimah, 5 who was jealous of a Spanish 4 
Christian concubine to whose children the royal husband was 
devoted, raised the banner of rebellion against his father. 
Supported by the garrison, the rebel son seized the Alhambra 
in 1482^ and made himself master of Granada. In the following 
4 year this eleventh Muhammad of the dynasty, whose surname 
abu-*Abdullah was corrupted into the Spanish Boabdil, had 
the temerity to attack the Castilian town of Lucena, where he 
was 6eaten and taken captive. Abu-al-I^asan then reinstated 
himself on the Granadan throne and ruled until 1485, when he 

Abdicated in favour of his more able brother Muhammad XII, 
nicknamed al-Zaghall (valiant), governor of Malaga* 6 In their 

^risoner~abu- , Abdullah, Ferdinand and Isabella saw a perfect 
tool for effecting the ultimate destruction of the ill-fated Moslem 
kingdom. Supplied with Castilian men and money, abu- 
'Abdullah: occupied in i486 part of his uncles capital and 
once more plunged the unlucky Granada, which presented the 
spectacle of Tiaving two sultans at the same time, in a destructive 

^civi] waiyThe legend relating to the destruction of the patriotic 

< * 1 For lists consult Lane-Poole, Dynasties, pp. 28-9; Zambaur, pp. 58-9. 

C 1 Ar. for"hotspring* , , , whenceSp. Alhama Al-H&mmahm Maqqari, vol »,p.80l. 

' ^.Kot*A*Jsha]i; L. S. de Lucena in al-Andalus % vol. xu (*947), pp« 359 scq* 

-* JRiipttyak in Maqqari, vol* ij, p 803. 

? ? Genealogical tabic of the last Nasrids' 
v - K s l t$. 5a*d al-Musta'in (i44$-&\ HS3~6*) 



t i9.-*sAU abu<uM?asan (1461-82, 1483-5) 20. Muhammad XII al-Zaghall 

SI. Muhammad XI abu- l Abdullah (1482-3, 1486-92) 



554 



THE ARABS IK EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY pastiy 



noble family of banu-Sarraj (Abencerrage) by abu^Abdullah, " 
at Alhambra, belongs to this period in the mythical history of 
the last days of Granada. 

In the meantime the Castilian army was advancing. One town 
after another fell before it Malaga was reduced in the following 
year and many of its people were sold into slavery. The circle 
was being narrowed around the doomed capital. Al-Zaghall 
made a few unsuccessful stands against the army of Ferdinand, 
but abu-'AbduIlah acted as its ally. In his despair ai-Zaghall 
made a final but fruitless appeal to the Moslem sovereigns of 
Africa, just then busy fighting among themselves. At last he 
surrendered and retired into Tilimsan, 1 where he passed the 
remainder of his days in misery and destitution, wearing, we are 
told, on his mendicant rags, a badge proclaiming, "This is the 
hapless king of Andalusia", Only the city of Granada now 
remained in Moslem hands. 

No sooner was al-Zaghall thus disposed of than abu-* Abdullah 
was requested (1490) by his patrons to surrender the city. Under 
the inspiration of a valiant leader the pusillanimous abu- 
1 Abdullah refused to comply. In the spring of the following year 
Ferdinand with an army of 10,000 horse again entered the 
plain of Granada. As in the preceding year he destroyed the 
crops and orchards and drew the cordon tighter round the last 
stronghold of Islam in Spain. The siege was pressed into a 
blockade intended to starve the city into surrender. 

When winter advanced with its extreme cold and heavy snow all 
access from outside was barred, food became scarce, prices soared 
and misery prevailed. In the meantime the enemy had seized ever)' 
patch of ground outside the city walls and made it impossible for the 
besieged to plant or gather any crops. Conditions moved from bad to 
worse . . . until by the month of Safar [December 1491] the privations 
of the people had reached their extreme. 2 

Finally the garrison agreed to surrender, if not relieved within 
a period of two months, on the following terms: The sultan with 
all his officers and people would take the oath of obedience to 
the Castilian sovereigns; abu- r AbdulIah would receive an estate 
in al-Basharut; 3 the Moslems would be left secure in person 



1 Mnqqan, \oK u, p 810. 5 ibid p. Sit. 

* Sp Alpujams The term, meaning "pastures", included the mountainous 
foreland south of the Sierra Nevada as far as the Mediterranean. 



Ci^xxxix , PETTY STATES: PALL OF GRANADA 555 

under their laws and free in the exercise of their religion. 1 The 
period of grace having expired without any sign of relief from 
tHe. Turks or Africans, the Castilians entered Granada on 
January 2, 1492, and "the cross supplanted the crescent" on its 
towers. 3 The sultan with his queen, richly dressed, left his red 
fortress and departed in the midst of a gorgeous retinue, never 
to return. As he rode away he turned to take a last look at his 
capital, sighed and burst into tears. His mother, hitherto his 
evil genius, allegedly turned upon him with the words, "Thou 
dbfct well to weep like a woman for what thou couldst not defend 
like a man". The rocky height whence he took his sad farewell 
look is still" known by the name El Ultimo Suspiro del Moro, the 
last sigh of the Moor. 

Abu-*Abdullah made his home first on his allotted estate, 
but later retired to Fas, where he died in 1533-4 and where his 
descendants in the year in which al-Maqqari 3 was compiling 
his history (1627-8) were still objects of charity, "counted among 
the beggars". 

, Their Catholic Majesties Ferdinand and Isabella failed to ? 
abide by the terms of the capitulation. Under the leadership of [ 
the queen's confessor Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros, 4 a cam- 
paign of forced conversion was inaugurated in 1499- The 
cardinal at first tried to withdraw from circulation Arabic books 
dealing with Islam by burning them. Granada was the scene 
of a bonfire of Arabic manuscripts. The Inquisition was then 
instituted and kept busy. All Moslems who remained in the 
country after the capture of Granada were now called Moris cos, 5 
a term applied originally to Spaniards converted into Islam. 
The Moslem Spaniards spoke a Romance dialect but employed 

«, 1 Cf. AhhhSr aVAp-filnqiff Dawlat lani-tfarr, cd. M. J. Muller (Munich, 
1^3). p. 49. 

$ Legend makes Alhambra in that same >ear the scene of Chnstopher Columbus* 
appeal to Queen Isabella for a subsidy for his maritime adventure, the greatest in 
'' history, which resulted in the discovery of America, 
n 9 Vol. ii, pp. 814-15. 

* His greatest service was the printing (1502-17) of the Complutenstan Polyglot, 
the first edition of the Bible in the original text with translation. 

* Sp* for "little Moors**. The Romans called Western Africa Mauretania and its 
inhabitants Mauri (presumably of Phoenician origin meaning "western whence 
$p. Mirror Eng. Moor, The Berbers, therefore, w ere the Moors proper, but the term 
was conventionally applied to all Moslems of Spam and north-western Afnca. The 
half-million Moslems of the Philippines are still known by the name Moros. given 
them by the Spaniards on the discovery of the islands by Magellan in 1521. 



556 



THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SfCILY paktiv 



the Arabic script, 1 Many, if not most, Moriscos were of course 
of Spanish descent but all were now "reminded" that their 
ancestors had been Christians and that they must either submit 
to baptism or suffer the consequences. The Mudejars were 
grouped with the Moriscos and many became crypto-Moslems, 
professing Christianity but secretly practising Islam. Some would 
come home from their Christian weddings to be married secretly 
after the Moslem rite; many would adopt a Christian name for 
public and an Arabic one for private use. As early as 1501 a 
royal decree was issued that all Moslems in Castile and Leon 
should either recant or leave Spain, but evidently it was not 
strictly applied. In 1526 the Moslems of Aragon were confronted 
with the same alternatives. In 1556 Philip II promulgated a 
law requiring the remaining Moslems to abandon at once their 
language, worship, institutions and manner of life. He even 
ordered the destruction of the Spanish baths as a relic of 
infidelity. A rising, the second of its kind, started in Granada 
and spread to the neighbouring mountains, but was put down. 
The final order of expulsion was signed by Philip III in 1609, 
resulting in the forcible deportation en masse of practically all 
Moslems on Spanish soil. Some half a million are said to have 
suffered this fate and landed on the shores of Africa or to have 
taken ship to more distant lands of Islam. It was mainly from these 
Moriscos that the ranks of the Moroccan corsairs were recruited. 
Between the fall of Granada and the first decade of the seven- 
teenth century it is estimated that about three million Moslems 
were banished or executed* The Moorish problem was for ever 
solved for Spain, which thus became the conspicuous exception 
to the rule that wherever Arab civilization was planted there it 
was permanently fixed, "The Moors were banished; for a while 
Christian Spain shone, like the moon, with a borrowed light; 
then came the eclipse, and in that darkness Spain has grovelled 
ever since." 5 

1 The literature left by Moriscos ii> varied and Unguis tieally interesting It is 
termed atjanxedo from An cl ajarts) ah x foreign tongue. A collection of such manu- 
scripts "was found under the floor of an old house m Aragon, where they were 
apparently hidden from the officers of the Inquisition. These are the Manuscript 
crabtsj cljavtiados dc laBibhoteca de la Junta* ed J. Ribera and M. Asm (Madrid, 
1012}. See A R. KvM, A Compendium of Aljamtado Ltttraturc (Paris, 192S). 

4 Lane-Poole, Moors in $pain % p. 2S0. 



CHAPTER XL 



INTELLECTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS 



MOSLEM Spain wrote one of the brightest chapters in the 
intellectual history of medieval Europe. Between the middle 
of the eighth and the beginning of the thirteenth centuries, as 
we have noted before, the Arabic-speaking peoples were the 
main bearers of the torch of culture and civilization through- 
out the world. Moreover they were the medium through which 
ancient science and philosophy were recovered, supplemented 
and transmitted in such a way as to make possible the renais- 
sance of Western Europe. In all this, Arabic Spain had a large 
share- 

' In the purely linguistic sciences, including philology, grammar 1 
and lexicography, the Arabs of al-Andalus lagged behind those J 

"of al-'Iraq. Al-Qali (901-67), mentioned above as one of the 
eminent professors of the univetsity of Cordova, was born in 
Armenia and educated in Baghdad. His chief disciple, Mu- 

^hammad ibn-aHiasan al-Zubaydi 1 (928-89), belonged to a 

* family that hailed from rjiims, but was himself born in Seville. 
Al-Zubaydi was appointed by al-Hakam to supervise the edu- 
cation of his young son Hisham, who later appointed him qadi 
and chief magistrate of Seville. Al-Zubaydi's chief work was a 

. classified list of grammarians and philologists who had flourished 
•"up to his time; ai-Suyuti made extensive use of it in his Mushir. 
It should be recalled at this point that Hebrew grammar, which 
was based essentially on Arabic grammar (above, p. 43, n. 1) and 
to this day uses technical terms which are translations of corre- 
sponding Arabic terms, had its birth in Moslem Spain, rjayyuj 
Judah ben-David (Ar. abu-Zakariya' Yahya ibn-Dawud), the 
father of scientific Hebrew grammar, flourished in Cordova, 
where he died early in the eleventh century. 
' Iti literature the most distinguished author was ibn- f Abd- 

* Rabbih* (866-940) of Cordova, the laureate of 'Abd-al-Rahman 
. 1 See Tha'allbi, Ycthnah^ voU i, p. 409; ibn-Khalhk&n, \ol, ii, pjp 338-40. 

557 



558 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY pa*tiv 



III. 1 Ibn- f Abd-Rabbih was descended from an enfranchised 
slave of Hisham I. His title to fame rests on the miscellaneous 
anthology he composed, al- Iqd al-Fand 2 (the unique neck- 
lace), which after al-Aghdni occupies first place among works 
on the literary history of the Arabs, But the greatest scholar 
and the most original thinker of Spanish Islam was *Ali ibn- 
rjazm (994-1064), one of the two or three most fertile minds 
and most prolific writers of Islam. Ibn-Hazm claimed descent 
from a Persian client, but was in reality the grandson of a 
Spanish Moslem convert from Christianity. In his youth he 
adorned the tottering courts of *Abd-aI-Rahman al-Mustazhir 
and Hisham al-Mu'tadd 3 in the capacity of vizir, but on the 
ensuing dissolution of the Umayyad caliphate he retired to a 
life of seclusion and literary pursuit. Ibn-Khallikan 4 and al- 
Qifti 5 ascribe to him four hundred volumes on history, theology, 
tradition, logic, poetry and allied subjects. As an exponent of 
the Zahirite (literalist) school of jurisprudence and theology, 
long since extinct, he was as tireless as he was vigorous in his 
literary activity. In his Tawq al-Hamamah 8 (the dove's neck- 
lace), an anthology of love poems, he extols platonic love. The 
most valuable of his surviving works, however, is al-Fasl fi 
al-Mi!al w-al-Ahzva w-al-Nthal 1 (the decisive word on sects, 
heterodoxies and denominations), which entitles him to the 
honour of being the first scholar in the field of comparative 
religion. In this work he pointed out difficulties in the biblical 
narratives which disturbed no other minds till the rise of higher 
criticism in the sixteenth century. 

For the history of literature the period of the party kings, 
particularly of the f Abbadids, Murabits and Muwahhids, was 
one of special importance. The cultural seed sown in the Umay- 
yad age did not come into full fruition until then. The civil wars 
which closed the Umayyad period and the subsequent rise of 
new dynasties enabled such centres as Seville, Toledo and 
Granada to eclipse Cordova. From this last city Arabicized 

1 Sec YaqGt, Vdabd* % vol 11, pp 67*72, ibn Khallikin, vol. \, pp 56 S 

1 Several editions, none critical. The one used here is m 3 vols (Cairo, 1302). 

* Yaqut, bdaba\ vol v, p 87. 4 Vol it, p. 22. * P. 233. 

•Ed D K Petrof (Levden, 1914); tr. A. R. Nykl, The Dove's Neck- Rtng about 
Loze and Lexers (Puns, 1931) 

7 No scholarly edition. The one used here is in 5 vols (Cairo, 1347-8), See Asm, 
Abenhazam dt Cordoba y su fastona crtttca de fas tdeas rehgtosas, 5 vols. (Madrid. 
1927-32). 



tif.^t INTELLECTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS 559 

Christians, Mozarabs, quite conversant with Arabic literature, 
had communicated many elements of Arabic culture to the other 
kingdoms of the north and south. In prose the fables, tales and 
apologues, which began to flourish in Western Europe during 
the thirteenth century, present unmistakable analogies with 
earlier Arabic works, themselves of Indo-Persian origin. The 
delightful fables of Kalllah wa-Dimnah were translated into 
Spanish for Alfonso the Wise (1252-84) of Castile and Leon, 
and shortly afterwards into Latin by a baptized Jew. A Persian 
translation became through French one of the sources of La 
Fontaine, as acknowledged by him. To the maqamak, written in 
rhymed prose adorned with all manner of philological curiosity 
and intended to teach some moral lesson through the adventures of 
a cavalier-hero, the Spanish picaresque novel bears close affinity. 
But the most significant contribution of Arabic to the literature 
of medieval Europe was the influence it exercised by its form, 
which helped liberate Western imagination from a narrow, 
rigid discipline circumscribed by convention* The rich fantasy 
of Spanish literature betrays Arabic models, as does the wit of 
Cervantes' Don Quixote, whose author was once a prisoner in 
Algiers and jokingly claimed that the book had an Arabic 
original. 

Wherever and whenever the Arabic language was used there p< 
the passion for poetical composition was intense. Verses count- 
less in number passed from mouth to mouth and were admired 
by high and-Jow, not so much perhaps for their contents as for 
their music and exquisite diction. This sheer joy in the beauty 
and euphony of words, a characteristic of Arabic-speaking 
peoples; manifested itself on Spanish soil. The first Umayyad 
sovereign was a poet and so were several of his successors. 
Among the party Icings al-Mu'tamid ibn-*Abbad was especially 
favoured by the Muses. Most of the sovereigns had laureates 
attached to their courts and took them along on their travels and 
wars. Seville boasted the largest number of graceful and inspired 
poets, but the flame had been kindled long before in Cordova 
and later shone brilliantly at Granada as long as that city 
remained the bulwark of Islam. 

Aside from ibn-'Ahd-Rabbih, ibn-tfazm and ibn-al-Khatlb, 
Spam produced a number of poets whose compositions are still 
considered standard. Such a one was abu-al-Walld Ahmad ibn- 



$60 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY PART tv 

Zaydun (1003-71), reckoned by some as the greatest poet of al- 
And;;lus. Ibn-Zaydun belonged to the noble family of MakhzGm, 
a branch of the Quraysh. 1 He was first a confidential agent to 
ibn-Jahwar, chief % of the Cordovan oligarchy, but later fell from 
grace, probably on account of his violent love for the poetess 
Walladah, daughter of the Caliph al-Mustakn. After several 
years in prison and exile he was appointed by al-Mu'tadid al- 
f Abbadi to the twofold position of grand vizir and commander of 
the troops and given the title dhu-al-wtzdratayn?- he of the two 
vizirates, i.e. that of the sword and that of the pen. It was tinder 
his influence that aI-Mu v tamid sent an army in 1068 against 
Cordova and wrested it from Jahwarid hands. In al-Mu'tamid's 
court, which was temporarily removed to Cordova, ibn-Zaydun 
aroused the jealousy of a rival poet and minister, ibn-*Ammar, 
a man of obscure origin who at first led a wandering life singing 
the praises of anyone who cared to reward him. Ibn-'Ammar 
met his death at the hand of his patron aUMu'tamid at Seville in 
1086. 5 Besides being an accomplished poet ibn-Zaydun was a 
distinguished letter writer. One of his most widely read epistles is 
that in which he denounces ibn- f Abdus, minister of ibn-Jahwar 
and rival for the hand of Walladah. Several verses addressed by 
ibn-Zaydun* to Walladah depict the glowing beauty of al-Zahra* 
with its gardens, and illustrate the deep feeling for nature which 
is characteristic of Spanish Arabic poetry. 

This beautiful and talented Walladah (f 1087), renowned 
alike for personal charm and literary ability, was the Sappho of 
Spain, where Arab women seem to have shown special taste and 
aptitude for poetry and literature. Al-Maqqari 6 devotes a whole 
section to these women of al-Andalus in whom "eloquence was a 
second instinct**. Walladah's home at Cordova was the meeting* 
place of wits, savants and poets/ 

Among the lesser lights reference may be made to abu-Ishaq 

ibn-Khafajah 7 (f 1 139), who spent his life in a little village south 

of Valencia without seeking to pay court to the kinglets of his 

time, and to the young licentious poet of Seville, Muhammad 

1 Ibn-Khalhkon, vol. 5, pp. 75-7. * Cf. Marrakushi, p. 74, 1. 5. 

1 Mairakushi, p. 89; ibn-Khaqan, pp, 98-9. Cf. ibn^Khallikan, vol. ii, p. 370. 

* Diwan, cd. Kamil Killni and *Abd*al- Rahman Khattfah (Cairo, 1 932), pp. 
tr. in Nicholson, Literary History \ p. 425. 

* Vol. ii, pp. 536 639. e Ibn-Bassam, p. 376. 

? Hb D'ntan published in Cairo. 12S6. On his life see ibn*Khaqan, pp. 231-42; 
ibn-Kha)Iikan, vol. i, pp. 23-4. 



ck XI , INTELLECTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS 561 

ibn-Hani' (937~73), who addressed several panegyrics to the 
FatimicT Caliph al-Mu'izz. 1 Ibn-Hani* was considered tainted 
.with the opinions of Greek philosophers. 2 

Emancipated to a limited degree from the fetters of conven- 
tion, Spanish Arabic poetry developed new metrical forms and ' 
acquired an almost modern sensibility to the beautiful in nature* 
Through its ballads and love songs it manifested a tenderly 
romantic feeling which anticipated the attitude of medieval 
chivalry. By the beginning of the eleventh century a lyric system 
of mnwaihshah 3 and zajal had been developed in the Andalus. 
Both forms were based on a refrain for the chorus and were un- 
doubtedly sung. Music and song established and maintained 
everywhere their alliance with poetry. 

- It was abu-Bakr ibn-Quzman (f 1160), the wandering min- 
strel of Cordova who travelled from town to town singing the 
praises of the great, who lifted the sajal^ till then left entirely to 
improvisators, to the dignity of a literary form.* As for the other 
variety of folk-Song, the muwasfishah, it was not only developed 
but invented in Spain, whence it spread into North Africa and 
the East, Among the noted mmuashshah composers were abu-al- 
'Abbas* al-Tutlli, the blind poet of Tudeia who died in his youth, 
in after singing the glories of r AH, son and successor of 
Yusuf ibn-Tashfin; Ibrahim ibn-Sahl 6 (f 125 1 or 1260), a 
Scvillan convert from Judaism whose persistence in the use of 
wine rendered his Islam suspect; and Muhammad ibn-Yusuf 
abu-IJayyan (1256-1344) of Granada, a polyglot of Berber 
origin who also wrote Persian, Turkish, 7 Coptic and Ethiopic 
grammars. 8 Of these only the Turkish survived. 

It was Arabic poetry in general and this lyric type in particular 
that aroused native Christian admiration and became one of the 

1 Zahid 'All, Tafy In al-Jl/a'ant fi Shark Dtwdn iht-Han? (Cairo, I352) t pp. I seg. 
. J% Ibn-Khalhkan, vol. u, p 367; Maqqari, vol. ii, p. 444. 

* So called by comparison tvith xvtshdh, a double belt ornamented with vari- 
coloured peirls which v, omen wear diagonally round the body from shoulder to hip. 

* lbn-Khaldun, Jlfugaddamah, p. 524. Ibn-Quzman's poems have been published 
by A. R, Kykl, El eanaonero (Madrid, 1933). 

* Nome ^wrongly given in ibn-Khaqan, p. 273; ibn-Khaldun, Afuqaddamah % 
P- 5*9 

His ptwati, printed in Beirut, 1885. On him sec Kutubi, Fawdi, vol. i, pp. 29-35; 
M<iqqari> vol. ii, pp 351*4, Soualah Mohammed, Ibrahim Ibn Sahl (Algiers, 1914). 

? AMdrak h-Lisan cl-Atrdk^ ed. Ahmed Caferoglu (Istanbul, 1930-31); the 
earliest or second earliest Turkish grammar. 

"Kutubi, vol. Ii, p. 356; Maqqari, vol. i, pp. 823 stq. For other poets consult 
iMChaidun, Afuqaddamah M pp. 51^-34. 



56a THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY part w 

potent factors in assimilation. Two such forms, the zajal and 
the muwashshahi developed into the Castilian popular verse form 
of villanticO) which was extensively used for Christian hymns, in- 
cluding Christmas carols. The sestet, which in its original form 
presumably rhymed CDE, CDE, was probably suggested by a 
form of Arabic zajal instanced in the works of the Andalusian 
poets. Al-Qazwini 1 (f 1283) asserts that at Shilb (Silves) in 
southern Portugal one would meet even ploughmen capable of 
improvising verse. This brings to mind the many men in modern 
Lebanon, qawwdlun^ who extemporaneously produce such folk- 
poetry, some of which they still call zajal and muwashskak. 

The emergence of a definite literary scheme of platonic love 
in Spanish as early as the eighth century marks a distinctive 
contribution of Arabic poetry. In southern France the first Pro- 
vencal poets appear full-fledged toward the end of the eleventh 
century with palpitating love expressed in a wealth of fantastic 
imagery* The troubadours, 2 who flourished in the twelfth cen- 
tury, imitated their southern contemporaries, the jztf/a/«singcrs. 
Following the Arabic precedent the cult of the dame suddenly 
arises in south-western Europe. The Chanson de Roland t the 
noblest monument of early European literature, whose appear- 
ance prior to 1080 marks the beginning of a new civilization — 
that of Western Europe — just as the Homeric poems mark the 
beginning of historic Greece, owes its existence to a military con- 
tact with Moslem Spain. 

Primary education was based, as in all Moslem lands, on 
writing and reading from the Koran and on Arabic grammar 
and poetry. Though mainly a private concern, education was 
nevertheless so widely spread that a high percentage of Spanish 
Moslems could read and write 3 — a situation unknown in Europe 
pf that age. Higher value was placed on the function of the 
elementary teacher than in otner lands of Islam. The position of 
women in the learned life, as portrayed by such an author as 
al-Maqqari* and verified by the facts of literary history, proves 
that in Andalusia the maxims prohibiting the teaching of writing 
to women were but little applied. 

Higher education was based on koranic exegesis and theology* 

1 Aihar, p. 364. R. Mcnendez Pidal in Bulletin hispamque, vol. 3d (193S), pp. 
337 srq. A. R. Nykl in ibid. vol. xli (i939)> PP- 305**5* 

s This word may have come from Ar. forab, music, song; Ribera, DUertaaonts x 
vol. ii, p. 141. a Cf. above, p. 531. 4 See above, p. 560. 



CK, XL i INTELLECTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS 



philosophy, Arabic grammar, poetry and lexicography, history 
and geography* Several of the principal towns possessed what 
might be called universities, chief among which were those of 
Cordova, Seville, Malaga and Granada, The university of 
Cordova included among its departments astronomy, mathe- 
matics and i medicine, in addition to theology and law. Its 
enrolment must have reached into thousands and its certificate 
opened the way to the most lucrative posts in the realm. The 
university of Granada was founded by the seventh Nasrid, 
Yusuf abu-al-Wajjaj (1333-54), whose administration was graced 
by the poet-historian Lisan-al-DTn ibn-al-Khatib. 1 The building 
had its gates guarded by stone lions. The curriculum comprised 
theology, jurisprudence, medicine, chemistry, philosophy and 
astronomy. Castilian and other foreign students patronized this 
institution. In it and other universities it was customary to hold 
occasional public meetings and commemorations in which 
original poems were recited and orations delivered, usually by 
members of the faculty. A favourite inscription over collegiate 
portals ran thus: "The world is supported by four things only: 
the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of 
the righteous and the valour of the brave '\ 

Side by side with universities libraries flourished. The royal 
library of Cordova, started by Muhammad I (852-86) and 
enlarged by 'Abd-al-Rahman III, became the largest and best 
when al-Hakam II added his own collection. A number of 
persons, including some women, had private collections. 

The peculiarities of Moslem life with its lack of political ] 
assemblies and theatres, which were characteristic features of 
Greece and Rome, made books almost the sole means of 
acquiring knowledge. As a book market Cordova held first 
place in Spain. This anecdote illustrates the spirit of the time: a 

When living in Cordova I frequented its book market looking for 
a book in, which I was especially interested. At last a copy of good 
calligraphy and handsome binding fell into my hands. Full of joy, I 
began to bid for it but was time after time outbid by another until the 
price offered far exceeded the proper limit. I then said to the auctioneer: 
u Show me this rival bidder who has raised the price beyond the worth 
of the book '\ Accordingly he took me to a man attired in distinguished 

1 Lamhah, pp. t)t, q6 In late \cars Granada has again become a centre for 
Arabic tidies in Spam 
, 1 Maqqari* \o[ i, p. 302. 



564 THE ARABS IN EUROPE* SPAIN AND SICILY partiv 



garb. Approaching him I said : "May Allah keep our lord the faqth 
strong! If you have a special object in acquiring this book I will let it 
go, for the bidding has already exceeded the limit." His answer was: 
"I am not a faqth y nor am I aware of the contents of the book. But I 
have just established a library and made much of it in order to pride 
myself among the notables of my town. There is still an empty space 
there which this book will just fill up. Seeing that it was in elegant 
hand and good cover, I liked it and cared not how much I paid for it 
for, thanks to Allah, I am a man of means " 

Paper This accumulation of books in Andalusia would not have been 
possible but for the local manufacture of writing-paper, one of 
the most beneficial contributions of Islam to Europe. Without 
paper, printing from movable type, which was invented in 
Germany about the middle of the fifteenth century, would not 
have been successful, and without paper and printing popular 
education in Europe, on the scale to which it developed, would 
not have been feasible. From Morocco, into which the manu- 
facture of paper was introduced from the East, the industry 
passed into Spain in the middle of the twelfth century. 1 Yaqut 2 
mentions Shatibah (Jativa) as the centre of the industry in Spain. 
A philological reminder of this historical fact is English "ream", 
which is derived through Old French raymt from Spanish 
restna, a loan-word from Arabic rizmah, a bundle. After Spain 
the art of paper-making was established in Italy (ca. 1268-76), 
also as a result of Moslem influence, presumably from Sicily. 
France owed its first paper-mills to Spain, and not to returning 
Crusaders as claimed by some. From these countries the industry 
spread throughout Europe. A secretary of * Abd-al-Rahman used 
to write the official communications in his home and send them 
to a special office for reproduction — a form of printing (tab\ 
perhaps block printing) — whence copies were distributed to the 
various governmental agents. 3 

After the destruction of Moslem power in Spain less than two 
thousand volumes survived to be collected by Philip II (1 556-98) 
and his successors from the various Arab libraries. These formed 
the nucleus of the Escunal library still standing not far from 
Madrid. In the early part of the seventeenth century the Sharif 
Zaydan, sultan of Morocco, fleeing his capital, sent his library 
aboard a ship whose captain refused to land the books at the 

1 See above, p 347 * Vol 111, p 235. * Ibn al-Abbar, tfttllah, p. 137. 



CH.*itV' 1 INTELLECTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS 565 

proper destination because he had not received full pay in 
advance. On its'way to Marseille the ship fell into the hands of 
Spanish pirates and its bookish booty, to the number of three 
of Your thousand volumes, was deposited by order of Philip III 
in the Escurial, which made this library one of the richest in 
Arabic manuscripts. 1 

* In Spain Arabic philology, theology, historiography, geo- 
graphy, astronomy and allied sciences had a comparatively late 1 
development, since the Moslems there, unlike their co-religionists 
of Syria and al-'Iraq, had but little to learn from the natives, 
Even after their rise Spanish sciences lagged behind those of the 
Eastern caliphate* It was mainly in such disciplines as botany, 
medicine, philosophy and astronomical mathematics that West- 
ern Moslems made their greatest mark, 

- One of the earliest and best known of Andalusian historians 
was abu-Bakr ibn-*Umar, usually known as ibn-al-Qutlyab, 3 
who was born and flourished at Cordova, where he died in 977. 
His Tatikh If Utah (variant Fath) aUAndaltts? which we have 
tised in this work, extends from the Moslem conquest to the early 
part of 'Abd-al-Rahman Ill's reign, Ibn-al-Qutiyah was also a 
grammarian and his treatise on the conjugation of verbs 4 was 
the first ever composed on the subject. Another early but more 
prolific historical writer was abu-Marwan Hayyan lbn-Khalaf of 
Cordova, surnamed ibn-Orlayyan (987 or 988-1076). Ibn-y ayyan's 
listof Works contains no less than fifty titles, one of which, at- 
Afafin s comprised sixty volumes. Unfortunately only one work, 
nLMnqtabisfi TcCrikk Rijal al-Attdalusf has survived. The most 
Valuable work on the Muwahhid period was written in 1 224 by 
the "Moroccan * historian e Abd-aI- Wahid al~Marrakushi, 6 who 
sojourned in Spain. 

Andalusia produced a number of biographers, one of the first 
among whom was abu-al-Walxd 'Abdullah ibn-Muhammad ibn- 
al-Faradi* who was born in 962 at Cordova, where he studied and 

1 See its rateloguc, Les manuscrtts crabes <?e VEscur:aJ y by Httrtwtg Deren- 
tent, z vols, (Pans, 1884-1903), vol. 111, revised by LewProven$sil (Pans, 1028) 
* Sec Ihatlifri, vol. i, pp. 411-12; ibn-Khalbkln, vol. n, pp 

,* (Madrid; iS6S), tr, Don Julian Ribcra, His tort a dt la conquuta dt Espatia 
&dnd f 1926). 

Ktto$al-Afdl t cd. Jgnaz Guidi (Levden, 1S94) 
7 > M Metchot M* Antuna, pt. 3 (Pans, 1037). 

. * Al-Mttphji Tcll/J? AMfar a! Magtnb, cd. R. Dozy, 2nd ed. (Leyden, 1S81) 
tr.'E, Fagnan, ittstezn des Almohades ( Algiers. iS?3> 



566 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partiy 

taught. When thirty years old he undertook a pilgrimage in the 
course of which he stopped to study at al-Qayrawan, Cairo, 
Makkah and al-Madinah. After his return he was appointed 
qadi of Valencia. During the sack of Cordova by the Berbers in 
1013 ibn-al-Faradi was murdered in his home; his body was not 
found till the fourth day afterward and was so decomposed that 
it was buried without the usual ceremonial washing and wrap- 
ping. 1 Only one of ibn-al-Faradi's works, Tarikh 1 Uiamd* 
al-Andalus? is extant. This collection of biographies of the Arab 
scholars of Spain was supplemented by ibn-Bashkuwal, abu-al- 
Qasim Khalaf ibn-*Abd-al-Malik, in a volume completed in 11 39 
under the title al-Silah fi Tarikh A % immat al-Andalus? This is 
one of two surviving works of ibn-Bashkuwal, who is credited 
with the composition of some fifty books. 4 Ibn-Bashkuwal was 
born at Cordova in 1101 and died there in 11 83. His Silak was 
continued by abu-* Abdullah Muhammad ibn-al-Abbar (1199- 
1260) of Valencia under the title al~Takmilah li~Kitab al-Silah* 
In addition to this work ibn-al-Abbar wrote al-ffullah aU 
Siyura*? a collection of biographies. Another valuable dictionary 
of learned Spanish Arabs is Bughyat aUMultamis fi Tdnkk 
Htj'Jl al-Andal\is y by al-Dabbi, 7 abu~Ja*far Ahmad ibn-Yahya 
(f 1203), who flourished in Murcia. 

In the history of science we have from the pen of abu-al- 
Qasim Said ibn-Ahmad ai-Andalusi (1029-70) 8 the Tabaqdt 
al-Uma?n* (classification of nations), which was a source of al- 
Qifti, ibn-abi-Usaybi'ah and ibn-al-'Ibri. Sa'id held the office of 
qadi of Toledo under the banu-dhu-al-Nun and distinguished 
himself as historian, mathematician and astronomical observer. 

The two names which stand for thehighest literary accomplish- 
ment and historical comprehension of which Western Islam was 

1 Jbn-Khallikan, vol, i, p. 4S0; Maqqari, voUi, p. 546. 
1 Ed. Francisco Codera, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1890-92). 

* Ed. Codera, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1S82-3). 

* Al-Dhanabi, Tadkkirat al-ffujfa?, 2nd ed., vol. iv (tfaydarabad, 1334), p. 129. 
Cf. ibn-Khallikan, vol. i, pp. 305*6- 

* One part edited by Codera, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1886-9), another by M. Alarcon 
and C. A. Gonzalez Palcncia in Jlfxsctfdnea ds e studios y textos drahes (Madrid, 
1915), pp. 146-690, completed by Alfred Bel and M. Ben Cheneb (Algiers, 1919-20). 
On ibn-al-AbbUr consult Kutubi, vol. ii, pp. 282*4; ibn-Khaldun, tr. de Slane, vol 

PP- 347*5°; ibn-Khallikan, vol. i, p. 77. 

» Edited in part by Dozy (Leyden, 1847-51). 

' Ed. Codera and Julian Ribera (Madrid, 1884-5). 

* Pafebi, Bughyah> p. 31X. * Ed, L. Cbcikho (Beiritt, 19x2). 



cu/xt INTELLECTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS 567 

capable are those of the two friends and officials of the Nasrid 
court* ibn-al-Khatlb and ibn-Khaldun. 

Lisan-al-Dm ibn-aMChatib 1 (1313-74) was descended from 
an Arab family which had migrated to Spain from Syria. Under 
the seventh Nasrid sultan, Yusuf abu-al-rj[ajjaj (1333-54), and his 
son Muhammad V (i354~9j 1362-91), he held the pompous title 
of dha~al-wizarataytu~ In 137 1 he fled from Granada because 
1 of court intrigues, only to be strangled to death three years 
later at Fas in revenge for a private grievance. In his death 
Granada, if not the whole of Arab Spain, lost its last important 
author, poet and statesman Of the sixty odd works penned by 
ibn-al-Khatlb, which are chiefly poetical, belletnstic, historical 
geographical, medicinal and philosophic, about a third have 
survived. Of these the most important for us is the extensive 
history of Granada * 

c Abd-al-Rahman ibn-Khaldun (1 332-1406) was born in Tunis 
of a Spanish Arab family which traced its ancestry to a Hadra- 
tnawt tribe. The founder of the family had migrated m the eighth 
century with Yamanites to Spain, his descendants flourished tn 
Seville until the thirteenth century f Abd-al- Rahman himself 
held a number of high offices in Fas before he fell into disgrace 
and entered (1362) the service of the sultan of Granada, 
Muhammad V. The sultan entrusted him with an important 
mission of peace to the Castilian court. Two years later, after 
having aroused the jealousy of his powerful friend ibn-al-Khatib, 
ibn-Khaldun returned to al-Maghnb Here he occupied a num- 
ber of positions, finally retiring to Qal'at ibn-Saiamah, 4 where 
he began work on his history and resided till 1378. In 1382 he set 
out on a pilgrimage but broke his journey in Cairo to lecture at its 
mosque akAzhar. Two years later he was appointed chief 
Mahlute qadi of Cairo by the Mamluk Sultan al-Zahir Barquq. 
In 1401 he accompanied Barquq's successor al-Nasir Faraj 
to Damascus on his campaign against the dreadful Tamerlane 
(Timur), who received ibn-Khaldun as an honoured guest Thus 

1 Al-Maqqan devotes the second half of his Nafb al Tib to the life and works of 
tun al Khntib Al Maqqan wis of Tihmsan but compiled this work, which is our 
Jmncipal authority for the whole literary history of Moslem Spain, at Damascus 
between 1628 and 1630 

* Sec abo\e,p 560 

1 Ahih&iah fiAkkhar GKamd(ah y 2 \ols (Cairo, 1319), an abbreviated edition. 

* How called *Tawghzut, east of Tihmsan in northern Algentu 



568 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY *a*tiv 



did this historian play a significant part in the politics of North 
Africa and Spain, all of 'which prepared him admirably for the 
writing of his great work. His comprehensive history, entitled 
Kitdb al-Ibar wa-Diwan al-Mubtadd? w-al-Khabar fi Ayydm 
al-Arab w-al-Ajam w~al-Barbar x (book of instructive ex- 
amples and register of subject and predicate dealing with the 
history of the Arabs, Persians and Berbers), is made up of three 
parts: a Muqaddamah* (prolegomena), forming volume one; the 
main body, treating of the Arabs and neighbouring peoples; and 
the last part, 3 which sketches the history of the Berbers and the 
Moslem dynasties of North Africa. Unfortunately the critical 
theories ably propounded in the Muqaddamah were not applied 
to the main part of the work. However, the section treating of 
the Arab and Berber tribes of the M aghrib will ever remain a 
valuable guide. 

The fame of ibn-Khaldun rests on his Muqaddamah.* In it 
he presented for the first time a theory of historical development 
which takes due cognizance of the physical facts of climate and 
geography as well as of the moral and spiritual forces at work. 
As one who endeavoured to formulate laws of national progress 
and decay ibn-Khaldun may be considered the discoverer — as 
he himself claimed 6 — of the true scope and nature of history or 
at least the real founder of the science of sociology. No Arab 
writer, indeed no European, had ever taken a view of history at 
once so comprehensive and philosophic. By the consensus of 
critical opinion ibn-Khaldun was the greatest historical philo- 
sopher Islam produced and one of the greatest of all time. 
Geography The best-known geographer of the eleventh century was al- 
Bakri, a Hispano-Arab, and the most brilliant geographical 
author and cartographer of the twelfth century, indeed of all 
medieval time, was al-Idnsi, a descendant of a royal Spanish 
Arab family who got his education in Spain. 

1 7 vols. (Cairo, 1284). At the end of vol. vii, beginning p. 379, is his auto- 
biography, a major source for his life. This was translated by M. G. de Slane, 
Journal anattque, ser. 4, vol 3 (1844), pp 5-60, 187-210* 291-30S, 325-53, See 
Maqqan (Cairo, 1302), vol. iv, pp 6-17. 

* Earlier than the Cairo edition is that of M. Quatremere, 3 vols. (Paris, 1858): 
tr de Slanc, 3 vols. (Paris, 1862-S, ed. Boutboul, Pans, 1934-^). 

3 Tr. de Slane, Htstoirc des Berberes et des dynasties musultnanes de VAfnque 
sepfentnonale, ed. Paul Casano\a, 2 vols. (Paris, 1925-7) 

4 Tr. Franz Rosenthal, Ibn Khaldun's Muoaddimah, 3 vols (New York, 195S*. 
6 Muqaddamah, pp. 4-5. 



'CH.XL T INTELLECTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS 569 

Abu-'Ubayd 'Abdullah ibn- f Abd-al^Aziz at-Bakri* the 
earliest of the Western Moslem geographers whose works have 
survived, flourished in Cordova, where he died at an advanced 
'age in 1094. A belletrist, poet and philologist, he won his laurels 
through his voluminous geography aUMasalik w-al-Mamalik % 
(the book of roads and kingdoms), which, like most geographical 
works of the Middle Ages, was written in the form of an itiner- 
ary. The book has survived only in part. 

Al-Idrisi, born at Ceuta in 1 100, shed lustre on the reign of 
Roger II, Norman king of Sicily, and will be treated in that 
connection. 

After al-Idrisi Arab geographical literature can claim no Tra 
great originality and is represented by travellers* narratives, 
which then become especially numerous. The best known among 
these travellers was ibn-Jubayr, 3 abu-al-IIusayn Muhammad 
ibn-Ahmad, who was born in Valencia in 1145 and educated at 
Jativa. Between 11 83 and 11 85 ibn-Jubayr undertook a journey 
from Granada to Makkah and back, visiting Egypt, al-*Iraq, 

v Syria — parts of which were still in the hands of the Crusaders — 
and Sicily, He travelled in the East on two further occasions, 
1189-1191 and 1217, but on the latter journey he only reached 
Alexandria, where he died. His Riklah* the account of his 
first journey, is one of the most important works of its kind 
in Arabic literature. Another Hispano-Arab geographer and 
traveller was abu-ijlamid Muhammad al-Mazini (1080/1- 
1 169/70) of Granada, who visited Russia in 1 136. While among 
the Biilgars in the Volga region he witnessed a commercial 

r activity unreported in any other source, trade in fossil mammoth 
ivory, which was exported as far as Khwarizm to be made into 
combs and pyxides. 5 

* The travels of ibn-Jubayr and al-Mazini were eclipsed by 
those of the Moroccan Arab Muhammad ibn~* Abdullah ibn- 
Battutah, the Moslem globe-trotter of the Middle Ages. Ibn- 
Battutah was horn at Tanjah (Tangier) in 1304 and died in 
Matrakush in 1377I In the second quarter of that century he 

, 1 Consult lbn-Bashkuwal, vol. i, p. 2S2; Su\Qp, Bughycth, p. 285. 

* Cdited in part b> dc Stane (Algiers, 1S57) 

^ * On him Maqqan (Le>den), vol. i, pp 714 seq. 

* tcl William Wright, and ed. M. J. dc Gocje (Lcyden, 1907). 

"Tu^fat al-Albab", ed. Gabriel Ferrand in Journal astattguc* vol. ccvu (192s)* 



$7o THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partus 



made four pilgrimages to Makkah in conjunction with which he * 
journeyed all over the Moslem world. Eastward he reached Ceylon, * 
Bengal, the Maldive Islands and China. He also visited Con- 
stantinople, His last travels in 1353 took him far into the interior 
of Africa. His alleged visit to the city of Bulghar, near Kazan 
and the Volga, seems to be the only serious fabrication in his 
whole account. 1 

influence Arab geographical studies had but a limited influence in the 
W«t the West. They kept alive the ancient doctrine of the sphericity of 
the earth, without which the discovery of the New World would 
not have been possible. An exponent of this doctrine was abu- 
'Ubaydah Muslim al-Balansi (of Valencia), who flourished in 
the first half of the tenth century, 2 They perpetuated the Hindu 
idea that the known hemisphere of the world had a centre or 
"world cupola* * or "summit" situated at an equal distance from 
the four cardinal points. This ari?i 3 theory found its way into a 
Latin work published in 141 o. From this Columbus acquired the 
doctrine which made him believe that the earth was shaped in 
the form of a pear and that on the western hemisphere opposite 
the arin was a corresponding elevated centre. It was, however, 
in the realm of astronomical geography and mathematics that 
a number of new concepts were contributed to Western lore. 
Astronomy In Spain astronomical studies were cultivated assiduously 
nwlhe- a ^ ter tne m iddle of the tenth century and were regarded with 
nmtica special favour by the rulers of Cordova, Seville and Toledo. 
Following abu-Ma'shar of Baghdad, most of the Andalusian 
astronomers believed in astral influence as the cause underlying 
the chief occurrences between birth and death on this earth. 
The study of this astral influence, i.e. astrology, necessitated 
the determining of the location of places throughout the world 
together with their latitudes and longitudes. Thus did astrology 
contribute to the study of astronomy. Finally it was through 
Spanish channels that the Latin West found its Oriental inspira- 
tion in astronomy and astrology. The leading Moslem astrono- 
mical works were translated in Spain into Latin, and the 
Alfonsine tables compiled under the aegis of Alfonso X in the 
thirteenth century were but a development of Arab astronomy. 

1 Tu/tfa/ a}-Nu?;ar fi Gkoraib aUAms&r wa*Ajaib aUAsfar % ed. and tr. C. 
Defremcry and B. R. Sanguinctti, 3rd impression (Paris, iS79~93?i vol* pp. 39$*9« 

* $&'id, febaq&U p. 64- See ibn-ljazm, vol. li, pp. 7*5-9; aVove, p. 375, 

* See above, p. 384. 



"Spanish Arab astronomers built upon the preceding astronomi- 
cal and astrological works of their co-religionists in the East. 
They reproduced the Aristotelian system, as distinguished from 
the Ptolemaic, and in the name of Aristotle attacked the Ptole- 
maic representation of the celestial movements. Outstanding 
among early Hispano-Arabic astronomers were al-Majriti 1 
(| ca. 1007) of Cordova, al-Zarqali (ca* 1029-^. 1087) of Toledo 
and ibn-Afiah (f between 1140 and n 50) of Seville. 

Abu-al-Qasim Maslamah al-Majriti, the earliest Spanish 
Moslem scientist of any importance, edited and corrected the 
planetary tables {stf) of al-Khwarizmi, 2 the first tables composed 
by a Moslem. He converted the basis of these tables from the 
era of Yazdagird into that of Islam and to some extent replaced 
the meridian of artn by that of Cordova, In 1 126 Adelard of 
Bath made a Latin version of the tables ascribed to al-Khwa- 
rizmi. About fourteen years later another important ztj\ that of 
al-Battani, composed about 900, was rendered into Latin by 
Plato of Tivoli and long afterwards done directly from Arabic 
into Spanish under the auspices of Alfonso X (f 1284), sur- 
named the Wise and the Astronomer. Among al-Majriti's 
honorific titles was al-hasib, the mathematician, for he was 
considered a leader {immri) in mathematical knowledge, includ- 
ing mensuration. It was either he or his Cordovan disciple 
abu-aWJakam f Amr al-Karmani 3 (f 1066) who introduced into 
Spain the writings of the Ikhwan al-Safa*. 

The so-called Toledan tables were based upon observations 
and studies made by a number of Spanish Moslem and Jewish 
astronomers, notable among whom was ai-Zarqali, abu-Ishaq 
Ibrahim ibn-Yahya (f ca. 1087). These tables comprised geo- 
graphical information derived from Ptolemy and al-Ehwarami 
and were rendered into Latin in the twelfth century by Gerard of 
Cremona. The works of Raymond of Marseille were likewise 
largely drawn (1 140) from the astronomical canons of al-Zarqali. 
Ptolemy's exaggerated estimate of the length of the Mediter- 
ranean Sea as 62 0 , cut by al-Khwarizmi to about 52 0 , was 
reduced probably by ai-Zarqali to the approximately correct 
% figure of 42 0 . Al-Zarqali was evidently the foremost astronomical 

1 Bom in Majnf (Madrid) 

* §a*id, p. 69, quoted by ibn-abi-U$aybi'ah, vol. n, p. 39, Cf. Qifo, p. 326. 
Vfho vns himself an astronomer, criticizes al Majr^. 



572 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partiv 

observer of his a^e. 1 He devised an improved type of astrolabe, 
called the $afihah? and was the first to prove the motion of the 
solar apogee with reference to the stars. According ~to his 
measurements it- amounted to 12-04*, whereas its real value is 
II. S". Copernicus quotes al-Zarqali (Arzachel) along with al* 
Battani in his book De revolutionibus orbiutn coclestium* 

In his Kitab al-Hatf ah* (book of astronomy), which was also 
translated by Gerard of Cremona, Jabir ibn-Aflah (Geber filius 
Afflae) sharply criticizes Ptolemy and rightly asserts that the 
lower planets, Mercury and Venus, have no visible parallaxes. 
This book of ibn-Aflah is otherwise noteworthy for a chapter on 
spherical and plane trigonometry. About two and a half cen- 
turies before ibn-Aflah, al-Battani had popularized, if not dis- 
covered, the first notions of trigonometrical ratios as we use them 
today. The science of trigonometry, like algebra and analytical 
geometry, was largely founded by Arabs. 

Foremost among the last Spanish astronomers stood Nur-al- 
Din abu-Ishaq al-Bitruji 4 (Alpetragius, f ca. 1204), a pupil of 
ibn-Tufayl. His Kitab al-Hay*ah* on the configuration of the 
heavenly bodies, is remarkable for its attempt to revive in a 
modified form the false theory of homocentric spheres. Though 
considered the exponent of a new astronomy, al-Bitruji in reality 
reproduced the Aristotelian system; his work marks the culmina- 
tion of the Moslem anti-Ptolemaic movement. By the end of the 
twelfth century translations had been made from Arabic into 
Latin of a large number of Aristotle's works on astronomy, 
physics and meteorology, in which most of Aristotle's thought in 
geography had also found expression. 

Arab astronomers have left on the sky immortal traces of their 
industry which everyone who reads the names of the stars on an 
ordinary celestial sphere can readily discern. Not only are most 
of the star-names in European languages of Arabic origin, such 
as Acrab i^aqrab^ scorpion), Algedi (al-jadi, the kid), Altair 
(<z/-/a7r, the flyer), Deneb (dhanab, tail), Pherkad (Jarqad, 
calf), 8 but a number of technical terms, including "azimuth" 

1 §Vid, p. 75. * Qiffr p. 57. Cf, Khwarizmi, Afef&Th, pp. 233*4. 

s Cf. Qifti, p. 319, 1, 12, p. 393, h 2; Hojji Khalfah, \oL vi, p 506. Like most 
other astronomical works this book has survived only in manuscript form. 

* Of Pedroche, north of Cordova. 

* Translated into Latin by Michael Scot in 1217 and into Hebrew in 1250. 

* For more n imcs consult Richard H ♦ Alien, Star- Names and {AetrJftantngsfficvr 
York, 1899), Amin F. al-Ma'lfif, a! Jlfu'jam al-Falaki (Cairo, 1935). 



CH,XL , INTELLECTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS 573 

(a!-sutr.ut)> "nadir" (tiapir), "zenith'* (al-samt), are likewise of 
Arabic etymology and testify to the rich legacy of Islam to 
Christian Europe. In the mathematical vocabulary of Europe 
we have another eloquent witness to Arab scientific in- 
fluence. Other than borrowings, as illustrated by such words 
as "algebra" and "algorism" cited above, certain Arabic 
terms were translated into Latin. The algebraic term "surd", 
a sixteenth -century loan-word from Latin meaning "deaf 1 , 
is a translation from Arabic jadhr asamm (deaf root). In 
trigonometry "sine" (L. stnui) is likewise a translation of 
an Arabic word jayb (pocket), which is in turn an adaptation 
of Sanskrit/mr. The English mathematician Robert of Chester^ 
who flourished in the middle of the twelfth century, was the first 
to use stmts as equivalent to Arabic jayb in its trigonometrical 
acceptation. 

One of the most interesting mathematical terms borrowed 
from Arabic is "cipher" 1 or "zero". While the Arabs, as we have 
learned, did not invent the cipher, they nevertheless introduced it 
with the Arabic numerals into Europe and taught Westerners the 
employment of this most convenient convention, thus facilitating 
the use of arithmetic in everyday life. In the numeral system the 
cipher is of capital importance. If in a series a unit, a ten or a 
power of ten is not represented "these little circles" are used "to 
keep the rows", 2 Without the zero we should have to arrange our 
figures in a table with columns of units, tens, hundreds, etc., that 
is, use an abacus. 

We have seen earlier that al-Khwarizmi, writing in the first 
half of the ninth century, was the first exponent of the use 
of numerals, including the zero, in preference to letters. These 
numerals he called Htndi i indicating their Indian origin. His 
work on the Hindu method of calculation was translated into 
Latin by Adelard of Bath in the twelfth century and as De 
numcro mdtco has survived, whereas the Arabic original has 
been lost, Moreover, the Moslems of Spain had developed as 
early as the second half of the ninth century numerals slightly 
different in shape, huruf al-ghubar (letters of dust), originally 
used in conjunction with some kind of sand abacus. Most 

* Not cognate with "cipher" meaning "code", "monogram", -which is derived 
frm At. sifr t book, originally Aramaic 
1 Klmanzmi, Mo/mk t p, 294, 



574 



THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partiv 



scholars trace the ghubar numerals, like the Hindu, back to 
India; others claim that they were of Roman origin and were 
known in Spain before the advent of the Arabs. 1 Gerbert, who 
spent several years in Spain prior to his becoming Pope Silvester 
II (999-1003), was the first to describe scientifically the ghubar 
numerals, his work appearing about a hundred years after the 
earliest Arabic manuscripts (874) containing such numerals. 
The modern European numerals bear closer resemblance to 
the ghubar than to the Hindu figures. 

The diffusion of the Arabic numerals in non-Moslem Europe 
was incredibly slow. Christian arithmeticians throughout the 
eleventh, twelfth and part of the thirteenth centuries persisted in 
the use of the antiquated Roman numerals and the abacus or 
made a compromise and used the new algorisms together with 
their old system. It was in Italy that the new symbols were first 
employed for practical purposes. In 1202 Leonardo Fibonacci of 
Pisa, who was taught by a Moslem master and had travelled in 
North Africa, published a work which was the main landmark 
in the introduction of the Arabic numerals. More than that, it 
marks the beginning of European mathematics. With the old 
type of numerals, arithmetical progress along certain lines would 
have been impossible. The zero and Arabic numerals lie behind 
the science of calculation as we know it today- 
Botany In the field of natural history, 2 especially botany pure and 
ttcdfcme applied, as in that of astronomy and mathematics, the Western 
Moslems enriched the world by their researches. They made 
correct observations on sexual difference between such plants as 
palms and hemps They classified plants into those that grow 
from cuttings, those that grow from seed and those that grow 
spontaneously, as evidenced by ibn-Sab'In's answer to one of 
Emperor Frederick's questions. 3 The Cordova physician al- 
Ghafiqi, 4 abu-Ja'far Ahmad ibn-Muhammad (f 1165), collected 
plants in Spain and Africa, gave the name of each in Arabic, 
Latin and Berber, and described them in a way that may be 

1 David E. Srmth and Louis C. Karpmstt, The Jfltndu-Arahc Numerals (Boston 
and London, 191 x), pp 65 seg ; Solomon Gandz in fsts, \ol x\i (1931), pp. 393*W 
Sec ibn-Kha!dun, Mugaddamah t p 4, 1 22. 

* On the horse and horsemen see ibn Hudhayl, fftiyat al Furs&n wa-Shidr al* 
Shufdn, ed. Louis Mcrcicr (Paris, 1922), tr« Mcracr, La farurc des cavahert tt 
Vinstgne dts preux (Pans, 1924). 

4 bee beluw, p 5&7 % * Ghufiq was a town, near Cordova- 



CH.XX, INTELLECTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS 



57S 



considered the most precise and accurate in Arabic. His principal 
y?ork aUAdwiyah al-Mufradah (on simples) 1 was not merely 
quoted 'but practically appropriated by his later and better- 
known confrere and countryman, ibn-al-Baytar. Towards the 
end" of the twelfth century there flourished at Seville abu* 
Zakariya Yahya ibn-Muhammad ibn-al-'Awwam, whose 
treatise on agriculture, al-Filahah, is not only the most important 
Islamic, but the outstanding medieval work on the subject 
Derived partly from earlier Greek and Arabic sources and partly 
from the experience of Moslem husbandmen in Spain, this book 
treats of five hundred and eighty-five plants and explains the 
cultivation of more than fifty fruit trees. It presents new observa- 
tions on grafting and the properties of sou and manure and 
discusses the symptoms of several diseases of trees and vines, 
suggesting methods of cure. But with all its importance this book 
was little known to Arab writers; neither ibn-Khalhkan, Yaqut, 
nor Hajji Khalfah knew it and ibn-Rhaldun 2 wrongly considers 
it a recension of ibn-Wahshiyah's. 3 

The best-known botanist and pharmacist of Spain, in fact of ton 
the Moslem world, was 'Abdullah lbn-Ahrnad ibn-al-Baytar, a Bai 
Wordiy successor of Dioscondes* Born at Malaga, ibn-al-Baytar 
travelled as a herbalist in Spain and throughout North Africa 
and later entered the service of the Ayyubid al-Mahk al-Kamil 
in Cairo as chief herbalist/ From Egypt he made extensive trips 
throughout Syria and Asia Minor. In 1248 he died in Damascus, 
leaving two celebrated works dedicated to his patron ai-Saiih 
Ayyub, who, like his predecessor al-Kamil, used Damascus as 
his Syrian capital. One of these works, aUMughnifi aUAdwiyah 
d-Mufradah t is on materia medica; the other, al-Jdmf fi al- 

1 Tbn*abI*XJ$3vl>i*ah, vol. li, p. 52. An abridged edition prepared by the famous 
Christian historian ibn-al *Ibn has been recently published as Afuntalhab Kttab 
at-Mufrcddt, cd. Max Mc>crhof and Jura §ubhi (Cairo, 1033?), with an 
English translation. Ibn al-'Ibn's abridged translation mto Sjnac has been lost 

* Muqaddamah, p. 412, 

* In his Bibltotheca Arabtea Htspana Escurtakttsis, \ol. i (Madrid, 1760), pp. 
323 sey. t the Lebanese scholar Michael Cai»in (Ghazin) -was the first to call attention 
to the complete MS of ibn*al 'Adam's work in the Escunal Casm's pupil Josef 
Antonio Banqucri edited it with a Sp* tr , 2 vols* (Madrid, i$o2) t tr« Clement- 
Mullet* It hvrt d'egrtcufturt, 2 vols, in 3 pts (Paris, 1 864-7). Neither the edition 
not the translations are satisfactory. 

* Ibn-a.b!-Usa\brah, vol u, p. 133,* Mnqqan, \o\ 1, p 934. Kutubi, vol 1, p. 261. 
Xbn-ahi-TJsayhi*ah was a pupil of lbn al-Bayfar and herborized with Jam m *hc 
neighbourhood of Damascus 



576 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partiv 

Adwiyah al-Muftadah* is a collection of "simple remedies'* 
from the animal, vegetable and mineral worlds, embodying 
Greek and Arabic data supplemented by the author's own 
experiments and researches. It stands out as the foremost 
medieval treatise of its kind. Some 1400 items are considered, 
of which 300, including about 200 plants, were novelties. The 
number of authors quoted is about one hundred and fifty, of 
whom twenty were Greek, Parts of the Latin version of ibn-al- 
Baytar's Stmphcia were printed as late as 1758 at Cremona. 
Vediane Most of the Spanish Arab physicians were physicians by 
avocation and something else by vocation. Ibn-Rushd, ibn- 
Maymun, ibn-Bajjah and ibn-Tufayl were better known as 
philosophers and will be treated on a later page. Ibn-al-KhatJb, 
whom we have already noted as a stylist and historian, held like 
many other physicians a vizirial office. In connection with the 
"black death", which in the middle of the fourteenth century 
was ravaging Europe and before which Christians stood helpless, 
considering it an act of God, this Moslem physician of Granada 
composed a treatise in defence of the theory of contagion, as 
may be illustrated by the following passage. * 

To those who sa^v, "How can we admit the possibility of infection 
while the religious law denies it?" we reply that the existence of con- 
tagion is established by experience, investigation, the evidence of the 
senses and trustworthy reports These facts constitute a sound argu- 
ment The fact of contagion becomes clear to the investigator who 
notices how he who establishes contact with the afflicted gets the 
disease, whereas he who is not in contact remains safe, and how trans- 
mission is effected through garments, vessels and earrings, 

At- The greatest surgeon of the Arabs, who never produced many 

Zahrftwi surgeons ^ was a bu-al-Qasim (Abulcasis) Khalaf ibn-'Abbas al- 
Zahrawi s (fat 1013), court physician of al-rlakam IL His 
claim to distinction rests on al-Tasrif li-Man f Ajaz *an al- 

1 Al'Jdmi* lt-Mufrad$t a! Adwiyah w al Aghdkxyah, 4 vols (Bulaq, 1291), 
German translation by Joseph v. Sonthetmcr, 2 \ots (Stuttgart, 1840-42) unsatis- 
factory, Fr. tr. Lucten Leclcrc in Notices et txiratts dts mamtscrtts dc la Btbho- 
thique Nattonale, vol xxm (Pans, 1877)* pt 1, vol xxv (18S1), pt i, vol, xxu 
(iS83),pt.i. 

* "Muqni'at al-S&M 'an al Marad al-HaM", cd and tr. M. J. Muller, Stfxvngs- 
bertckte dtrhomgL bay er. Akademu der IVissensckcftcn tti Munchen^ \ 6L 11 (Munich, 
1863), pp 6 7, iS«iO 

* His birthplace al-Zahra* was the famous suburb of Cordova. He is known to 
the Latin writers as Abulcasis or Albucasis, a corruption of abu al-Qasim. 



CH.x£ - INTELLECTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS 577, 

Ta*3ttf l "( an a ^ t0 n * m * s not equal to the large treatises), 
"which in its last section sums up the surgical knowledge of his 
time. The work introduces or emphasizes such new ideas as 
cauterization of wounds, crushing a stone inside the bladder 
and the necessity of vivisection and dissection. This surgical part 
was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona and various 
editions were published at Venice in 1497, at Basel in 1541 and 
at Oxford in 1778. 2 It held its place for centuries as the manual 
of surgery in Salerno, Montpellier and other early schools 
of medicine: It contained illustrations of instruments which 
influenced other Arab authors and helped lay the foundations 
of surgery in Europe. A colleague of al-Zahrawi was ^lasday 
ben-Shaprut, the Jewish minister and physician who translated 
' into Arabic, with the collaboration of a Byzan tine monk Nicholas, 
the* splendid illustrated manuscript of the Materia viedica of 
r Dioscorides, which had been sent as a diplomatic present to *Abd- 
al-Rahman III from the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII. 3 
~ Al-Zahrawi's rank in the art of surgery was paralleled by that 
of ibn-Zuhr in the science of medicine. Abu-Marwan r Abd-al- 
Malik ibn-abi-al-'Ala*, surnamed ibn-Zuhr 4 (L. through Heb. 
Avcnzoar), was the most illustrious member of the greatest 
medical family of Spain. Ibn-Zuhr was born between 1091 and 
1094 in Seville, where he died in 1162 after serving for many 
years as court physician and vizir to e Abd-al-Mu'min, founder 
of the Muwahhid dynasty. His originality he show r ed by con- 
fining himself to authorship in the field of medicine, when his 
colleagues were spreading themselves over several branches of 
knowledge. Of the six medical works written by him three are 
extant, The most valuable is aI~Tayszr fi al-Mudawdh w~al~ 
'Tadbtr* (the facilitation of therapeutics and diet) written at the 
request of his friend and admirer ibn-Rushd as a counterpart to 
\h£x\z\xer*$,al-Kultiyat* The Tayslr dealt with more specific 
topics than the Kulliydt. In his aJ-Kulllyat ibn-Rushd hails ibn- 

* TJlijm zbn abi-Usi)bi f ah, vol. n, p. 52. 

* The Oxford edition Albucasis, Dt thirxrgia, has part of the text with Latin 
banslabon by John Charming. The text in its entirety has not yet been published. 

* Iba-abi-U$avbi*ah, voL n, p. 47, where Romanus is credited with the donation. 
> l 4 See ibn-abx-Usajbiah, vol. it, pp. 66-7. 

1 The Hebrew translation was rendered into "vulgar language", possibly the 
Venetian dialect, which was in tnoi done into Latin in with the help of a Jew 
in Venice, where it was repeatedly printed, 

* Jbn-abi-Usaybrah, vol. h, pp. f$-$ 



578 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partiv , 



Zuhr as the greatest physician since Galen, At least he was the 
greatest clinician in Islam after al-Razi. Ibn-Zuhr has been often * 
credited with being the first to discuss feeling in bones and to 
describe the itch mite fyi'dbat al-jarab)) but it has been recently 
shown that in his discovery of the itch mite he was anticipated 
by Atimad al-Tabari (second half of tenth century) in his at- 
Mifalajah al-Buqrdtiyah?- 

The ibn-Zuhr family produced about six generations of 
physicians in direct descent. After the above-mentioned abu- 
Marwan his son, abu-Bakr Muhammad (f 1198-9), was the 
most distinguished member. His distinction, however, was due 
more to his control of all branches of Arabic literature than to 
his medical activity. Several poems, including mmvashshalis of 
great delicacy of sentiment, are ascribed to him. 2 The Muwah- 
liid abu-Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur appointed him his physician 
at Marrakush, where he was poisoned by a jealous vizir. The 
caliph himself preached his funeral sermon* One of the early 
ibn-Zuhrs, a grandfather and namesake of abu-Marwan 
'Abd-al-Malik, had practised medicine not only in Spain but 
in Baghdad, al-Oayrawan and Cairo. 4 Another Hispano- 
Arab physician who practised in the East was 'Ubaydullah 
ibn-al-Muzaifar al-Bahili of Almena (ai-Marlyah). Al-Bahili, 
a poet as well as physician, entered in 1127 the service of 
the Saljuq Mahmud ibn-Malikshah in Baghdad and provided 
him with a field hospital transported on forty camels. 4 He died 
at Damascus in 1 1 54. 
Trans. In the first centuries of Moslem domination in Spain, Eastern 
Europe t0 cu ^ lre flowed from a higher level into Andalusia, as can be seen 
from al-Maqqarfs 6 list of Spanish savants who journeyed "in 
quest of learning" to Egypt, Syria, al-'Iraq, Persia and even 
Transoxiana and China; but in the eleventh and following 
centuries the course was reversed, as illustrated by ibn-Zuhr and 
al-Bahili. Indeed, the current became strong enough in the 
twelfth century to overflow into Europe. In the transmission of 
Arab medicine to Europe, north-western Africa and Spain, in 
particular Toledo, where Gerard of Cremona and Michael Scot 

1 Mohamcd Rihab in Archzv fur Gcschtckte der Medizin, vol. xix (1927), 
pp. 123-68. 

* For specimens consult Maqqari, vol. i, pp, 625-S; ibn»Kha]liKan, vol. 41. pp 375-6. 

* $a f id, p. S4, copied by ibn-abi-Usaybi'ah, vol. ii, p. 64; ibn-KhalltHn. vol. ii, 
pp. 376-7. * Maqqari, vol. i, p. S99, * Vol. i, pp. 403-943, 



1 Ol : *L * INTELLECTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS , #9 

worked, played the leading part. The initiator of this significant 
movement of acquainting theWestwith the learning of the Arabs 
by means of Latin translation was Constantine the African 
(f 1087), who translated the theoretical part of f Ali ibn-al- 
* Abbas' al-Kitab al-Maliku 1 Born in Carthage of obscure origin, 
> Constantine attached himself for some time to the medical school 
of Salerno, the first medical school of Europe, reputed by legend 
to have been founded by four masters, a Latin, a Greek, a Jew 
and a Saracen. To Constantine, to Gerard of Cremona (f 11 87), 
translator of al-Zahrawi's Tasrtf, al-Razfs al-Man$iiri as well 
as ibn-Sina f s al-Qdntit: f and to Faraj ben-Salim (Fararius, 
Faragut), die Sicilian Jew, who translated al-Razi's al-Hawi in 
1279 and ibn-Jazlah's Taqwzm al-Abddn, medieval Europe was 
chiefly indebted for its knowledge of Arabic medicine. Thereby 
were the three main medical traditions, Moslem, Jewish and 

* Christian, at last brought into a position where they could be 
amalgamated. Through these and similar translations several 
Arabic technical terms were introduced into European lan- 
guages. * < Julep" (Ar. julab, from Pers. guldb, rose-water), for 

* a medicinal aromatic drink; "rob" (Ar. rubb), for a conserve of 
inspissated fruit juice with honey; and "syrup" 3 (Ar.s&ardb), a 
solution of sugar m water made according to an officinal formula 
and often medicated with some special therapeutic, may serve as 
an illustration. "Soda", which in medieval Latin meant headache 
and in the form sadanum headache remedy, comes ultimately 
from Arabic $udc? s splitting pain in the head. Certain medical 
terms were translated, as were certain mathematical terms. 

f 4, Dura mater" and "pia mater" are Latin translations of Arabic 
al-umm al-jdfiyak (the coarse mother) and al-umtn al-raqtqak 
(the thin mother) respectively. Among several chemical terms 
which passed into European languages through Latin from 
Arabic works ascribed to Jabir ibn-yayyan and other Moslem 
alchemists, we may note "alcohol", 3 "alembic", 4 "alkali" (al- 
gait), "antimony", 5 "aludei", c "realgar" 7 and "tutty" « 
The crowning achievement of the intellectual class of Arabs pi 

1 The sttrgical part was done into Latin by a disciple of Constantine, John the 
Saracen (1050-1103), a Salemitan physician. *See above, p. 367, below, p. 663. 

* Tor "sherbet** sec above, p 335. 

* Ar. al fotfii, whence Eng. "coal" possibly also comes. 

* * Ar. eJ-itfMfy originally Gr, s Ar. tthtrtti, of Gr. origin. 

* Ar, ahuthal t \csscls. * Ar. rchj at gh&r, "the powder of the cave"* 

* Ar, t&hya f from Skr* 



S 8o THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partiv 



in Spain was in the realm of philosophic thought. Here they' 
formed the last and strongest link in the chain which transmitted ' 
Greek philosophy, as transmuted by them and their Eastern *. 
co-rcligionists, to the Latin West, adding their own contribution, 
especially in reconciling faith and reason, religion and science. 
To the Moslem thinkers Aristotle was truth, Piato was truth, the 
Koran was truth; but truth must be one. Hence arose the neces- 
sity of harmonizing the three, and to this task they addressed 
themselves. The Christian scholastics were faced by the same 
problem, but their task was rendered more difficult by the 
accumulation of dogmas and mysteries in their theology. Philo- 
sophy as developed by the Greeks and monotheistic religion as 
evolved by the Hebrew prophets were, as noted above, the richest 
legacies of the ancient West and of the ancient East. It is to the 
eternal glory of medieval Moslem thinkers of Baghdad and 
Andalusia that they reconciled these two currents of thought and 
passed them on harmonized into Europe. Their contribution was 
one of first magnitude, considering its effect upon scientific and 
philosophic thought and upon the theology of later times. 

This influx into Western Europe of a body of new ideas, 
mainly philosophic, marks the beginning of the end of the 
"Dark Ages" and the dawn of the scholastic period. Kindled 
by contact with Arab thought and quickened by fresh acquaint- 
ance with ancient Greek lore, the interest of Europeans in 
scholarship and philosophy led them on to an independent and 
rapidly developing intellectual life of their own, whose fruits 
we still enjoy. 

Ben- _ Among the earliest philosophers of Arabic Spain was Solomon 
Gabiroi ben-Gabirol 1 (Avicebron, Avencebrol), a Jew. Solomon was 
born at Malaga about 1021 and died in Valencia about 1058* 
As the first great teacher of Neo-PIatonism in the West, ben- 
Gabirol is often referred to as the Jewish Plato* Like ibn- 
Masarrah 2 before him he was an advocate of the system of 
philosophy fathered on Empedocles. A thousand years before his 
time Platonic philosophy had been Orientalized by Philo, the 
Hellenistic Jewish philosopher of Alexandria, preparatory to its 
Christianization and Islamization, and now in the form of Greco- 

1 Sulaymun ibn-Yahya. ibn-Jabinil. Cf. $a'id, p. 89. 

• See Miguel Asfn, Abenmasarra y su tscuela. Origenes tU la fitosofia hispan* 
musulmana (Madrid, 1914), 



1 cb}xl intellectual CONTRIBUTIONS 58I 

Moslem philosophy it was re-Occidentalized by ben-Gablrol and 
restored to Europe. Ben-GabiroPs main work was Yanbu al~ 
Jlay&k (the fount of life). 1 Translated into Latin in 1150 as Fons 
"vita, it played a part in medieval scholasticism and inspired the 
Franciscan school. 

The twelfth was the greatest century in the history of philo-i 
sophic thought in Moslem Spain. The century opens with abu- 1 
-Bakr Muhammad ibn-Yahya ibn-Bajjah (Avenpace, Avempace), 
philosopher, scientist, physician, musician and commentator on 
'Aristotle, who flourished in Granada and Saragossa and died at 
* Fas in IJ38. Ibn-Bajjah wrote several treatises on astronomy in 
which he criticized Ptolemy's assumptions and thus prepared the 
way for ibn-Tufayl and al-Bitruji, other treatises on materia 
"medica which were quoted by ibn-al-Baytar, and stiil others on 
medicine which exerted a powerful influence over ibn-Rushd. a 
But his most important work, the only one extant besides a 
farewell letter to a friend, is a philosophical treatise entitled 
Tadbtr al-Mutawahhid (De regimtne soliiarit, the regime of the 
solitary), which has been preseived only in a Hebrew abstract. 
The aim of this book is to demonstrate how man unaided may 
attain to union with the Active Intellect, and to teach that the 
gradual perfection of the human spirit through union with the 
divine is the object of philosophy. Moslem biographers con- 
sidered ibn-Bajjah an atheist. 3 

rlbn-Bajjah's philosophic ideas were carried a step further by 
abu-Bakr 4 Muhammad ibn-*Abd-al- Malik ibn-Tufayl, 5 the 
Neo-Platonic philosopher who practised medicine at Granada 
and later became adviser and chief royal physician to the Muwah- 
hid abu-Ya'qub Yusuf (1 163-84) — a combination of functions 
not Unusual in a Moslem state. In 11 82 he resigned his position 
as court physician and was succeeded by his younger philosopher- 
friend ibn-Rushd, whom he had recommended to the caliph. 
These two luminaries shed imperishable lustre on the court of 
1 the early Mmvahhids, a d}'nasty puritanic in theology but liberal 
in its patronage of philosophy. Born in the first decade of this 

aUAkhldq has been edited and translated by Stephen S. Wise (New 

York* 1901). t 

. * Ibn-abi-UsayVah, ^1. **« P* 6 3» makes ibn-Rushd (b. 1 126) ibn Bajjah's pupil. 
* Jbn-KMiHn, vol. ii\ p. 372. * Whence his Latinized name Abubacer. 

Ibn-al-Tufkyl in ibn-abi-Usayba'ah, \ ol. u, p, 78, Cf. ibn abi-Zar% vol. i, p. 135; 
- 1t 4ta\*KhamUn, vol. ili, p. 467. 



582 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partiy 

century, ibn-Tufayl died in 1185 in the Muwahhid capital ' 
Marrakush, where his second* patron the Caliph abu-Yusuf ' 
al-Mansur (1184-99) attended the obsequies. His masterpiece 
was an original philosophic romance entitled Hayy ibn-Yaqsan 
(the living one, son of the vigilant), 1 whose underlying idea was 
that human capacity unassisted by external agency may attain 
to the knowledge of the higher world and may find out by degrees 
its dependence upon a Supreme Being. This story, one of the 
most delightful and original in the literature of the Middle Ages, 
was first translated into Latin by Edward Pococke, the younger 
(167 1), 2 and then into most European languages, including 
Dutch (1672), Russian (1920) and Spanish (1934). Some have 
sought in it an original of Robinson Crusoe. The theory it 
develops is evolutionary. Ibn-Tufayl borrowed his characters' 
names from ibn-Sina's short and lifeless tale of the same title, 
but drew his inspiration from earlier authors beginning with 
al-Farabi. 

The greatest Moslem philosopher, judged by his influence 
especially over the West, was the Hispano-Arab astronomer, 
physician and Aristotelian commentator abu-al-Walid Muham- 
mad ibn-Ahmad ibn-Rushd (Averroes). Ibn-Rushd was born in 
Cordova in 1126, and belonged to a distinguished family which 
had produced several theologians and qadis. In 1169- 71 he 
himself was qadi of Seville and two years later of Cordova. In 
1 1 82 he was called to Marrakesh by abu-Ya f qub Yusuf to 
replace ibn-Tufayl as court physician. Yusufs son and successor 
al-Mansur banished ibn-Rushd in 1194 on a suspicion of heresy 
due to his studies in philosophy, but later recalled him to his 
office in Marrakush, where he died soon afterwards, on Decem- 
ber 10, n 98. 3 His remains were later removed to Cordova. 

Ibn-Rushd's chief contribution to medicine was an encyclo- 
paedic work entitled al-Kulliyat* fi at-Tibb (generalities on 
medicine), in which the fact is recognized that no one is taken 
twice with smallpox and the function of the retina is well under- 

1 I.e. the intellect of man derived from the divine intellect. 

* The translation was published in Oxford together with the Ar. text edited by 
Edward Pococke, the elder. Several editions of the Ar. text appeared in Cairo and 
Constantinople in 1299. There is only one critical edition, that of Leon Gauthier 
(Algiers, 1900; Beirut, 193G) vrith a Fr. translation. 

* Ibn-abi'U§aybi*ah, vol. ii, pp, 76-7; ibn-abi-Zar*, vol. i, pp. 135-6; ibn-Khal- 
hlfvn, vol. iii, p. 467. 

* Corrupted into L. Cothget, not related ctymologically to colligo t to collect. 



ca/xiT ' r INTELLECTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS 583 

stood, But ibn-Rushd, the physician, was entirely eclipsed by 
ihn-Rushd, the philosopher and commentator. His chief philo- 
sophical work, other than his commentaries, was his Takafut 
^TahaftU 1 (the incoherence of the incoherence), a reply to al- 
Ghazzali's attack on rationalism entitled Tahdfut al~Faldsifah 
(the incoherence of the philosophers a ). It was this work for which 
ibn-Rushd was best known, and unfavourably so, in the Moslem 
'world. In the Jewish and Christian worlds, however, he was 
known primarily as a commentator on Aristotle. A medieval 
commentator, we should recall, was an author who composed a 
scientific or philosophic work using some earlier writing as a 
background and framework. Accordingly ibn-Rushd's com- 
mentaries were a series of treatises using in part the titles of 
Aristotle ? s works and paraphrasing their contents. As ibn-Rushd 
knew no Greek he was content to rely on translations made by his 
predecessors in Baghdad, His chief commentaries on Aristotle 
were a short Jam? (summary), an intermediate Talkhts (resume) 
and a long Tafsir or Shark (commentary). 8 Most of ibn-Rushd's 
commentaries have been preserved in Hebrew translations or in 
Latin translations from the Hebrew. Only a few have survived in 
Arabic and even these are generally in Hebrew script.* 

Last* of the great Arabic- writing philosophers, ibn-Rushd 
produced no progeny in Islam. He belonged more to Christian 
Europe than to Moslem Asia or Africa. To the West he became 
"the commentator' 1 6 as Aristotle was "the teacher". Though 
using in most instances a Latin translation of a Hebrew rendi- 
tion of an Arabic commentary upon an Arabic translation of a 
%riac translation of a Greek original, the minds of the Christian 
"schoolmen and scholars of medieval Europe were agitated by 
ibn-Rushd's Aristotle as by no other author. From the end of the 
twelfth to the end of the sixteenth century Averroism remained 
the dominant school of thought, and that in spite of the orthodox 
reaction it created first among the Moslems in Spain, then 
among the Talmudists and finally among the Christian clergy. 

* Bd M&uricfcBouyges(Beirutt930); tr S VanDenBergh,2vol* (Oxford, 1954) 

* Aiistoidum and Nco-Ptatonic; views stated in his Alaqatidal-Faldsiftih (Cairo, 

? Tor a complete list consult Ernest Renan, Averroes el Vaverroisvte, 2nd ed. 
ffaru, 1861}, pp" 58-79; Sarton, Introduction, vol ii, pp. 356 61. 

His Ttttkhts Kit#b al-Mng&tat, a resume of Aristotle's Categories t has been 
tmfed hy Maunce Bou>ges (Beirut, 1932) 

Or to^uote l>ante f "Avcfrols che U gran comento feo", Inferno, canto iv, K 1 44* 



584 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partiv 



Ibn-Rushd was a rationalist and claimed the right to subrriii 
everything save the revealed dogmas of faith to the judgmenl 
of reason, but he was not a free-thinker or unbeliever. His vie^ 
of creation by God was evolutionary: not a matter of days but oi 
eternity. Earlier Moslem Aristotelians had taken for genuine a 
number of apocryphal works, including some of Neo-PIatonic 
character; ibn-Rushd's philosophy involved a return to purer and 
more scientific Aristotelianism. After being purged of objection- 
able matter by ecclesiastical authorities, his writings became 
prescribed studies in the University of Paris and other institu- 
tions of higher learning. With all its excellences and all the mis- 
conceptions collected under its name, the intellectual movement 
initiated by ibn-Rushd continued to be a living factor in Euro- 
pean thought until the birth of modern experimental science, 
ibn* For first place after ibn-Rushd among the philosophers of the 

Mayman Qn jy canc jidate is his Jewish contemporary and fellow 

Cordovan abu-'Imran Musa ibn-Maymun (Heb. Mosheh ben- 
Maimon, 1 L. Maimonides), the most famous of the Hebrew 
physicians and philosophers of the whole Arabic epoch, lbn- 
Maymun was born in Cordova in 1135,* but his family left the 
country as a result of the Muwahhid persecution and settled in 
Cairo about I 165. The claim of al-Qifti 3 and ibn-abi-Usaybi'ah 4 
that in Spain ibn-Maymun professed Islam in public but prac- 
tised Judaism in secret has recently been subjected to sharp 
criticism. In Cairo he became the court physician of the cele- 
brated Salah-al-Dln and of his son al-Malik al- f AzTz. From 
XI 77 on he held the chief religious office of the Jewish com- 
munity 5 at Cairo, where he died in 1204. In accordance with his 
will his body was carried by hand over the route once taken by 
Moses and buried in Tiberias, where his unpretentious tomb is 
still visited by throngs of pilgrims. Ailing people among the poor 
Jews of modern Egypt still seek their cure by spending the night 
in the underground chamber of the synagogue of Rabbi Mosheh 
ben-Maimon in Cairo. 

Ibn-Maymun distinguished himself as astronomer, theologian, 
physician and above all as philosopher. His medical science was 

1 Also referred to as Mdsheh kaz~timan % "the Moses of his time". A popular 
Jewish saying, "From Moses to Moses there was none like Moses [Maimomdcs]", 
expresses the eminent position he has ever held in Jewish estimation. 

* His eight-hundredth anniversary was observed throughout the civilised world. 

• Pp, 318-19. * Vol. ii, p. 117. * At. ra's al*mitlah % Heb. n&gld. 



CH| jo, r INTELLECTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS 585 

thccstandard Galcnism of his time derived from al-Razi, ibn- s 
Stna and ibn-Zuhr and enlivened by rational criticism based on 
personal observation. Ibn-Maymun improved the method of 
circumcision, ascribed hemorrhoids to constipation, prescribing 
for them a light diet predominantly vegetarian, and held ad- 
vanced ideas on hygiene. His most popular medical work was 
al'Fupl/ fi al-Tibb (aphorisms of medicine). His leading philo- 
sophical work bore the title Daldlat af-Ildfmn 1 (the guide of the 
perplexed); in this he tried to reconcile Jewish theology with 
Moslem Aristotelianism or, in broader terms, faith with reason. 
Prophetic visions he explained as psychical experiences. To this 
extent at least he stood as the champion of scientific thought 
against biblical "fundamentalism" and aroused the anger of 
conservative theologians, who referred to his book as JDaldlah 
(misguidance, error). His philosophic ideas resembled those of 
ibn-Rushd, though developed independently. Like Ibn-Rushd he 
knew no Greek and depended entirely on Arabic translations. 
The theory of creation which he propounded, but did not share, 
was the atomistic one as distinguished from the two others held 
by t the Arabic-writing thinkers, namely, the fundamentalist 
theory, which made God creator of everything, and the philo- 
sophical, which was Neo-Platonic and Aristotelian. His works, 
with one major exception, were written in Arabic, but m Hebrew 
characters, and were soon translated into Hebrew and later in 
part into Latin. Their influence, far-reaching in space and time, 
was exerted mainly over Jews and Christians. Down to the 
eighteenth century they remained the principal medium through 
which Jewish thought reached the Gentiles. Modern critics detect 
traces of that influence in the Dominicans, as attested by the 
works of Albertus Magnus, in Albertus* rival, Duns Scotus, in 
Spinoza and even in Kant. 

f The ruling mystic of the age was another Hispano-Arab, ibn- 
abu-Bakr Muhammad ibn-*Ali Muhyi-al-Dln ibn- T Arabi, 2 the]£™ 
greatest speculative genius of Islamic Sufism. Ibn- c Arabi was 
born in Murcia (Mursiyah) in 1 165 and flourished mainly in 
Seville until v 1 201 -2, when he made the holy pilgrimage, after 

1 "Edited in Hebrew characters and translated into French by Salomon Munk 
3 vols. (Paris, 1856-66). 

» 1 tite East he is generally known as ibn-*Arabi to distinguish him from his 
fellow countryman and tr&ditiomst abu-BaKr ibn-al-*Arabi. Among his msbaks ht 
bore al-rTatlmi at- Wi. implying descent from tfatim al-Ta*i 



c86 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY paktiy 



which he remained in the East till his death at Damascus in 
1240. 1 There his tomb, enshrined in a mosque, is still standing. 
The twelfth century witnessed in the East the beginnings of a 
vast organization of Moslem religious life corresponding to the 
monastic orders in medieval Christendom, and ibn-*Arabi, who 
represented the illuministic {ishraqi) or pseudo-Empedoclean, 
Neo-Platonic and pantheistic school founded by ibn-Masarrah 
and ben-GabIr5l, was the man to give this Sufi movement its 
frame%vork of speculative philosophy. The greatest exponent 
of this school in the East was al-Suhrawardi (f 1191), whose 
Persian origin and emphasis on the metaphysics of light reveal 
Manichaean-Zoroastrian influence and whose major work was 
Hik?nat al-Ishraq (wisdom of illumination). The illuministic 
school was so called because, according to its mystical theory, 
God and the world of spirits should be interpreted as light and 
our process of cognition as an illumination from above through 
the intermediary of the spirits of the spheres. 2 To his followers 
ibn-'Arabi was al-shaykh al-akbar % the grand master. His 
system is embedded in an enormous mass of writings, 3 of which 
the most influential are al-Fuiukdt al-Makklyah* (the Makkan 
revelations) and Fusiis al-Hzkam 5 (the bezels of wise precepts). 
It is in chapter 167 of the Futilhat* headed "KTmiya* al-Sa'adah 11 
(the alchemy of happiness), which contains an esoteric allegory 
of the ascension of man to heaven, and in another work still 
unpublished, entitled al-lsra Ha Maqam aUAsra (the nocturnal 
journey toward the station of the Most Magnanimous One), 
where he develops the theme of the Prophet's ascension to the 
seventh heaven, that ibn-'Arabi anticipates Dantc. ? 

In jurisprudence ibn-*Arabi nominally belonged to the Zahiri 
(litcralist) school of his compatriot ibn-rjazm; in matters of 
speculative belief he passed for a battni (esoteric); 8 in philosophic 
theory he was a pantheistic monist, as his doctrine wahdai 
al-wujud (the unity of existence) justly proclaims him. His 
central theme was that tilings pre-exist as ideas (a'yan t/tdbiiah) 

1 Ibn-al-Jawzi, Mir at al-Zamati, cd, James R Jeuett (Chicago, 1907), p. 4S7; 
Maqqari, vol. 1, p 5675 Kutubi, \ol. u, p. 301 ; al Sha'riim, aU Yaxvaqtt wal+Javs&ktr 
(Cairo, 1905), p S. 

* Consult Hajn Khalfah, vol, iii, pp. 87 seg ; Carra de Vaux in Jcntrncd astatiguc, 
sen 9, vol. xix (1902), pp. 63 94. 

* Of the 580 works credited to him Brockclmann, vol, i, pp. 442-8, lists 150 as 
existing at the' present day, * 2nd ed , 4 vols. (Bulaq, 1293), * (Buliiq, 1252). 

Vol. ii, pp. 3C6-75. * See above, p. 1 14, 9 Maq'qari, vol. i, pp. 569 seq. 



CH.jOT < INTELLECTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS < 587 

in the-knorckdge of God, whence they emanate and whither 
they return* There is no creation ex nikito\ the world is merely 
the outer aspect of God, who is its inner aspect. Between the 
Essence £nd its attributes, Le. God and the universe, there is no 
real'difFercnce. Here Moslem mysticism passes into pantheism. 
The" divine manifests itself in the human, and the perfect man 
(ahinsan ai-kdmz!) is, of course, Muhammad. Muhammad is 
also the kalimah, the logos, as Jesus was. The true mystic, in the 
judgment of ibn-'Arabi, has but one guide, the inner light, and 
,will find God in all religions. 1 

The influence of the iliuministic school, whose greatest Spanish 
* representative ibn-'Arabi was, is manifest not only in Persian 
and Turkish Sufi circles 5 but in the so-called Augustinian 
scholastics such as Duns Scotus, Roger Bacon and Raymond 
LaiIL 3 Another Murcian, abu-Muhammad 'Abd-al-Haqq ibn- 
Sab'in if a, 1217-69)* stood for the same type of thinking and 
writing as ibn- c Arabi. His pre-eminence in Sufi circles won him 
the enviable title Qutb-al-Dln (the pole of religion). But he is 
best known for the answers he wrote, al-Ajwthah 'an al-As\!ak 
al-Siqillfyah* (answers to the Sicilian questions), to the learned 
questions on the eternity of matter, the nature and immortality 
of fixe soul, the object of theology and the like asked by Frederick 
II of Hohenstaufen and transmitted by the Muwahhid r Abd-al- 
Wahid al-Rashld (1232-42). Ibn-Sab f in, who was then residing 
at Ceuta, answered at some length in terms of Islamic orthodoxy 
and offered to set the Christian emperor of Sicily right in a 
personal interview. In the meantime he refused the reward of 
money which accompanied the questionnaire. Ibn-Sab'in's other 
leading work is Asrar al-Ffikmah al-Mashriqiyah (the mysteries 
of iliuministic philosophy), still unpublished. He was one of the 
rare Moslems in history who committed suicide, and that by 
7 opening a vein in his wrist while sojourning in Makkah. 6 

r 1 Iba'Aiabi, Tarjtttnan cUAshwSq^ ed. and tr. Nicholson (I^ondon, ion), 
pp. 19,67. 

a The greatest of the Sufi poets, Jalal-al-DTn al-Rurm, who died some thirty years 
afteribrt** Arabi, was linked to the latter through one of ibn-*Arabi's papth 

* In 1ns El Islam cnxtiarizado (Madrid, 1931), Asfn develops the thesis that 
Moslem Sufism as represented by ibn-'Arabi was consciously or unconsciously an 
latftauon of Christian monastic mjstxcism. 

* StiU unpublished. See M. Aman, BibhcUta Arabo*Stcula (Leipzig, 1855-?), 
TJ>v573-7^ in J&umal mtattqm^ ser. 5, vol. i (1853), pp 340 74. See also A. F. 
Mebren t lac, ctt xoh xxv <x879), pp. 341-454. 

* Kutubii Tel. i* 1>. 116* 



583 



THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN ANP SICILY part iv 



Toledo, In the process of transmitting the treasures of Arabic erudition 
2^° r into the West, Toledo, vthich maintained its position after the 
uori Christian conquest in 1085 as an important centre of Islamic 
learning-, acted as the main channel. Here through the initiative 
of Archbishop Raymond I (1 126-52) arose a regular school for 
translation. In it asenes of translators flourished from about 1 135 
to 1284. Scholars were attracted from various parts of Europe, 
including the British Isles, whence hailed Michael Scot and Robert 
of Chester. 1 In 1145 Robert made the first translation of ai- 
Khwarizmfs algebra; in 1 143 he had completed with Hermann the 
Dalmatian for Peter the Venerable the first Latin translation of the 
Koran. It was also in Toledo that the first school of Oriental studies 
in Europe was established, in 1250, by the Order of Preachers 
with a view to preparing missionaries to Moslems and Jews. 

The name of Adelard of Bath, who is said to have visited Spain 
at this time, is one of the greatest in English science before Roger 
Bacon. After sojourning in Sicily and Syria Adelard turned into 
Latin in 1126 the astronomical tables of al-Majriti, which were 
based on those of al-Khwanzmi and included tables of sines. 
He translated a number of other mathematical and astronomical 
treatises and became the first of a long line of English Arabists. 
The Scotsman Michael Scot (f ca. 1236), one of the founders of 
Latin Averroism, studied and worked in Spain before becoming 
court astrologer to Frederick II of Sicily. In Toledo he translated 
among several other works al-Bitruji's astronomy, al-Hayah, 
and Aristotle's De coelo et mundo with ibn-Rushd's commentary; 
in Sicily he translated other Arabic books which he dedicated to 
Frederick. The most important of these was ibn-Sina's version 
of Aristotle's zoology, Abbreviatto Amccnne de ammahbiis. But 
the most prolific of the Toledan translators was Gerard of 
Cremona, who before his death in 1 187 had rendered into Latin 
al-Farghani's version of Ptolemy's Almagest, al-Farabi's com- 
mentary on Aristotle, Euclid's Elements and viinous treatises of 
Aristotle, Galen and Hippocrates— in all seventy-one Arabic works. 

As we have seen, Jews, both orthodox and converted, played 
a major role in this work of translation. One of the earliest among 
them was Abraham ben-Ezra of Toledo (f 1 167), a distinguished 
biblical commentator who translated two treatises on astrology 

1 See Charles H. Has kins, Studies tn the Htstory of Mediaeval Science^ 2nd cd. 
(Cambridge, 1927), ch. i. 



crIxl , intellectual CONTRIBUTIONS . 589 

by Ms earlier co-religionist of the East, MSsha'allah 1 (f 815). 
He also translated al-Birum's commentary on al-Khwarizrni's 
tables* Ben-Ezra's contemporary, John of Seville (Joannes 
Hispalensis, > often confused with a Mozarab Christian), a 
baptized Jew, flourished in Toledo about 1135-53 under the 
patronage of Archbishop Raymond and translated works on 
arithmetic! astronomy and astrology, medicine and philosophy 
by al-Farghani, abu-Ma*shar f al-Kindi, ben-Gablrol and al- 
GhazzalL Of these the most important was al-Farghani's 
astronomy, John presumably translated from Arabic into the ver- 
nacular, Castilian, and an associate put the Castilian into Latin. 

By the close of the thirteenth century Arabic science and 
philosophy had been transmitted to Europe, and Spain's work 
as an intermediary was done. The intellectual avenue leading 
from the portals of Toledo through the Pyrenees wound its 
v?ay through Provence and the Alpine passes z into Lorraine, 
Germany and Central Europe as well as across the Channel 
A into England. 8 Among the cities of southern France deserving 
mention are Marseille, where Raymond in 1 140 drew up planet- 
ary tables based on those of Toledo; Toulouse, where Hermann 
the Dalmatian completed in 1143 al-Majriti's translation of 
Ptolemy's Planispharium\ Narbonne, where Abraham ben- 
Ezra translated in 1160 al-Blruni's commentary on al-Khwa- 
„ rizmi's tables; and Montpellier, which in the thirteenth century 
4 became the chief centre of medical and astronomical studies in 
France, In eastern France Cluny, whose famous abbey housed 
a number of Spanish monks, was during the twelfth century a 
'significant focus for the diffusion of Arab learning. Its abbot, 
' Peter the Venerable, sponsored (1141-3) the first Latin transla- 
tion of the Koran, besides various pamphlets directed against 
Islam. Arabic science, introduced into Lorraine (Lotharingia) 
- in the tenth century, made that region a centre of scientific 
influence in the following two centuries, Liege, Gorze and 
* Cologne, among other Lotharingian cities, provided the most 
fertile soil for the germination of Arab learning. From Lorraine 
it radiated into other parts of Germany and was transported 

1 Mentioned in Fthnsl, p> 273. * See below, p. 605. 

* The first book printed in England, The Dtctts and Sayengis of the Pkihsophrcs 
I fcyTYitikm Caxton at Westminster in 1477, was based on Mukhtar ci-fftkam wa. 
" MahsHn *hl£ekm t by a Syro-Egyplian prince abu-aJ-Wafa* Mubashshir ibn^Fatik, 
a io« fed. 'Abd-sd-Kabraan Badawi, Madrid, 1958). 



590 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY PARTiv 



into Norman England by men bom or educated in Lorraine. 
Embassies between German kings in the north and Moslem 
rulers in Spain were frequent and intellectually fruitful As early 




From Ameer AH, "A Short Hittsty cf the Saracens'* (Afainri/ffin &> Co., Ltd.) 



PAVILION IN THE COUKT OF LIONS, ALHAMBRA, GRANADA 

as 953 Otto the Great, king of the Germans, sent as an envoy a 
Lotharingian monk, John by name, who resided in Cordova 
for nearly three years, probably learned Arabic and brought 
back with him scientific manuscripts. 1 Thus did Spanish Arabic 
learning permeate all Western Europe. 

1 "Vita Johannis abbatis Gomensis*', G. H. Pertz, Afonumenta Gcrtr.asiia 
histories, scriptures rerum Gertncm'carum, vol* iv, pp. 337*77- 



CHAPTER XLI 



j. ART AND ARCHITECTUKE 



THE Arabs in Spain carried on almost all the minor and practical Mm® 
am developed by Moslems in other lands. In metal -work 1 **** 
involving decoration, raising patterns in relief or engraving them, 
inlaying with "gold and silver 2 and inscribing character the 
Hispano-Moresque school excelled. One of the earliest speci- 
mens is a relic of Hisharn II (976-1009) preserved on the high 
altar of the Cathedral of Gerona in the form of a wooden casket 
'sheathed with silver-gilt plating patterned in repoztssi with 
scroll-like foliation* It bears an Arabic inscription stating that 
ifc is the work of two craftsmen, Badr and Tarif, and was made 
for a courtier of al-IJakam II as a present for the heir 

apparent, Hisham* In metal-work such as cutlery, sword blades 
and astrolabes Toledo and Seville 3 were especially noted. Ne^t 
to damascene blades, toledos had the finest temper and the 
greatest elasticity. The astrolabe, an astronomical instrument 
of ancient Greek invention, was perfected by the Moslems and 
introduced into Europe in the tenth century. Besides its use to 
.determine the hour of prayer and the geographical position of 
Makkah, the astrolabe was invaluable to mariners for nautical 
observations and was' a necessary adjunct of the astrologer's 
equipment. In the story told by the tailor in the Arabian Nights 
°(no^29), the glib barber exasperates his customer by trying to 
find with an astrolabe the precise moment auspicious for shaving. 
*A properly executed astrolabe is a beautiful work of art. 
4 Enamelling found no high favour with Moslem metal-workers, o 
butinthe application of coloured glazes to earthenware, Moslems 
were from an early period past masters. Valencia was the Moslem 
centre of this industry in the West- The importation of its pro- 
ducts laid the foundation of the pottery industry at Poitiers. 

+ Sp* ctlhcfa, jewel, is. from Ar. al^ajah. 

* Generally known as damascening, from European association oT the work v,Ith 
Damascus, * 1 * Miqqari* vol i» p t24. 

591 



592 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY part nr 



In the fifteenth century we find imitations of this Moslem pottery 
produced as far north as Holiand. From Spain the industry was 
meanwhile introduced into Italy, Its influence is noticeable in 
the later Spanish vessels, with their pseudo-Arabic inscriptions 
and Christian heraldic devices. In other forms of ceramics, as 
well as mosaics, especially tile and blue faience, the Spanish 
Moslem school distinguished itself. The various kinds of coloured 
tiles still favourites in Spain and Portugal are a legacy from 
the Arabs, as the name azulejo x suggests. In the eyes of modem 
collectors the Mudejar lustre pottery ranks only below the 
Chinese. Exquisite pottery was manufactured in Toledo and 
Cordova as early as the third quarter of the eleventh century, 
after which Calatayud (Qal*at Ayyub), 2 Malaga and above all 
Maniscs in Valencia became famous for this ware. In the 
manufacture and colouring of glass, however, Spain could not 
compete with Syria. 
Textiles In the development of the sumptuous textile arts which made 
the Arabic-speaking peoples the leading fabric-makers and silk 
mercers in the medieval world, the Arabs of Spain had a share; 3 
but in carpet-making Spain offered no serious competition to 
the Eastern, especially Persian, market. Cordova was a centre 
of the weaving industry. Aimena is said to have had four 
thousand eight hundred looms. 4 Just as al-Mawsil exported to 
Italy the fabric known there as mussolina t whence our 1 Muslin", 
and Baghdad supplied the same market with the rich silk cloth 
bearing the Italianized name baldacco and with the silken 
canopies, "baldachin", 6 suspended over the altars in many 
Western churches, so did Granada in later times supply the 
European dress shops with grenadines. Such Oriental silk 
textiles, with their rich colouring and floral and geometrical 
designs, were in limited demand for church vestments, for 
wrapping relics of saints 6 and for aristocratic and royal robes. 
As the importation of finely wrought stuffs from Moslem lands 
increased in Europe, Western enterprise saw in this industry a 
potential source of wealth and began to set up looms in various 

1 Ar. ahsulcyju Sec Maqqari, vol. i, p. 124. 

* Idiisi, ?ifat al-lfaghrib (Lcvdcn), p. 1S9. 

* Ibn-tfawqal, p, 79; Isfakhri, p. 44, h S; ibn-al-Kbajib, tamjtah, p. 13; Maqqari, 
vol. i, pp. 123*4. 

* Maqqari, vol a, p. 102. 

* See below, p. 668. * See above, pp. 422-3; below, p. 668. 



-CH-XU ;: A Rr ANr> ARCHITECTURE 593 

centres of France and Italy. In these early factories some Moslem 

> workmen were undoubtedly at first employed. 
- As in ftietal- and glass-work, pottery, architecture and other 
departments of decorative art, so in textiles we have between 
the fourteenth and sixteenth centunes numerous examples of 
European work bearing the stamp of Islamic style. In fact, as 
early as the twelfth century the adoption of Islamic designs by 
European weavers became frequent, 

"and from thaftime on we h&venumcr- 

* ous illustrations of the use of mean- 
ingless imitation of Arabic script 
merely for decorative purposes. We 
should also remember that in Spain, 
and to a greater extent in Sicily, 

- Oriental workmen lingered long- after 
^Jsiam had receded; hence the com* 

binafion of Christian and Islamic 

elements in the forms of art and 

'architecture known as Mudejar and 
^the Islamic features in the Sicilian art 
-and architecture of the Norman period. 
^Mudejar workmen excelled in wood- 
work, pottery and textiles* To this day 

the <- Spanish carpenter uses in his 

'trade words that are largely Arabic* 
/ Tn^ornament executed in relief the 

Spanish Arab 7 carvers and modellers 

- followed the same system of design that 
^governed their practice in flat surface decoration and other modes iv 

of technical expression. In the tenth century a school of ivory- 
carvers centred at Cordova and produced many beautiful caskets 
and boxes" irtade partly or wholly of ivory and decorated with 
carved, inlaid or painted ornaments. Some of the ornaments re- 
presented musical performances and hunting-scenes illustrating 
the use of animal forms as a decorative motif. Such containers were 
>ften used as jewel cases and perfume or sweetmeat boxes. The 
inscriptions they bear indicate that they were often intended for 
gifts. One of the finest examples of this work is a cylindrical 
^casketmade in A.H. 353 (964), as the inscription round the 
domed lid reads, for the Caliph al-tfakarn II as a gift to his wife. 




CAKVED IVORY CASKET 

Made in Cordons, a d 964, and 
nov in the Musco Arqucolocjico, 
Madrid 



594 



THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY pahtiv 



The sides are entirely covered with palmettes in addition to pea- 
cocks and other birds. 

Ail monuments of religious art in Spain have perished with 
the exception of one of the earliest and grandest, the great 
Mosque of Cordova. The foundation was laid by 'Abd-al-Rah- 




FkoL': A rex it i M*ts 

INTERIOR OF THE GREAT MOSQl'E OF CORDOVA 



man I in 786 on the site of a Christian church which was origin- 
ally a Roman temple. 1 The main part of the mosque was com- 
pleted in 793 by his son Hisham I, who added the square 
minaret. The Spanish minarets followed the African style, which 
was of Syrian origin (above, p. 452). Additions to the Cordova 
mosque were made by Hisham's successors. Twelve hundred 
and ninety-three columns, a veritable forest, supported its roof. 
Brass lanterns made from Christian bells 2 illuminated the build- 
ing. "One chandelier held a thousand lights; the smallest held 

* See above, pp. 50S-9. * Cf. above, p. 533. 



t ' s 

at.m , " % ART AND ARCHITECT VRK 595 

twelve. 01 For the decoration of the building Byzantine crafts- 
men were*empIoyed, as they may have been employed in the 
Umayyad mosques of Syria* Eighty thousand gold pieces from 
the spoils of the Goths were spent on the structure by its 
founder. Enlargements and repairs were made on it down to 

^ aH^ajib al-Mansur ^977-1000). Today it is a cathedral to the 

' Virgin of the Assumption* 

' " Of the secular monuments the Alcazar 3 of Seville and the 
Alhambra of Granada, with their profuse but graceful decora- 
tions, are thejnost superb remains* Of Madinat al-Zahra*, now 
called CcVdoba la Vieja, built by 'Abd-al-Rahman III and hts 
successors with columns imported from Rome, Constantinople 

"and Carthage, very little has been left to show its former splen- 

* dour. It is noteworthy that the caliph set up over the gateway a 
Jstatue of his favourite concubine, whose name the palace bore. 

He is, moreover, said to have brought for it from Constantinople 
a fountain decorated with human figures. On the occasion of the 
Berber revolt of iojo the Madinah was sacked and set on fire. 
About the same time the similarly named villa of al-Mansur, ai- 
Ma&mah* al-Zahirah, which lay to the east of Cordova, was like- 
" wise destroyed by the Berbers and has now entirely disappeared. 
,The oldest part of thfc Alcazar of Seville was built by a 
Toledan architect for the Muwahhid governor in 1199-1200. 
It was restored in the Moslem style by Mudejar workmen for 
King Peter the Cruel in 1353 and was used until a few years ago 
as a royal residence. Among the many Alcazars in Cordova, 
Toledo and other Spanish towns, this of Seville is the most re- 
nowned and the only one surviving. Seville boasts another 
Muwahhid monument, the Giralda tower, originally the minaret 
of the great mosque. Erected in n 84, this minaret was decorated 
wittTcusped arcading, anticipating later Gothic tracery* 

The Hispano-Moslem system of decoration reached its cuUi 
tninating point in the Nasrid palace Alhambra. 4 This acropolis 

* of Granada, with its excessive decoration in mosaics, stalactites 
and inscriptions, was conceived and constructed on so extensive 
and magnificent a scale that it has been accepted as the last 

i 1 *XJmmtMasdlti al Ab?arfi Mamahk al-Amrfr, ed Ahmad ZaH, \ol i (Cairo, 

1 Cf. above, pp, 264, 265 a For etymology see abo\e t p. 107, n 2. 

* Tor the best reproduction': consult the illustrations m Albert F. Cahcrt, The 
M&atnbrs, 2ndcd (London, 1907) 



596 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partiv 

word in such workmanship. Begun by Muhammad I al-Ghalib 
about 1248, its construction was completed by abu-al-tjajjaj 




Frcm Arnold and Guilhumr, "TAt lefctey 0/ Is Jam," hy <ourt<sy cj tkt Ciartndon Prtti 

THE HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS IN THE ALCAZAR, SEVILLE 
With coloured tiles representing Mudcjar workmanship 

Yusuf (1333-54) and by his successor Muhammad V al-Ghani 
(1354-9). Most of the interior decoration is ascribed by the 



CH ;xu . ~ ART AND ARCHITECTURE „ 597 

t inscriptions on the walls to abu-al-JJajjaj. The most celebrated 
portion is the Court of Lions, In the centre of this court twelve 
- marble lions stand in a circle, each spouting a jet of water from 
? its mouth? Among the surrounding profusion of decoration these 
lions, together with the ceiling of the so-called Hall of Justice, 
are the most important monuments of art. The ceiling depicts 
'scenes painted on leather illustrating tales of chivalry and hunt- 
ing episodes, besides tea rulers seated on an oval bench. Certain 
inscriptions embody al-Ghalib's motto, wa-la gkalib ilia Allah 
(hut therels no conqueror other than Allah); others, employed 
for decorative purposes only, are represented as addressing the 
i visitor in their function of ornament. 
- The" horseshoe form of arch, which became characteristic of The 
Western Moslem architecture, was represented in northern Syria, 
Ctesiphon and other places even before Islam. The pointed arch, 
which later became the distinctive feature of Western Gothic 
r architecture, appears first in Islam in the Umayyad Mosque 
of > Damascus and Qusayr 'Amrah. 1 The round horseshoe 
variety was used at the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus. This 
" last type, which in the West became known as the Moorish arch, 
" s undoubtedly existed in Spain before the Arab conquest, but it 
r was the Spanish, more particularly the Cordovan Moslems, who 

* realized its structural and decorative possibilities and adopted 

* it generally. Another contribution of Arab Cordova, which was 
« truly original, was the system of vaulting based on intersecting 
"arches and visible intersecting ribs. 

These and. other architectural features developed at Cordova 
were carried to Toledo and other centres in the north of the 

* peninsula by Mozarabs. Here by merging of Christian and 
Moslem traditions arose a definite style characterized by almost 

" regular use of the horseshoe arch and the vault. In the hands of 
Mudejaf workmen this mixed art attained great beauty and 
» perfection and became the Spanish national style. Mudejar 
jffork is still to be seen all over the country. The Spanish language 
has preserved -several architectural terms which attest an Arabic 
, ' origin.* 

^ l ' 1 See above, p. .diy. Cf. Bell, Ukhaigtr y pp. 5, 9, ta, pi. 7, fig. 1; C. Leonard 
, , „ WpoNcy, The Summons (Oxford, igaS), pp. 36-7. 

* £.g,: adeguin (Ar. kodd8n) % paving stcmc;~afaccnG (Ar. al-khizdnah), cupboard; 

* clbcntl, Tg. awenel (Ar. d-BanruP), builder; cfcola, Pg. alcoba (Ar. ct gubbak, 
t whence Eng. alcove), bedroom: wtdamte* Pg. andaime (Ar. al-a*?£ma£) t scaffolding: 



598 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partiv 

The cornet-stone of Spanish musical art was laid by Ziryab, 
a disciple of the Mawsili school of Baghdad. Ziryab arrived in 
822 in Cordova, where his knowledge of more songs than any 
other artist, his mastery over the physical sciences, his magnetic 
personality and his refined manner and ready wit made him the 
social model. 1 It was at Cordova under the patronage of f Abd-al- 
Rahman II that Ziryab, who has also been credited with sub- 
stituting eagles* talons for wooden plectra, added a fifth string 
to the lute and opened a school which became the conservatory 
of Andalusian music. Other schools followed in Seville, Toledo, 
Valencia and Granada. 

After Ziryab, abu-al-Qasirn 'Abbas ibn-Firnas (f 888) is 
given the largest share of credit for introducing Oriental music 
into Spain and popularizing it. To his ingenuity is ascribed the 
discovery of making glass "from stones", as well as the construc- 
tion in his home of a sort of planetarium where one could see 
stars, clouds and even lightning. Ibn-Firnas was the first man in 
Arab history to make a scientific attempt at flight. His flying 
equipment consisted of a suit of feathers with wings, which, we 
are told, carried him a long distance in the air. When he alighted, 
however, he hurt himself because his suit was not provided with 
a tail. 2 The musical theory and practice introduced by Ziryab 
and ibn-Firnas were naturally the Perso-Arabic, but gradually 
this system gave way to the Greek and Pythagorean theories as 
works from Greek were translated into Arabic. 

In general the Western Moslems proved themselves more 
addicted to the sweet art than their Eastern co-religionists. By 
the eleventh century the music of Andalusia had almost paled 
the fame of Baghdad. At that time Seville under the 'Abbadids, 
who for a short period also ruled Cordova, became the centre of 
the music, song and other gaieties which we usually associate 
with the Moors in the smiling plains of Andalusia. One of the 
'Abbadids, al-Mu'tamid (1068-91), was not only a gifted poet 
but also a singer and performer on the lute. The 'Abbadid 
capital became famous for its manufacture of musical instru- 

azotea, Pg. afotria {Ar. ct'Sufayltah), flat roof, clgibe (Ar. etl-jubb, the cistern), 
ogive. On keddan sec D. Xeopoldo de EguiJaz y Yan^uas, Glosano tttmolcgjco 
de las palabras espanolas de origen oriental (Granada, 1 886). Cf. R. Dozy and \V. H- 
Engelrnann, Gloss aire des wots espagnols et poriugais derives de Vcrabe, 2nd cd. 
(Leydcn, 1S69); alkndhdhdn in ibn-Jubayr, p. 331 » 1, 18. 
* See above, p, 514. 2 Maqqari, vol ii, p. 254. 



^CHXU * ART AND ARCHITECTURE 599 

menfs, in which it developed an export trade. From the Murabit 
period we have from the pen of the philosopher ibn-Bajjah 
(f 1138), who flourished at Seville and Fas, a treatise on music, 
now lost, which Avas as much appreciated in the West as al- 
FarabFs work in the East. To another philosopher, ibn-Sab f In 
(f 1269) of the Muwahhid period, we owe a discussion of related 
musical notes called Kitab al-Adwar al-Mansub, of which a 

• solitary copy is preserved in Cairo. 1 In the course of a debate, 
held in the presence of the third Muwahhid sovereign, al-MansOr 
(1184-99), between ibn-Rushd and abu-Bakr Muhammad ibn- 
Zuhr, on the relative excellences of Seville and Cordova, ibn- 
Rushd, arguing Cordova's case, made this illuminating remark: 
"I know not what you are talking about, but one thing I do 
know: When a scholar dies in Seville and his estate wants his 
books soldj the books are carried to Cordova, where a market is 
found. But when a musician dies in Cordova his instruments are 
carried to Seville for sale." 2 

As the Christian population accepted the lyric models of the infl 
Moslems, Arab songs grew popular throughout the peninsula. ^ 
Moslem musicians flourished at the courts of the kings of Castile 
and Aragon, Long after the fall of Granada, Moorish dancers 
and singers continued to entertain the natives of Spam and 
Portugal. 3 The recent researches of Ribera 4 tend to show that 
the popular music of Spain {musica fictd) % in fact of all south* 
western Europe, in and after the thirteenth century, like the lyric 
and historical romance of that region, is to be traced to Anda- 
7 lusian and thence through Arabic to Persian, Byzantine and 
* Greek sources. Even as philosophy and mathematics and medicine 

v travelled from Greece and Rome to Bvzantium, Persia and 
Baghdad, then to Spain, and thence to all Europe, so did several 
phases of musical theory and practice. Many of the instruments 
shown in the early Spanish miniatures and even some of the 
performers are of unmistakable Moslem origin. 
Some of the early Spanish miniatures show Arab musicians 

u 

1 .Ahmad TaymQr in a/*!KfdJ f vol, xxvm (1919), p 214. 

* M&qqan, vol i, pp 9s, 302 

* The Morris dmce of England, as the name indicates, is of Moorish origin. 

* Histerta de la tt'tlsxea drabe medieval y su xnfiuencta cn*la espanola (Madrid, 
t 11927). Munc w Ancttnt Arabia and Spain; Being la rttfttca de fas canttgas f tr and 
~ v *bt, Eleanor Hague and Manon Leffingwell (Stanford University, 1929), esp. ch. xu; 

Ditertaaoncst vol. it, pp. 3-174. 

s 



6oo THE ARABS IN EUROPE- SPAIN AND SICILY part \v 



playing a game of chess. 1 Spanish provides the first description 
of the game in a European language and that in a work of 
Alfonso X * king of Castile and Leon from 1252-82 and the 
greatest apostle of Moslem learning in Christian Spain. Alfonso 
was the man responsible for that great collection of poetry, 
Cantigas de Santa Maria, the music of which, according to 
Ribera, was of Moslem-Andalusian origin. Besides this collection 
and the astronomical Alfonsine tables, this monarch compiled a 
code of laws which bears traces of Islamic influence and which 
has become the basis of Spanish jurisprudence. 

Reference has already been made to Arabic poetical influence 
in the troubadours, who resembled Arab singers not only in 
sentiment and character but also in the very forms of their 
minstrelsy. Certain titles which these Proven gal singers gave to 
their songs are but translations from Arabic titles. Adelard of 
Bath, who studied music at Paris, was probably the translator 
of al-Khwarizmi's mathematical treatise as Liber ysagogamm 
Alchonsmi, which comprised a section on music. This treatise 
was, therefore, one of the first to introduce Arab music into the 
Latin world. In Adelard's days, the first half of the twelfth cen- 
turyj the Arabs were already in possession of several ancient 
Greek treatises on music as well as some most important original 
works by al-Kindi, al-Farabi, ibn-STna and ibn-Bajjah. Before 
the end of the century many of these original works had become 
known in Europe through Latin translations made at Toledo. It 
is significant that in this same period a new principle appears in 
Christian European music, the principle that notes have an exact 
time value or ratio among themselves. The first to give an ex- 
position of this mensural music or measured song was the elusive 
Franco of Cologne (ea. 1 190). His notation, called the Franconian 
notation, is not essentially different from our own. Under the name 
iqa\ rhythm, this same measured music had formed a constituent 
part of Arab music for at least four centuries prior to Franco's 
age and was fully described by al-Kindi (fl. ca. 870; above, p. 370). 

1 Sp. ajedres (formerly axcdrcz), Pg. xadrez, all derived from Ar. al-shifranj, 
which is borrowed from Skr. through Pers See abo\c, p 339 Playing cards vrcrc 
either of Arab origin or transmitted to Europe by Arabs: Sp. natpe^ It. naib t for 
playing card, comes from Ar. n&'tb (governor) represented on a fifteenth -century 
pick now in Istanbul. L. A. Mayer, Bulletin de I Jnstxtut Francois d ' Archeologie 
Orientate, vol. aoexvin (1939), pp. 1x3 

9 For illustration consult John G. White, El trztada de ojedreg det Rey d. Alonso 
el Sabio, del ana 1283 (Leipzig, 1913), pi. xhiL 



%*V - A RT AND ARCHITECTURE *>* 
^ * " * t Virre aooeared a treatise ascribed to John 
*3%f £?£Sr^2S? U rhythmic xnode The term 
-of Garl^d deahng a of Arabic ^d** (pi. of 

- fl ^«r>s probably h test but certainly not 
^^'Stionlh'e tabs madfin this branch of know- 
the only «^^L^ti that have a.dcd most in the pro- 
gressof the^t ot m , ^ ^ jntrod d 

and the reb «^tf Arabs The rebec or ribibe, a favourite 
, into Western Europe ™ CQUnted „ one of the pre- 

' m ^1:^Sn T a leTX still the ordinary word used in 
cursots of our j>olm- «* instruments 5n ±e peninsula . 
Portugal for a^n. urn ^ ^ ^ ^ 

names f^^JS? the tambourine *«f*r» (odlloq. Ar. 

^ f m ^f"S; known as (Ar. pL juniij, 

yniayr) and Ae cymbak k ^ , 

' and the kanoon (fr. Ar. 

i See above. T> 426 _ "fanfare"). This instrument with its name 

» PL an/fl'" (whence P e . p ^ from Syna during the period of the Crusades, 

"Oriental Influences on Oca- 
S^SS^. « («»«. PP. See b*m. 

' ' PP » M^tuline form ?B*5 «« flboTe - P' 4 * 7 ' 



CHAPTER XLII 
IN SICILY 



Conquest The Moslem conquest of Sicily (Ar. Siqilliyah) represents the 
last ripple in the wave that brought the Arabs into North Africa 
and Spain. The leaders of the expansion into the island and 
mid-Europe during the ninth century were Aghlabtds from al- 
Qayrawan ; but sporadic attempts by Moslem adventurers, sol- 
diers of fortune and pirates had been made much earlier. In fact, 
the very same year (652) in which the Byzantine navy at Alex- 
andria was crushed and maritime power began to pass into Arab 
hands witnessed the first attack on Byzantine Sicily, made by a 
general of Mu'awiyah. 1 The delights of Syracuse (Saraqusah, 
Saraqussah), ravaged in this first attempt, consisted of women, 
church treasures and other valuable booty which invited re- 
peated returns by Moslem plunderers in the course of the 
second half of the seventh century. In the eighth, Berber and 
Arab corsairs from North Africa and Moslem Spain began 
to harass the islands to the north and east and to cast paralys- 
ing fear over the inhabitants of Sicily as well as Corsica and 
Sardinia. Piracy and privateering, be it remembered, were then 
considered legitimate means of livelihood by Moslems and 
Christians alike. But there was no planned policy in these 
early raids. 

The establishment of the powerful Aghlabid state of al- 
Qayrawan in the first year of the ninth century, however, 
changed the aspect of the situation. An appeal from a Syracusan 
rebel for aid against the Byzantine governor in 827 offered a 
timely pretext for an invasion. Ziyadat-Ailah I (817-38), the 
third Aghlabid, immediately sent off seventy vessels carrying 
some ten thousand fighters and seven hundred horses under the 
leadership of his seventy-year-old qadi-vizir, Asad ibn-al-Furat. 2 

1 See above, p. 167; Thcophanes, p. 34S. 

1 Ibn- Idhari, vol. i, p. 95; Nuwayri, ed. Gaspar, vol. ii, p. 241 ; Amari, Btbhoteca t 
p. 527. 

60a 



IK SICILY > ' 603 



The real conquest began. The African army landed at Mazara 1 
and advanced to Syracuse. A plague which spread in the Arab 
camp carried away Asad and a large number of his fighters.* 




SICILY AND SOUTHERN ITALY 
To Hi osteite Moslem occupation 



» Reinforced* by fresh troops from Spain, the army captured 
Palermo (Ar. Balarm, originally a Phoenician colony) in 831, 

Y 1 Ar* Mazar; ibn-al-Athir, vol* vi, p. 536; Idrisi, Mtn Kxtib Nuthat al- Mush tag 
, J? fHttiraq al-Afaq> td M. Aman and C. Schiaparelli (Rome, 1878), P* 3 2 J Amari, 
Stoic, ed NaHmo, vol. i # pp. 394 seq+ 
1 Iba-'Idhari, vt>L t, p. oj5; ibn-Khaldun, vol. £v, p IQQ. 



6o 4 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY PARr iv 

thereby acquiring a vantage point for further Conquest and a 
seat for the new amlrate. About 843 Messina 1 fell. In 878 the 
strongly fortified Syracuse was taken after nine months' siege 
and destroyed during the rule of the bloody Aghlabid, Ibrahim 
II (874-902), who towards the close of his reign came in person 
to Sicily* Here he reduced the district in the neighbourhood of 
Mount Etna 2 and in 902 destroyed Taormina. Ibrahim died 
and was buried in Sicily. The conquest of the island, which had 
begun in 827, was now complete. For the next hundred and 
eighty-nine years Sicily under turbulent Arab chieftains formed 
in whole or in part a province of the Arab world. 

Just as Spain was a point cPappui for further raids and 
temporary conquests northward, so was Sicily with regard to 
Italy. Before his death in 902 Ibrahim II had carried the holy 
war across the straits into the toe of Italy, Calabria, 3 but he was 
not the first Arab invader to set foot on Italian soil. Shortly 
after the fall of Palermo, Aghlabid generals had interfered in 
the quarrels of the rival Lombards of Southern Italy, whose heel 
and toe were still held by the Byzantine emperor, and when 
Naples 4 in 837 appealed for Arab aid the Moslem war-cry 
echoed on the slopes of V esuvius as it had before on those of its 
southern sister — "the mountain of fire". About four years later 
Bari, on the Adriatic, which was to become the main base for the 
next thirty years, was captured. About the same time the vic- 
torious Moslems made an appearance before Venice. In 846 
even Rome was threatened by Arab squadrons which landed at 
Ostia and, unable to penetrate the walls of the Eternal City, 
sacked the cathedrals of St. Peter beside the Vatican and of 
St. Paul outside the walls and desecrated the graves of the 
pontiffs. Three years later another Moslem fleet reached Ostia 
but was destroyed by the tempestuous sea and the Italian navy. 
A painting from sketches by Raphael recalls this naval fight and 
the marvellous rescue of Rome. But the hold of the Moslems 
over Italy remained so firm that Pope John VIII (872-82) 
deemed it prudent to pay tribute for two years. 5 

1 MassTni, Massinah; Yaqut, vol. iv, p. 535; ibn-Jubayr, p. 320. 

1 Ar. jabaJ al'fz&r, the mountain of fire, ibn-al-Atmr, vol. vi, p. 239; Yaqut, 
vol iii, p. 408, Aroari, Bibltottca, app. 2 {Leipzig, 1887), p. 2. 

s QHlawriyah in YaqQt, vol. iv, p. 167; Qallawnyah in ibn-Hawqal, pp. 8, 128; 
sec ibn-Khaldun, vol. iv, pp 200, 202. 

* Kabul; ibn al-Athir, vol. vii, p. 3; Amari. Mtdfteteca, index; Idrisi, p. 17. 

* Aman, Storxa, cd. Nallino, vol. 1, pp. 5S8 93. 



afxLfl * / IN SICILY 605 

v The AgMabids did not limit their operations to the Italian Act 
^coasts* In 869 they captured Malta. 1 From Italy and Spain ^ 
piratical raids in the tenth century extended through the Alpine 
passes into mid-Europe. In the Alps are a number of castles and 
walk which tourists* guides attribute to the invasion of the 
Saracens. Certain Swiss place-names, such as Gaby and Algaby 
{al-jabi?, tax collector) which appear in Baedeker's Switzerland) 
may possibly be of Arabic origin. 2 

The recapture of Bari by the Christians in 871 marks the \v»t 
beginning of the end of the Moslem menace to Italy and Central ^ ™ 
Europe. In Bari the commanders had gone so far as to declare 
themselves "sultans" independent of the amir at Palermo. In 
880 the Byzantine Emperor Basil I wrested Taranto (Tarant), 
another important fortress » from Moslem hands and a few years 
later expelled the last remnants of the Arabs from Calabria. The 
final stage of the expansion which had begun in distant Arabia 
two and a half centuries before was thus brought to an end. At 
the present day numerous "Saracen towers", structures from 
which the approach of Arab fleets from Sicily or Africa was 
announced, still contribute to the scenic beauty of the peerless 
coastline south of Naples. 

In Sicily the amir first held his office under the Aghlabids of The 
al-Qayrawan. 3 With the destruction of the Aghlabid dynasty in ^ 
909 by the new and more powerful Fa timid caliphate, the Sicilian 
domain became a part of that empire as founded in North 
Africa by *Ubayduilah al-Mahdi. Four years later, however, the 
Sicilian Moslems under Ahmad ibn-Qurhub (912-16) asserted 
their independence and named the 'Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtadir, 
foe of the Fatimids, in the Friday prayers. 4 In 91 7 the Amir 
Ahmad, abandoned by his Berber troops, suffered execution by 
order of al-Mahdi and Sicily reverted to the Fatimid domain. 
With the island as a base the Fatimid fleet carried its plundering 
..raids as far as Genoa, which was sacked in 934 or 935. 

t The domestic situation in Sicily was far from satisfactory. 

^ Ihn^KlnWfin, vol, iv, p. 201. 
a * Prohabfy the adjective maur occurring in the toponomy is a mere s\ nonym 
fox "'brown", without reference to Moorish invaders. The inhabitants of the 
Alpine regions may have become acquainted with such words through the 
Crusades, 

J Ifar^list -consult Zambiur, p 67; Eduard "Sachau, Em Vmtttkms Muhom* 
ttcdanhehtr Dynoshtn (Berlin, 1923), p 26 
- ibtt* ftl&tntr, vol. vm, pp* 53-4. 



t 



606 



THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY part iv 



Kenyan 
conquest 



Arab* 

Norman 

culture 



The Spanish and African elements in the Moslem population 
were in constant friction, which was complicated by the eternal 
feuds arising from the old distinction among the Arabs between 
South Arabian Yamanites — including Kalbites — and North 
Arabians. In 948 the third Fatimid Caliph al-Mansur appointed 
as governor over Sicily al-rjasan ibn-'Ali ibn-abi-al-FIusayn aU 
Kalbi (f 965), who laid the basis of a more or less independent 
and stable state. 1 Under him and his successors, the Kalbite 
dynasty, the seeds of Arab culture were aiforded an opportunity 
to germinate in this polyglot isle. It was during the short reign of 
abu-al-Futuh Yusuf ibn-'AbdulIah (989-98), a descendant of al- 
rjasan, that Moslem Sicily reached its height. 

The Kalbite amirs lived in luxurious palaces and maintained 
enlightened courts in their flourishing city. The Eastern geo- 
grapher and traveller ibn-rjawqal 2 (fl. 943-77), whose descrip- 
tion of the capital Palermo is not merely the oldest but the 
only account by a Moslem eye-witness, found in it over a hundred 
and fifty butcher shops and the incredible number of three 
hundred mosques. In the congregational mosques he counted 
thirty-six rows of worshippers, each with about two hundred 
men, making over seven thousand in all. He numbered over 
three hundred public school teachers, who were regarded by the 
inhabitants as their most pious, excellent and distinguished 
citizens, and that "in spite of the fact that school teachers are 
notorious for their mental deficiency and light brains". 

The downfall of the Kalbite regime was brought about by 
civil wars and Byzantine interference, which paved the way for 
the Norman conquest of the island. This began with the capture 
of Messina in ro6o by Count Roger, son of Tancrcd de Haute- 
ville, culminated in the seizure of Palermo in 107 1 and Syracuse 
in 1085 and ended in 1091. In 1090 Malta was taken by Roger. 
The Normans, already strong in the possession of a vigorous 
state on the mainland, were now secure in their newly conquered 
territory. 

Sicily under the Normans saw the efflorescence of an interest- 
ing Christian-Islamic culture. Throughout the Arab period of 
domination there streamed into the island, already rich in 
memories of bygone civilizations, Eastern cultural currents 
which, blending with the precious legacy of Greece and Rome, 
1 Ibn-al-AthTr. vol. vhi, p, 354. * Vp. $2-7. 



Ctt XuV -< , " " i W SICILY - A ' W 

took definite shape under Norman rule and gave the Norman 
culture" its distinctive character. Hitherto the Arabs had been 
too engrossed in warfare and squabbles to develop the finer arts v 
of peace, but now their genius attained its full fruition in a rich 
outburst of Arab-Norman art and culture. 

Though' himself an uncultured Christian, Roger I (f iioi) 
drew from the Moslems the mass of his infantry, patronized 
Arab learning, surrounded himself with Eastern philosophers, 
astrologers and physicians and allowed the non-Christians full 
liberty to follow their rites. The case of the poet *Abd-al-Jabbar 
ibn-IJamdts (fa. 1055-1132), who though born in Syracuse 
retired at the Norman conquest to the Spanish court of al- 
Mu*tamid, was exceptional, 1 On the whole, Roger maintained 
the former system of administration and even kept high Moslem 
officials. His court at Palermo seemed more Oriental than 
Occidental. For over a century after this Sicily presented the 
unique spectacle of a Christian kingdom in which some of the 
highest positions were held by Moslems. 

In this century the trade of the country remained to a large 
extent in the hands of Moslem merchants and the cultivation of 
the land continued to prosper under Arab husbandmen who, as 
in Spain, knew how to make the land produce abundantly. 
Sugar-cane, date-palms, cotton, olives, oranges, mulberries and 
other plants and fruits were introduced by the Arabs, Sericulture 
was established by the Normans after 1147. Papyrus, the like of 
which ibn-rjawqal 2 saw nowhere except in Egypt, was now 
cultivated in greater abundance than ever before. From its 
fibre, cordage was made for ships. Ibn-Jubayr, 5 who visited the 
island in 11 84, was greatly impressed by its fertility, rich re- 
sources and plentiful means of sustenance. He particularly noted 
grape-vines and other trees cultivated in symmetrical rows. 

The earliest extant paper document from Europe is an order 
in Greek and Arabic issued by the wife of Roger I, presumably 
in nop; but it is more reasonable to suppose that the paper of 
this document was imported by Sicilian Arabs. From the time 
of King Roger II we have the earliest coin bearing a date in 
Arabic numerals (1138) and an Arabic inscription. 

* Ibn-Hamdis later accompanied his Sevillan patron into captivity in Africa. 
His JOlvsSn was edited by C* SchaaparelH (Rome, 1897); extracts In Amari, Biblifittca< 
pp. 547*73. * P. 86. * P, 3 a8. 



608 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY.; part n 1 ; 

The line of Sicilian Arabophiles started by Roger I culminated, 
in his son and second successor Roger II (1130-54) andin! 




Pftatit: Andtncn 



CAPPELLA PALATINA, PALERMO 
Built by Roger II and decorated with medallions bearing Kufic inscriptions 

Frederick II. Roger II dressed like a Moslem and his critics called 
him the "half-heathen king". His robe bore decorative Arabic 
characters. Even under his grandson William II (1166-89) ibn- 



IN SICILV 



605 



Jubayr 1 saw Christian women of Palermo wearing Moslem cos- 
tumes. The chapel built by Roger II in his capital had its ceiling 
covered with Fatunid-influenced paintings and Kufic inscrip- 
tions, Arab craftsmen were undoubtedly employed in the con- 
struction of this and other Sicilian monuments. Several ivory 
objects, including caskets and croziers now in the Museo 
Cristiano of the Vatican and other museums, typify Siculo-Arabic 
craftsmanship of this period.* Roger's fleet, which raised Sicily to 
the position of the leading maritime power in the Mediterranean, 
was built and commanded by amirs of whom the greatest was 
George (Jurji) of Antioch, a Greek formerly in the service of a 
Moslem prince in al-Mahd T yah, Africa The highest office in the 
realm was that of ammiratus ammiraiorunz {atntr al-umara). 

The chief ornament of Roger IPs court was al-Idrisi, the/ 
most distinguished geographer and cartographer of the Middle 
Ages. Born in Ceuta in 1 100 of Hispano-Arab parents, abu- 
'Abdullah Muhammad ibn-Muhammad al-Idrisi (f 1166) did 
his life work at Palermo under the patronage of Roger II. His 
Rogerian treatise (Kttdb Rujdr) entitled Nitzhai al-Mushtdq fi 
Ikkitrdq al-Afaq 3 (the recreation of him who yearns to traverse 
the lands) not only sums up the mam features of such preceding 
works as those of Ptolemy and al-Mas'udi but is primarily based 
upon original reports submitted by observers who had been sent 
to various lands to secure data. In his critical collation of the 
material ai-Idrisi shows a remarkable breadth of view and a 
grasp of such essential facts as the sphericity of the earth Be- 
sides this monumental work al-Idrisi constructed for his Norman 
patron a celestial sphere and a disk-shaped map of the world, 
both in silver, 4 

The second of "the two baptized sultans of Sicily" 5 wasr 
Roger II's grandson Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (1215-50), 1 
who ruled both Sicily and Germany and, besides holding the 
title of emperor of the Holy Roman Empire after 1220, became 
king of Jerusalem by his marriage in 1225 with the heiress, 

1 P« 333 * S*e Pcny B. Cott, Steulo Arabu Ivvrtes {Princeton, 1939). 

* A synopsis of the text with its seventy one maps was printed m Rome as early 
as j 592. It was transKted, but inaccurately, into Latin as Gtographa Nuhttnsts 
(Parts, 1619) b\ two Maromtc scholars, Jibr&M al-Sahyurn (Gabriel Siomta) and 
Yohanna a] Ha?rum (Joannes Hesronita) Partial editions of the test have been 
roade in Levden, Madrid, Rome, Bonn, etc. Consult Kcnnd Mitter, Mappac 
Arch\tat f vol vi (Stuttgart, 1927). 

* Aman, Bibhcteca, p. 658. * A man, Siena, ed Nallino, vol m, p. 37a. 



6jo THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY partiv 

Isabelle of Brienne. The Emperor Frederick therefore was the 
highest civil authority in Christendom. Three years after his 
marriage he undertook a Crusade which inoculated him with 
more Moslem ideas. 

In his personal habits and official life Frederick, who kept a 
harem, was semi-Oriental. In his court flourished philosophers 
from Syria and Baghdad, with long beards and flowing robes, 
dancing girls from the Orient and Jews from the East as well 
as from the West. His interest in the world of Islam he main- 
tained by political and commercial relations, especially with the 
Ayyubid sultan of Egypt. 1 From this Sultan al-Kamil Muhammad 
(1218-38), nephew of Salah-al-Dln, Frederick received for his 
menagerie, which included camels and accompanied him wher- 
ever he went in Europe, a giraffe, 2 the first to appear in medieval 
Europe. From Egypt he also brought experts to test the incuba- 
tion of ostrich eggs by the heat of the sun. From another 
Ayyubid sultan, al-Ashraf of Damascus, he received in 1232 a 
wonderful planetarium with figures of the sun and moon mark- 
ing the hours on their appointed rounds. In return, the em- 
peror sent a white bear and a white peacock which astonished 
the Damascenes as much as the marvellous beast from Egypt 
had astonished their Sicilian contemporaries. It was to this 
Sultan al-Kamil, among other Moslem rulers, that Frederick 
propounded, partly for information and partly as a puzzle, those 
problems of mathematics and philosophy whose solution was 
successfully undertaken by an Egyptian scholar. 3 The geo- 
metrical and astronomical problems, including the squaring of a 
circle's segment, were solved at al-Mawsil. The same question- 
naire was submitted to ibn~Sab*m (above, p. 587). 

Frederick brought from Syria skilled falconers, watched them 
train the birds and tried to ascertain by seeling the hawks' eyes 
whether they could find food by smell. He had his interpreter- 
astrologer Theodore (Thadhuri), a Jacobite Christian from 
Antioch, 4 translate an Arabic treatise on falconry. This transla- 
tion together with another from Persian became the basis of 
Frederick's work on falconry, the first modern natural history. 
Theodore also extracted for the emperor a treatise on hygiene 
from the Sirr al-Asrar of the pseudo-Aristotle. As court 

1 Abu al-F>da\ vol m, p J48 * This word is of Arabic origin, zara/ck, 
* Aman, Btbltotcca, p. 523, cf. p. 5x4, 1 4. * Ibn al-'Ibn, pp. 477 S 



ch. XUI IN SICILY Mi 

astrologer Theodore was preceded by Michael Scot, who from 
1220 to 1236 represented in Sicily and Italy the learning of 
Moslem Spain. Scot made for the emperor from Arabic a Latin 
summary of Aristotle's biological and zoological works, par- 




Rff reduced fy permission of tht Bedttian lAhrary % Oxfc 

AN ARABIC MAP OF THE WORLD 
Based on aMdrisi 



ticularly De animaltbus, with ibn-Slna's commentary, which he 
dedicated to his patron as Abbreviate Avicenne. 

This almost modern spirit of investigation, experimentation 
and research which characterized the court of Frederick marks 
the beginning of the Italian Renaissance. Italian poetry, letters 
and music began to blossom under Provensal and Arabic 



612 THE ARABS IN EUROPE- SPAIN AND SICILY PART IV 

influence. 1 The cultivation of poetry in the vulgar tongue was 
evidently due to the example of Arabic poets and singers, and 
the metrics of the early popular poetry of Italy, as represented by 
the carnival songs and the ballata, is fundamentally the same as 
that of the folk poetry of Andalusia. 8 "Stanza" 1 is evidently a 
translation of Arabic bayt % "house", "strophe". But Frederick's 
greatest single contribution was the founding of the University of 
Naples (1224), the first in Europe to be established by a definite 
charter. In it he deposited a large collection of Arabic manu- 
scripts. The works of Aristotle and ibn-Rushd which he caused to 
be translated were used in its curriculum; copies of the transla- 
tions were sent to the Universities of Paris and Bologna. The 
University of Naples counted among its pupils Thomas Aquinas. 
In the fourteenth and following centuries Arabic studies were 
cultivated in several European universities, including Oxford 
and Paris, but with an entirely different motive; that of preparing 
Christian missionaries for Moslem lands. 
Stair's The meeting-point of two cultural areas, Sicily was peculiarly 
Sm. in adapted to act as a medium for transmitting ancient and medi- 
nutting eval lore. Its population comprised a Greek element which used 
thought Q ree j Cj a Moslem element which spoke Arabic and a body of 
scholars who knew Latin. All three languages were in current 
use in the official registers and royal charters as well as among 
the populace of the many-tongued Palermo. It was in Sicily 
about 1 160 that the first translation of the Almagest into Latin 
was done directly from Greek with the collaboration of a Greek- 
speaking Sicilian, Eugene of Palermo, surnamed the Amir* 
Eugene, who flourished under Roger II and his successor 
William I, knew Arabic as well as Latin. He made a Latin 
version from Arabic of the Optica ascribed to Ptolemy, the Greek 
text of which is lost, and helped translate into Greek the Arabic 
Kalxlah. Under William not only translations from Arabic but 
also from the Greek originals were encouraged. 

The Jews of Sicily, like those of Spain, had a significant part 
in the work of translation* The encyclopaedic medical work of 
al-Razi was done into Latin by the Sicilian Jewish physician, 

1 Amari, Siona, cd. NalUno, vol. m, pp 760 seg ; G. A. Ccsaxco, Ze cngtni 
della poesia hrtcaela poesta stcthana sottogh svevt, and ed, (Milan, 1924), pp. 101, 
107 

1 Jcs6 M. Millis in Rcvista de arrhtves t vol. xh (1920), pp 550 64, xJu (1921), 
PP 37-59* 



6i3 



Faraj ben-Salim, in 1279 under the auspices of Charles I of 
Aniou and was propagated in numerous manuscripts during the 
succeeding centuries. This was the only major medical work 
rendered into Latin in Sicily, where the translations dealt mainly 
with astronomy and mathematics. Though some of the Greek 
and Arabic books were done again and better in Toledo, never- 
theless Sicily's contribution was of prime value. 

Since the Norman kings and their successors on the Sicilian v» 
throne held not only the island but also Southern Italy, they 
provided a bndge for the transmission of various elements of 
Moslem culture into the peninsula and mid-Europe. By the 
middle of the tenth century traces of Arab learning became 
clearly noticeable north of the Alps. Dante's ideas of the other 
world may not have been derived from any particular Arabic 
text, but they certainly appear to have been of Oriental origin, 
though drawn by him from the popular lore of Europe. This 
penetration from the East through various channels is evident in 
the domain of art as well as in science and literature. The design 
of Renaissance campanili t it would seem, was derived from the 
square North African, more particularly Egyptian, type of 
minaret. Long after Sicily and the southern part of the peninsula 
had reverted to Christian rule Moslem craftsmen and artists 
continued to flourish, as evidenced by the mosaics and inscrip- 
tions of the Palatine Chapel. The renowned weaving-house 
established by the Moslem rulers in the royal palace at Palermo 
supplied European royalty with state robes which bore Arabic 
inscriptions. The first Italian textile workers acquired their 
technical knowledge and models for designs from Sicily. By the 
beginning of the thirteenth century silk weaving had already 
become the principal industry in several Italian towns, which 
exported fabrics imitating the Sicilian stuffs into various parts of 
Europe. As in Palermo and Cadiz, so in Venice, Ferrara and 
Pisa, colonies of Oriental craftsmen taught the natives and 
collaborated with them. So great was the demand for Oriental 
fabrics that there was a time when no European could have felt 
really well-dressed unless he possessed at least one such garment. 

During the fifteenth century when opulent Venice was so 
actively adopting and scattering Moslem fashions in art, books 
bound in Italian workshops began to assume an Oriental appear- 
ance. The peculiarities of Arabic binding, including the flap that 



614 THE ARABS IN EUROPE: SPAIN AND SICILY PART iv 



folds over to protect the front edges of the volume, appear on 
Christian books. At the same time new methods of tooling and 
decorating leather covers were also being learned from Oriental 
artisans in various Italian towns, Venice, moreover, was the home 
of another industry, the inlaying of brass with gold, 1 silver or 
red copper, an art which flourished mainly in al-Mawsil in the 
twelfth century. 

On the whole, Sicily as a transmitter of Moslem culture might 
claim for itself a place next in importance to that of Spain and 
higher than that of Syria in the period of the Crusades, 

1 It atntntna, from At* a'jami, Persian, foreign 



PART V 

THE LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL 
MOSLEM STATES 



CHAPTER XLIII 
A SKVITE CALIPHATE Itf EGYPT: THE FATIMIDS 



THE Fatimid caliphate, the only major Shfite one in Islam, 1 
established itself in Tunisia in 909 as a deliberate challenge to 
the religious headship of the Islamic world represented by the 
'Abbasids of Baghdad. The founder was Sa f id ibn-IJusayn, 
probably a descendant of the second founder of the Isma'ilite 
sect, 2 the Persian 'Abdullah ibn-Maymun. The spectacular rise 
of ibn-Maymun's successor Sa'Td was the culmination of deep- 
laid, skilfully organized Isma'Ilite propaganda paralleled only 
by the earlier movement which led to the break-up of the 
Umayyad caliphate. No small measure of this success was due 
to the personal efforts of the chief dai (propagandist), abu- 
* Abdullah al-rjusayn aUShfi, a native of San'a* in al-Yarnan, 
who toward the close of the ninth century proclaimed himself 
precursor of the Mahdi and sowed seeds of sedition among the 
Berbers of North Africa, especially the Kitamah (Kutamah) 
tribe. His acquaintance with members of this tribe was made in 
the season of the pilgrimage at Makkah. 3 Ifrlqiyah was then 
under Aghlabid rule. 

Al-Shfi's conspicuous success in this distant region gave 
Sa'Id the signal to leave his Isma'ilite headquarters at Salamyah 
and make his way disguised as a merchant into north-western 
Africa. Thrown into a dungeon in SijHmasah by order of the 
Aghlabid Ziyadat-Allah (903-9), Sa'id was rescued by al-Shi'i,* 
who in 909 destroyed the century-old Aghlabid dynasty and 
drove its last scion Ziyadat-Allah out of the country. The Agh- 
labids were the last stronghold of Sunnite Islam in that part of 

* For earlier independent 'Alid principalities review the Idrisids and JJanv 
mudtds. The Sharifs of Morocco, whose assumption of sovereignty dates from 1544, 
trace their lineage through al-Hasan to* Ah and Fatfroah, but are almost orthodox. 

* The original founder was the Imam Isma'2 (f 760); above, p. 442. 

* Ibn-'Idhari, vol i, p, JiS. 

4 Some wrongly suspect that the real prisoner was slain "before tic surrender of 
Sijilmasah to al-ShSV 

6x7 



F 

618 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES part v 



Africa. Sa r Td was proclaimed ruler under the title of the Imam 1 
*Ubaydullah al-Mahdi and accepted as a descendant of Fatimah 
through al-rjusayn and Isma'il. The dynasty he established is 
often referred to as al-'Ubaydlyah, especially by those who do 
not believe in his alleged descent. 

Moslem historians are divided into two camps on the question 
of the legitimacy of his Fatimid origin. At least eight varying 
pedigrees were provided for him by his supporters and enemies, 
some of the latter going so far as to charge that he was the son of 
a Jew. Notable among the supporters of his legitimacy are ibn-al- 
Athtr, 8 ibn-Khaldun 3 and al-MaqnzL* Among those who sus- 
pect or deny the genealogy and regard Sa'id as an impostor are 
ibn-Khallikan,* ibn-'Idhari, 6 al-Suyuti 7 and ibn-Taghri-Birdi. 8 
It is noteworthy, however, that no dispute as to the genuineness 
of the Fatimid descent arose until the year ion, when the 
'Abbasid Caliph al-Qadir issued in Baghdad a curious mani- 
festo, signed by several Sunni and Shi'ite notables, declaring 
that his Egyptian rival al-lJakim was descended not from 
Fatimah but from Daysan the heretic. 9 
The first *UbaydulIah (909-34) established himself first in the Agh- 
Faiinud labid residence Raqqadah, a suburb of al-Qayrawan. He proved 
himself a most capable ruler. Two years after assuming supreme 
authority he killed his missionary-commander al-Shl'i and soon 
afterward extended his rule over the whole African territory 
from the Morocco of the Idrlsids to the confines of Egypt. In 
914 he seized Alexandria; two years later he devastated the 
Delta. To Sicily he sent a new governor from the Kit am ah tribe 
and with the rebel ibn-rjafsun in Spain he established friendly 
relations. Malta, Sardinia, 10 Corsica, the Balearic and other 
islands felt the power of the fleet which he had inherited from 
the Aghlabids. About 920 he took up his residence in the new 
capital al~Mahdryah, u which he founded on the Tunisian coast 
sixteen miles south-east of al-Qayrawan and named after himself. 

1 As Shfites, the Fa|imids preferred the title imam to caliph. 

* Vol. viu, pp. 27-20, abridged by abu-al-Fida\ vol. ii, pp. 6;«8. 

* Vol. iv, p. 31. * Khi}at (Bulaq, 1270), vol. i, pp. 348-9. 

* Vol. i, p. 487. 1 Vol. i, pp. 150, 157.8. 

» Tttrlkk al-Khulafa (Cairo, 1305), p. 214. * Ed. Popper, \o\. u, pt. 2, p. 112. 

* Text of manifesto preserved in abu-al-Fida', vol. ii, p. 150. 
10 Finally subjugated in 1003 from Spam. 

u Yaqut, Buldaiiy vol. iv, pp. 694-6; Mas'udi, Tavbth, p. 334; ibn-Hammad, 
Akhbar Muluk bani>*Uba\J t ed M. Vonderht>den (Algiers, 1927), pp 9-10 



CH. XtfU THE FATIMIDS - 6x9 

'Ubaydullah's successors pursued his policy of aggression and 
expansion. His son 1 abu-al-Qasim Muhammad al-Qa'im {934- 
946) sent a fleet which in 934 or 935 harried the southern coast 
of France, took Genoa and coasted along Calabria, carrying off 
slaves and other booty. All these expeditions, however, led to no 
permanent conquest. Under al-Qa'im's grandson abu-Tamlm 
Ma'add a\-Mu izz (952-75) the fleet raided the coasts of Spain, 
whose caliph was none other than the mighty al-Nasir. Three 
years later (958) the Fatimid army advanced westward as far as 
the Atlantic, whence the commander sent to his caliph live fish 
in jars. In 969 Egypt was wrested from its Ikhshldid rulers. 
Its fleet was strengthened by new units built at Maqs, the pre- 
decessor of Bulaq as the port of Cairo. 

The hero of these last exploits was Jawhar al-Siqilli (the' 
Sicilian), also called al-Rumi (the Greek), originally a Christian ] 
born in Byzantine territory, probably Sicily, whence he was 
brought as a slave to al-Qayrawan.* Immediately after his 
victorious entry into the capital al-Fustat in 969, Jawhar began 
to lay out a new quarter which he named al-Qahirah. 8 This 
city, modern Cairo, became the capital of the Fatimids in 973. 
After founding the new capital, today the most populous city of 
Africa, Jawhar in 972 built the great mosque al-Azhar, 4 which 
was soon afterward made an academy by the Caliph al-'AzIz. 

Jawhar thus became the second founder, after al-Shf i, of the 
Fatimid empire, which now included all North Africa. Western 
Arabia was inherited from the Ikhshldids, who had been en- 
trusted by the 'Abbasids with the guardianship of the Holy City. 
As soon as Jawhar was established on Egyptian soil he dis- 
patched to neighbouring Syria a lieutenant w r ho in 969 reached 
and temporarily occupied Damascus. 5 His principal opponents 
were the Qarmatians, who were at this time all-powerful in 
many sections of Syria. 

During the peaceful reign of abu-Mansur Nizar al-'AzTz 1 
(975-96)i the fifth of the dynasty and the first to commence his * 

1 

1 His ward, an *Ahd, according to an Israelite source; Bernard Lewis, The 
Origins of TsmaSlism (Cambridge, 1940), pp 51-2, 

* Ibn-Khalhkan, vol. \, pp. 209-13; Maqrizi, vol. i, pp. 352, 377 stq. 

* "The triumphant", so called after the planet Qahtr al-Falak (the triumphant of 
heaven, Mors), which was in the ascendant; corrupted by Venetians into Cairo. 

* "The bright (or fair) one**, after al*Zahra\ a title of Pajimah 
1 Ibn-Khaldun t vol. iv, p. 48; Maqrizi, vol, i, p. 378. 



620 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES part v 

reign in Egypt, the Fatimid empire reached its zenith. The name 
of this caliph was cited in the Friday prayers from the Atlantic 
to the Red Sea and in al-Yaman, Makkah, Damascus, and once 
even in al-Mawsil. At least nominally his rule covered that vast 
area. Under him the Egyptian caliphate not only became the 
most formidable rival of that of Baghdad but even eclipsed it and 
appropriated for itself the position of the only great Moslem 
state in the eastern Mediterranean. AI- T AzIz went so far as to 
erect a two-million-dinar palace in Cairo to house his 'Abbasid 
rivals, whom he hoped to seize after the capture of Baghdad. 
Like his predecessors he cast covetous eyes on distant Spain, but 
the proud Cordovan caliph on receiving a sharp note from the 
Fatimid sovereign is said to have sent back the following retort: 
"Thou ridiculest us because thou hast heard of us. If we had ever 
heard of thee, we would reply." 1 

Of the Fatimid caliphs al-'Aziz was probably the wisest and 
most beneficent. He lived in luxury, built in Cairo and its en- 
virons several new mosques, palaces, bridges and canals and 
extended to the Christians under him a measure of toleration 
never enjoyed before. In this attitude he was undoubtedly in* 
fluenced by his Christian vizir *Isa ibn-Nastur and his Russian 
wife, the mother of his son and heir aHJakim and sister of the 
two Melkite patriarchs of Alexandria and of Jerusalem. 

The decline of the Fatimid power began soon after the bene- 
ficent reign of al- l AzTz, the first of his house to adopt, following 
the 'Abbasid precedent, the fateful policy of importing Turkish as 
well as negro mercenary troops. The insubordination and con- 
stant quarrelling of these troops among themselves and with the 
Berber bodyguard became one of the chief causes of the final 
collapse of the kingdom. It was Circassian and Turkish soldiers 
and slaves who later usurped the supreme authority and estab- 
lished independent dynasties. 

Al-'AzTz* successor, abu-'Ali Mansur al-yakim (996-1021), 
was only eleven when he came to the throne. His reign was 
marked with monstrous atrocities. He killed several of his vizirs, 
demolished a number of Christian churches including that of 
the Holy Sepulchre (1009), forced Christians and Jews to wear 
black robes, ride only on donkeys and display when in baths a 
cross dangling from their necks, if Christians, and a sort of 
* Ibn-Taghn-Birdi, cd. Popper, vol. u, pt 2, p. 2. 



CH.xun THE FATIMIDS . 621 

yoke with bells, if Jews. 1 Al-Hakim was the third caliph in Islam, 
after al-MutawaHdl and c Umar II, to impose such stringent 
measures on non~Moslems. a Otherwise the Fatimid regime was 
remarkably favourable for dhimmis. The edict for the destruc- 
tion of the Holy Sepulchre was signed by his Christian secretary 
ibn-*Abdun and the act was one of the contributory causes of the 
Crusades. Finally this enigmatic, blue-eyed caliph, following the 
extreme development of Isma'llite doctrine, declared himself 
the incarnation of the Deity and was so accepted by a newly 
organized sect, called Druzes, after its first great missionary, 
a Turk named al-Darazi (f roi9). s On February 13, 1021, al- 
Hakim was killed on the Muqattam, probably through a con- 
spiracy headed by his sister Sitt al-Muluk, whom the caliph 
had charged with unchastity. 

After al-#akim immature youths were made caliphs with the D< 
real power in the hands of vizirs, who later even assumed the 
royal title malik* Al-Hakim's son and successor al-?ahir (1021-- 
1035) was sixteen when he came to the throne. It was this caliph 
who received permission from Constantine VIII to have his name 
mentioned in the mosques of the emperor's domain and to have 
the mosque at Constantinople restored in return for the caliph's 
permission to have the Church of the Holy Sepulchre rebuilt.* 
Al-?ahir's successor was his eleven-year-old son, Ma'add al- 
Mustansir (1035-94), whose reign of almost sixty years is the 
longest in Moslem annals. 5 In the early part of his reign his 
mother, a Sudanese slave once purchased from a Jew, enjoyed 
with her vendor most of the power. By this time the Fatimid 
dominions had shrunk to little more than Egypt itself. After 1043 
the Fatimid possession in Syria, always loosely bound to Egypt, 
began rapidly to disintegrate. Palestine was often in open revolt, 
A mighty power advancing from the east, that of the Saljuq 
Turkomans, was now overshadowing Western Asia. In the mean- 
time the Fatimid African provinces were severing their tributary 
connection and passing into open independence or reverting to 
\heir old allegiance to the 'Abbasids. The troublesome Arab 

1 Ibn-Khallikfin, vol. iii, p. 5; ttm-gammad, p. 54; cf. Yabya ibn-Sa'Id, ed. 
Chdkbo ei aJ> t p. 187. 

* For the Shafi'ite restrictions see IbsiuhS, Mustafraf t vol. i. p. too. 

* For more on tMs sect consult Htttx, Origins of Druse People. 

* Maqria, vol. i, p. 355, Cf. Yafcva ibn-Sa'Id, pp. 270-71; above, p. 204* 

* Tbn Khalbkan, vol. ri, p. 550; see above, p. 481, n. au 



622 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES part v 



tribes of the banu-Hilal and Sulayrn, originally of Najd and now 
of Upper Egypt, were instigated in 1052 to move westward where 
for years they ravaged Tripoli and Tunisia. 1 Sicily, which for a 
time acknowledged after the Aghlabid the Fatimid sovereignty, 
was by 1071 mostly subdued by the Normans, who subsequently 
even overran parts of the African mainland. Arabia alone kept 
in part faithful to the Shi f ite cause. On the dark horizon the only 
ray of light was the temporary success at Baghdad of the 
Turkish general and usurper al-BasasTri* (f 1060), through 
whose domination the Egyptian caliph's name was cited in the 
Baghdad mosques for forty successive Fridays. Wasit and al- 
Basrah followed the example of Baghdad. The turban of the 
'Abbasid Caliph ai-Qa'im, who even renounced all his rights to 
the caliphate in favour of his Fatimid rival, the Prophet's mantle 
and a beautiful window from his palace were brought to Cairo 
as trophies. The turban and mantle together with the document 
of renunciation were returned to Baghdad about a century later 
by Salah-al-Din, but the window was used in one palace after 
another until the Mamluk Sultan Baybars al-Jashnaklr added 
it to the tomb in which he was buried in 1309* 
Fail At home trouble was continually brewing between Turkish, 

Berber and Sudanese battalions, and state authority was para- 
lysed. Seven years' famine exhausted the economic resources of 
the country. In 1073 the vacillating caliph summoned the 
Armenian Badr al-Jamali, a former slave, from his military 
governorship of 'Akka to act as vizir and commander in chief. 8 
The new Amir al-Juyush took command with such vigour that 
he brought order out of apparent chaos and gave the Fatimid 
regime a new lease of life. But the revival was of short duration. 
Neither Badr's efforts nor those of his son and successor, al-Malik 
al-Afdal, 4 who wielded the supreme authority after his father's 
death in 1094, could check the tide of decline. The remaining 
years of Fatimid rule 5 were marked by continuous struggle 
between vizirs backed by factions in the army. On the death of 
al-Mustansir, al-Malik al-Afdal placed on the throne the caliph's 

1 The migratory movements and military exploits of banu-Hilal provide the 
historical background of the celebrated epic Strat bani-HilaL 

* Ibn-Khalhkan, \ol. i, pp. to7-8. 

* Ibtd. vol. iv, p. 64; ibn-al-Athir, vol. x, pp. 60, 1 60. 

* Abu*al»Qasim Shahuishah; ibn*Khalhkan, vot i, pp. 396-7. 

* For list of Ta$imid caliphs see genealogical tree on following page. 



THE FATIMIDS 



youngest son under the name al-Musta*li with the expectation of 
holding him under his influence. After al-Musta'H, his son, a 
child of five years, was declared caliph by al-Afdal, who gave 
Mm the honorific title al-Amir (i 101-30) When al-J4$fiz (1 130- 
1 149) died his power hardly extended beyond the caliphal palace. 
His son and successor al-?afir (1 149-54) was then a gay 
youth and the power was usurped by the Kurdish vizir ibn-al- 
Sallar, styled al-Malik al-*AdiL The memoirs of Usamah, 1 who 
spent the years between 11 44 and 1154 in the Fatimid court, 

Table of Fatimid caliphs: 

1. Al-Mahdi (909-34) 

2. Al-Qa*im (934-46) 

3. Al-Man?Qr (946-52) 

4. Al-Mu'uz (95*-75) 

5. Al-'AzIz (975-96) 

6. AUHakun (996-1021) 

I 

7. Al-Zahir (1021-35) 

8. A3-Mustan$ir (1035-94) 

9. Al-Musta*li (1094-1101) (Mufcammad) 

10. Al-Amir (1101-30) xx. AJ Hafi* (1130-49) 

(YuLf) X2. Al-?nfir (1140-54) 

14. AU'A&d (1 160-71) 13. Al-Faw (1154-60) 

show that in no court were intrigues, feuds and jealousies more 
rife. The assassination of ibn-al-Sallar (1153) by his wife's 
grandson Nasr ibn- f Abbas, who was later encouraged by the 
caliph to make an attempt on the life of his father, 'Abbas, ibn- 
al-Sallar's successor In the vibrate, and finally the sea-et murder 
of al-Zafir himself by the young conspirator, form one of the 
darkest chapters in the history of HgypU The second day after 
the caliph had vanished 'Abbas declared the four-year-old son 
of al-£afir. al-Fa'iz, ca^ph (1 1 54-60). The boy caliph died aged 
eleven and was succeeded by his nine-year-old cousin al-'Athd, 

* Ed, Hiiti, pp. 6-33*- 4rnb*Syrtan Gtntlcman % pp 30*59 



624 



LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES part v 



the fourteenth and last in a line which had lasted for over two 
and a half centuries. The precarious existence of the people, 
depending as they did for their sustenance on the overflow of 
the Nile, was in the meantime being rendered more miserable by 
repeated famines and plagues. The result was heavier taxes and 
more general extortion to supply the insatiable greed of the 
caliphs and their soldiery. Matters were complicated by the 
advent of the Crusaders and the repeated attacks of Amalric, 
king of Jerusalem, who in 1 167 stood at the very gates of Cairo. 
These conditions were brought to an end by Salah-ai-Din, who 
in 1 171 dethroned the last Fatimid caliph. 



CHAPTER XL1V 
LIFE IK FATIMID EGYPT 



EGYPT was the only land of the once far-flung Fatimid domain 
where the successors of *UbayduIlah al-Mahdx impressed the 
stamp of their cuftural characteristics. The precarious relation- 
ship that held the several provinces of north-western Africa and 
Western Asia to Cairo militated against the possibility of leaving 
in those regions peculiarly Fatimid traces. In the cultural history 
of Egypt the Fatimid together with the preceding Ikhshidid and 
Tulunid periods may be described as the Arabo-Persian era as 
distinct from the Perso-Turkish, which covered the Ayyubid and 
Mamluk periods. The pre-Tulunid period may be described as 
purely Arabic. The Ayyubid dynasty, which supplanted the 
Fatimid, introduced to Africa the spirit and culture of the great 
Saljuq empire, noticeable in its art and industry and its political 
and intellectual movements. Under the Fatimids, however, it is 
the influence of Persian culture that is paramount. But the back- 
bone of the populace throughout medieval and modern history 
was composed of Arabicized Copts. This populace remained 
under the ultra-Shfitc regime Sunnite at core, as can be in- 
ferred from the facility with which Salah-ai-Din restored official 
orthodoxy. 

Politically the Fatimid period marks a new epoch in the history 
of the land, which for the first time since Pharaonic days had a 
completely sovereign power full of vitality and founded on a 
religious basis. The two preceding dynasties had neither national 
nor religious footing in the country. Their rise and existence they 
owed to the military ability of their soldier-founders and to the 
dilapidated condition of the 'Abbasid state. 

Though the golden age in the history of Fatimid Egypt began Hi 
with aKMu'izz and culminated with al-'Aziz, yet Egypt in the 
time of aI-Mustan§ir was still the leading country of Islam. The 
Parian Isma'ili missionary Nasir-i-Khusraw, 1 who visited the 

' * ' * Sefer Natntk ) ctl- Sclrcfer, pp. 3G 50, tr. pp. 110 62. 



626 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES PARTV 

country in 1046-49, shortly before the economic and political 
crash, has left us a description in glowing colours. The caliphal 
palace housed 30,000 persons', of whom 12,000 were servants and 
1000 horse and foot guards. The young caliph, whom Nasir saw 
at a festival riding on a mule, was pleasant looking, clean shaven 
and dressed simply in a white quft&n and turban. An attendant 
carried over the caliph's head a parasol enriched with precious 
stones. The seven galleys drawn up on the bank of the Nile 
measured 1 So cubits over-all by 60 in beam. The caliph owned 
in the capital 20,000 houses, mostly of brick, rising to a height of 
five or six stories, and an equal number of shops, which were let 
at two to ten dinars a month. The main streets were roofed and 
lighted by lamps. The shopkeepers sold at fixed prices, and if 
one cheated he was paraded on a camel through the streets 
ringing a bell and confessing his fault. Even the shops of 
jewellers and money-changers were left unlocked. The old 
al-Fustat had seven great mosques; Cairo had eight. 1 The whole 
country enjoyed a degree of seeming tranquillity and prosperity 
that made Nasir enthusiastically declare: "I could neither limit 
nor estimate its wealth and nowhere have I seen such prosperity 
as I saw there". 2 

Of all the Egyptian caliphs al-Mustansir was the richest. He 
inherited millions from his predecessors and lived a life of 
luxury and ease. He is said to have erected in his palace a 
Ka r bah-like pavilion where he used to drink to the accompani- 
ment of stringed music and beautiful singers. Here he declared; 
"This is indeed more pleasant than staring at a Black Stone, 
listening to the muezzin's drone and drinking impure water". 
An inventory of his treasures by al-Maqrizi 3 includes precious 
stones, crystal vases, inlaid gold plates, ivory and ebony ink- 
stands, amber cups, phials of musk, steel mirrors, parasols with 
gold and silver sticks, chess-boards with gold and silver pawns, 
jewelled daggers and swords and embroidered fabrics manu- 
factured at Dablq and Damascus. Exquisite and priceless works 
of art were dissipated among the Turkish troops. Yet in 1070 
this caliph found it necessary to send his daughters and their 
mother to Baghdad to escape starvation. 

1 Cf. Maqmi, \a\. li, p. 264; Yaqut, vol. iii, p. GOI. 

2 P S3 (text), p. 155 tr. 

* Vol t, pp. 414 seg. Cf. jbn-Taghri-Birdi, vol. ii, pt 2, pp. iSi-2. 



CM # XUV , LIFE* IN FkjmiD EGYPT v r 627 

In its general organization the Fatirnid state followed the , 
' Abbasid, or rather the older Pei sian prototype. The Egyptian 1 
al-Qalqashandi 1 (f 141 8) has given us in his manual intended 
for the use of candidates for governmental posts a sketch of the 
military and administrative systems under the Fatimids. The 
army consisted of three principal ranks: (1) amirs, who included 

,the highest officers and the sword-bearing escorts of the caliph; 
(2) officers of the guard, consisting of masters (sing, iistddk) and 
eunuchs; and (3) the different regiments carrying such names as 
IJafiztyah, Juyushlyah, Sudaniyah, after some caliph, vizir or 
nationality. The vizirs were of several classes, of which the highest 
were "men of the sword* \ who supervised the army and war- 
office, and "lords of the door", high chamberlains, whose privilege 
it was to present foreign envoys. The "men of the pen" included 
the qadi, who was also director of the mint; the inspector of 
markets {muhtasib), who supervised weights and measures; and 
the state treasurer, who presided over the bayt al-mdl. In the 
lowest rank of the "men of the pen" stood the great body of 
civil servants, comprising clerks and secretaries in the various 
departments. The internal administration of the empire is said 
to have been the creation of al-Mu'izz 1 and al-'Aziz' vizir 
Ya*qub ibn-Kilhs (f 991), a Baghdad Jew who, accepting Islam, 
began his political career at Kafur's court and whose expert 
administration laid the basis of the economic prosperity of the 
Nile valley under the early Fatimids, 2 

Ibn-Rillis was the first outstanding patron of learning in 5 
Fatirnid Egypt. He established an academy and spent on xt a J 

' thousand dinars per month. In his time flourished the physician ? 

s Muhammad al-TamTmi, who was born in Jerusalem and moved 
to T Egypt about 970. Before him, under the Ikhshldids, flourished 
the historian Muhammad lbn-Yusuf al-Kindi, 3 who died at 
al-Fustat in 961. Another historian who died later (1062) m 
al-Fustat was ibn-Salamah al-Puda'i.* 

Though some of the early Fatirnid caliphs were men of 
culture, their period was one unproductive of scientists and writers 

h of special merit. Like other caliphs in Baghdad and Cordova, 

1 £t*££,vc! \\x,pp 480 
> * lon*ai-$ayran, aUItHrak tla Man Mia dWizarah, ed 'Abdullah Mukfch* 
(Cairo, 1924), pp 94 seg 

* Author of KuSb&l IVufah *va Kit$bal-Qudan % v& R Guest (Le> den, 1908-12) 
v * Author of *by%tr at Jlfa'cnf wa Sunun Akhhar ahlCkateftf (unpublished). 



628 



LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES PARTY 



al-'Azlz was himself a poet and a lover of learning. It was he 
who made the Azhar Mosque an academy. But most of the 
learned men at this time not only in law but in history and poetry 
were members of the fagth class, which included the judges. 
The heretical character of the dynasty^ whose court did not 
attract orthodox scientists and litterateurs, together with the 
insecurity of life throughout the latter part of the period, 
explains the dearth of intellectual activity. 
HaU of One of the most remarkable foundations of the Fatimids was 
Sdtnc * the Dar al-rjikmah or Dar al-*Ilm (hall of wisdom or of science), 
established by al-yakim in 1005 for the teaching and propaga- 
tion of the extreme Shfite doctrine. In conjunction with it 
al-rjakim instituted a fund whose income of 257 dinars was to 
be spent for copying manuscripts, repairing books and general 
maintenance. 1 The hall was connected with the royal palace and 
contained a library and rooms for meetings. Its curriculum 
comprised, in addition to the specifically Islamic subjects, 
astronomy and medicine. Though closed in 11 19 by al-Malik 
al-Afdal because of its heretical teaching, the academy survived 
until the advent of the Ayyubids. 
Astronomy Al-I^akim was personally interested in astrological calcula- 
<mi opucs t j ons . k e k u jj t on aJ.Muqattam an observatory to which he often 
rode before dawn on his grey ass. An informant of the con- 
temporary historian ibn-Harnmad* saw the astrolabe-like copper 
instrument erected by al-flakim on two towers and measured 
one of its signs of the zodiac, which was three spans in length. 

Al-rjakim's court was illumined by r Ali ibn-Yunus 3 (f 1009), 
the greatest astronomer Egypt has ever produced, and abu- 
f Ali al-Hasan (L. Alhazen) ibn-al-Haytham, the principal 
Moslem physicist and student of optics. The astronomical tables 
(zif) of ibn-Yunus, bearing the name of his patron, correct the 
tables current at his time by original observations made with 
the armiliary sphere and the azimuth circle. Ibn-al-Haytham 
(f ca. 1039), who was born in al-Basrah about 965, tried to regu- 
late for al-y akim the annual overflow of the Nile, and when he 
failed he simulated madness and hid himself from the caliph's 
wrath until the latter's death. No less than a hundred works on 
mathematics, astronomy, philosophy and medicine are ascribed 

1 Maqriri, vol. i, p. 459. 1 P. 50. 

* Qiffr PP 230-31; ibn-Khallikan, vol iii, p. 6. 



1 

CH.Xtiv ' LIFE IN FATIMID EGYPT 



629 



to him, 1 The chief work for which he is noted is that on optics, 
ICitSb cl-Manazir, of which the original is lost but which was 
; translated in the time of Gerard of Cremona or before and was 
published in Latin in 1572. It was influential in the development 
of optics in the Middle Ages. Almost all medieval writers on this 
subject base their works on Alhazen's Optica thesaurus; Roger 
Bacon, Leonardo da Vinci and Johann Kepler show traces of its 
influence In his work ibn-al-Haytham opposes the theory of 
Euclid and Ptolemy that the eye sends out visual rays to the 
object of vision and presents experiments for testing the angles of 
incidence and reflection. In certain experiments he approaches 
the theoretical discovery of magnifying lenses which was actually 
made in Italy three centuries later. 

Another important work composed in Egypt in the days of al- 
yakim is al-Muntakhab fi K Ilaj al-Ayn % (select material on the 
treatment of the eye) by 'Amrnar ibn-' Ali al-Mawsili. In this the 
author shows more originality than his contemporary ibn-*Isa 
in his Tadhkirah, which, however, on account of its complete- 
ness became the standard work on ophthalmology. f Am mar de- 
scribes a radical operation for soft cataract by suction through a 
hollow tube of his own invention. 

In the days of al-Mustansir the debacle which resulted in the 
dissipation of his treasures brought about an even greater loss in 
the dispersion of the royal library started by al-'AzTz and said to 
have contained at the time 200,000 books. It treasured 2400 
illuminated Korans. Among its rarities were manuscripts in the 
hand of ibn-Muqlah and other master cailigraphers; al-'Aziz 
had deposited in it an autograph copy of al-Tabari's history. In 
the loot of 1068 a reporter witnessed twenty-five camels carrying 
away books. Valuable manuscripts were used for lighting the 
fires in the homes of Turkish officers and exquisite bindings 
served to mend the shoes of their slaves. Al-Mustansir's suc- 
cessors built up new collections. When a century later Salah-al- 
Dln made his triumphal entry into the royal palace its library 
still housed over a hundred thousand volumes, some of which 
together with other treasures were distributed among his men.* 

1 Ibn*abi*U§aybi'ah, vol. ii, pp. 91 sr$s, al-Qiftf , pp. 167-8; Mustafa Na?tf, tbn-al 
f Jay than: Bu^&thuhu wa-Kuthufuhu ahBasariyah (Cairo, 1942), pp. ix-siv. 

a Partly preserved in MS. form at theEscurial. Casiri, vol. i, p. 317; tr. J. Hirsrh 
h tt-at^ JOtg crabischat AvgenSrste naeh den Quelten betrbettet, vol. u (Leipzig 
+ l 905)- 3 Maqrln, vol. i, fp 408*9; abu-Sharnah, vol. i, p 26S. 



630 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES i»A*TV 



Art and Though unfavourable to the cultivation of science and litera- 
ture, the Fatimid era was characterized by works of art and 
architecture of first importance. The prosperity which the 
country enjoyed under the first two caliphs in Cairo and later 
under the two vizirs of Armenian origin, a prosperity worthy of 
the Pharaonic or Alexandrian age, was reflected in thesphereof art. 

The oldest surviving structure is the Azhar Mosque, built by 
Jawhar in 972. Though it was later restored, its older part, which 
is the central, has preserved the original form. This part is built 
of brick after the fashion of the ibn-Tulun Mosque, has pointed 
arches and in general betrays Iranian influence. Its minaret is 
of the heavy square type. The next oldest mosque is that of al- 
l.lakim, begun by his father in 990 and completed about 1012. 
It follows the same plan as al-Azhar and has a cupola of brick- 
work supported upon an octagonal drum above the prayer niche. 
Stone was used in al-rjakim's Mosque, now in ruins, but since 
the minaret was not square the craftsmen were probably from 
northern al- e Iraq, rather than Syria. The triumph of stone over 
brick as a structural material was not effected until the late 
Fatimid age and is illustrated in the facade of the al-Aqmar 
Mosque, built in 1125. This facade may have been due to some 
Armenian Christian architect. In al-Aqmar we recognize the first 
appearance of the later general Islamic feature, the corbelled 
("stalactite") niche {niuqarnas). This pillared mosque and that of 
al-Salihibn-Ruzzik (ca. 1 160) display the bold designs and austere 
Kufic inscriptions for which Fatimid art is renowned. Such novel 
features gradually introduced by Fatimid architects as the 
stalactite pendentlves and the deep niches in the facade were to 
undergo further development under the Ayyubids and Mamliiks. 
Likewise the treatment of inscriptions on stone or wooden panels 
foreshadows the glories of the later art. The practice of associat- 
ing a tomb, usually of the founder, with a mosque began in 
10S5 with Badr al-Jamali, whose tomb-mosque on the Muqattam 
set the first example. 

Of the great gates that testify to the grandeur of Fatimid 
buildings three are extant: Bab Zawilah, Bab al-Nasr and Bab 
al-Futuh. 1 These massive gates of Cairo, built by Edesscne 
architects on a Byzantine plan, are among the most enduring 
relics of Fatimid Egypt. 

• Sec M,\qmi, vol. i, pp. 3 So seg. 



CH.XUV 1 * LIFE IN FATIMID EGYPT <5 3 a 

Among the treasures of the Arab Museum at Cairo are several 
panels of carved wood dating from the Fatimid period and show- 
ing living creatures such as deer attacked by monsters, hares 
seized by eagles and pairs of confronted birds. These motifs sug- 
gest borrowing from Sasanid models. The same affinity is notice- 
able in Fatimid bronzes, most of which were mirrors, ewers 01 
censers. The Jbcst-known bronze is the griffin, forty inches high, 
now in Pisa* The same is true of textiles, samples of which found 
their 'way into the West at the time of the Crusades, 1 Weaving 
was a national art of Coptic Egypt but even then was influenced 
by Iranian, particularly Sasanid, models. In Fatimid fabrics wc 
find animals in conventionalized and heraldic poses. Among 
Egyptian cities DabTq, Dimyat and Tinms were noted for then 
medieval textiles, known after these places as dabTqi, dimyati and 

> tinnlsi. The cloth known in Chaucer's time as fustian came frorr 
al-Fustat, as the word indicates. 

The ceramic art of ths Fatimids, like their other arts, follows 
Iranian patterns. Here as in textiles animal motifs are broadl} 
treated. In his inventory of Fatimid treasures al-Maqrizi 2 lists 
several specimens of ceramic and metallic arts, including 
Chinese glazed earthenware. This is one of the first recorded 
appearances of Chinese ware in the Arab East. 3 Nasir-i-Khus- 
raw 4 asserts that the Egyptians made earthenware "so fine anc 
diaphanous that one can see one's hand through it". 

The earliest-known Islamic bookbindings come from Egypt 
and may be assigned to the eighth or ninth century. Their decora- 
tion and technique have affinity with those of earlier Coptic 
bindings, from which they were evidently derived. After the de- 
velopment of this Egyptian school tooling and stamping became 
the most common techniques of Moslem craftsmen working in 

Jeather/ 

1 See below, p. 663. * See above, p. 626. 

' Cf* Krakow m Afafaltei a!-Mj$ma* f vol. xiil (1935), pp. 386-8, where al- 
Blruni mentions Chinese pottery; Stlsilai al-Tcwar&h t pp. 35-6; al-Dimashqi, 
Nukkh&t ja.Dahrfi m Aja*ib al-Barr v^aUBc^r^ ed. A. F. Mehrcn (St, Petersburg, 
*8$6), 43, Vfhere possibly a reference to porcelain is made. F. Sane in Die Ktramik 
~ vbn Samorra (Berlin, 1025), p. 61 1 records the discovery of ninth-ctntury porcelain 
AtSamarnsv 

* Ed. Schfeler, p, 52, tr. p. i$u 



From Arnold and Gut/Jaume'f 'he Ueatv af A/,™ * a. " / . **~'«»~.»k£. 

I-ATIMID CARVED ROCK-CRYSTAL EWER BEARTVr rur 
NAME OF THE CALIPH AL-'AZiz, ,S C^SSv 
Now in the Treasury of St. Mark's, Venice 



CHAPTER XLV 



MILITARY CONTACTS BETWEEN EAST AND WEST: 
THE CRUSADES 



WHEN at the close of the eleventh century the motley hordes 
of Christendom made their way into Syria to wrest it from 
Moslem hands, the country presented the spectacle of division 
and impotence. It was split up among several local Arab 
chieftains! while in the north the Saljuq Turks were all-powerful 
" and in the south the schismatic Fatimids of Egypt held sway. 
The population was far from being uniform in composition or 
even in language. The Druzes in southern Lebanon, the Nusay- 
rxyah in their northern mountains and their neighbours the 
Isma'ilites, later Assassins, formed three schismatic com- 
-muni ties distinct from orthodox Islam Among the Christian 
oodies the Maronites of northern Lebanon, who still used Syriac 
to a considerable extent, constituted the largest minority* 
'J^With the advent of the nomadic Saljuqs from Central Asia 
earlier In the eleventh century, their swarming over the western 
states of the f Abbasid caliphate, the establishment of their 
authority successively in Khurasan, Persia, al-'Iraq, Armenia 
jand Asia Minor, and their founding (1055) of a sultanate in 
- Baghdad to which the caliphate was subordinate, we have dealt 
/in a foregoing chapter (XXXII). The Saljuqs of Syria, like 
those of al-Rum (Asia Minor), formed one of the chief sub- 
divisions of the family, but were not united under one head. 
Almost every Syrian town of any consequence had at this time 
its own Saljuq or Arab ruler. Tripoli after 1089 was independent 
under the Shfite banu-'Ammar. 1 Shayzar after 108 1 was held 
by the banu-Munqidh, The Byzantines were time and again 
capturing and losing towns along the coast and on the northern 
frontier. 

The first Saljuq bands appeared in Syria shortly before 1070. 
In this year Sultan Alp Arslan made the Arab prince of Aleppo 
" 1 Consult G* Wict \Xi M 'Mortal ffenrt JSasset (Pans, 1928), vol ii, pp. 2?9*84, 

63i 



THE CRUSADES $35 

e 

*• his vassal and Alp's general Atstz entered Jerusalem and wrested 
Palestine from Fattmid hands. As Sunnite Moslems the Saljuqs 
considered it their duty to extirpate the Egyptian heresy. Five 
years later Atsiz acquired Damascus from the same masters. By 
1098, however, Jerusalem had reverted to the Fatirnids, whose 
strong fleet had recaptured (1089) all the coast towns, including 
'Asqalan (Ascalon), *Akka (Acre), Tyre (Sur), as far north as 
Jubayl (Byblos). Alp's son Tutush was the real founder of the 
Syrian dynasty of Saljuqs, In the spring of 1094 this sultan had 
established his authority over Aleppo (Halab), al-Ruha* (Edessa) 
and al-Mawsil, in addition to his Khurasan possessions But 
when in the following year he fell in battle, his hard-won Syrian 
possessions again disintegrated as a result of the rivalry between 
his two sons Ridwan and Duqaq and the jealousies of his self- 
seeking generals. Rid^an made Aleppo his capital, where he 
ruled from Z095 to 1113, and Duqaq (1095-1104) chose Damas- 
cus, 1 Hostilities between the two brothers, which began in 1096, 
formed the central event of their reigns. 

^Viewed in their rightful setting the Crusades appear as the 
medieval chapter in the long story of interaction between East 
' and West, of which the Trojan and Peisian wars of antiquity 
form the prelude and the imperialistic expansion of modern 
Western Europe the latest chapter. The geographical fact of 

r difference between East and West acquires its only significance 
from the competing religious, racial and linguistic differences. 
More specifically the Crusades represent the reaction of Christian 
Europe against Moslem Asia, which had been on the offensive 

, since 632 not fcnly in Syria and Asia Minor but m Spain and 
Sicily also. Among other antecedents we may refer to the 
migratory and military tendencies of the Teutonic tribes, who 
had changed the map of Europe since their entrance into the 
light of history; the destruction in 1009 by al-Hakim of the 
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the object of pilgrimage for 
thousands of Europeans and whose keys had been sent (800) to 

J * SaijGqs of "Syria, 1094-1 1 17: 

X* Tutush ibn-AIp Arsl&fe (1094-5) 



^ Rign&n (1095-1113) Duqaq (at Damascus, 1095-1104) 



3. Alp Aralan nl-Akhras (1113-14) 4 Sultan Shah tii4-t7* 



636 LAST Or THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES party 



Charlemagne by way of a blessing from the patriarch of Jeru- 
salem, 1 and the hardships to which pilgrims through Moslem 
Asia Minor were subjected* An immediate cause of the Crusades, 
however, was the repeated appeal made in 1095 to Pope Urban II 
by the Emperor Alexius Comnenus, whose Asiatic possessions 
had been overrun by the Saljuqs as far as the shores of Marmora. 
These Moslems threatened Constantinople itself. The pope pos- 
sibly viewed the appeal as affording an opportunity for reuniting 
the Greek Church and Rome, the final schism between the two 
having been effected between 1009 and 1054. 

When on November 26, 1095, Fope Urban delivered his 
speech at Clermont in south-eastern France urging the faithful 
to "enter upon the road to the Holy Sepulchre, wrest it from 
the wicked race and subject it" to themselves, probably the most 
effective speech in all history was made. The rallying cry Deus 
vult (God wills [it]) ran through the land and seized high and 
low with its psychical contagion. By the spring of 1097 a hundred 
and fifty thousand men, mostly Franks and Normans and partly 
rabble, had answered the call and met at Constantinople The 
first of the Crusades, so called from the cross borne as a badge, 
was thus launched. 

Not all, of course, who took the cross were actuated by spiritual 
motives. Several of the leaders, including Bohemond, were 
intent upon acquiring principalities for themselves. The mer- 
chants of Pisa, Venice and Genoa had commercial interests. 
The romantic, the restless and the adventurous, in addition to 
the devout, found a new rallying- point and many criminals 
sought penance thereby. To the great masses in France, Lorraine, 
Italy and Sicily, with their depressed economic and social condi- 
tions, taking the cross was a relief rather than a sacrifice, 
r. Period The customary classification into a definite number of Cm- 
conquest sades, seven to nine, is by no means satisfactory. The stream 
was more or less continuous and the line of demarcation between 
Crusades not sharply drawn. A more logical division would be 
into first a period of conquest extending to 1144, when the 
Atabeg Zangi of al-Mawsil recovered al-Ruha*; second, a 
period of Moslem reaction inaugurated by Zangi and culminat- 
ing in the brilliant victories of Salah-al-Din (Saladin); and third, 

1 Consult Dnar Joranson in American Historical jRcticw, vol \\\u (1927), 
pp 241 61, A.XJeinclausz m Sjna, vol %ji (1926), pp 211-33. Cf. abo\c, p* 29S. 



CH.XLV . THE CRUSADES t 637 ' 

a period of civil and petty wars in v/hich the Syro-Egyptian 
Ayyubids and Egyptian Marnluks figured, ending in 1291, when 
the Crusaders lost their last foothold on the Syrian mainland. 1 
The period of conquest falls in its entirety before the so-called 
second Crusade (1347-9) and the third period coincides roughly 
with the thirteenth century. One of the Crusades of this last 
period was directed against Constantinople (1202-4), two against 
Egypt (1 2 1 8 -2 1 ) accomplishing nothing, and one even to Tunisia 
(1270). 

The route of the first Crusaders from their rendezvous at 
Constantinople lay across Asia Minor. This was now the domain 
of the young Qilij Arslan, Saljuq sultan of Quniyah (1092-1 107). 
It was in meeting his warriors that Christians measured swords 
for the first time with Moslems. After a siege of about a month 
Nicaea, capital of Qilij's father Sulayman ibn-Qutlumish, 
founder of the Saljuq dynasty of al-Rum, was captured (June 
1097). Other than that the only pitched battle the Crusaders 
fought was that of Dorylceum (Eski-Shahr). Here on July 1 * 
they defeated the forces of Qilij* This victorious march restored 
to Alexius, who had exacted from Raymond of Toulouse and 
other Crusading leaders an oath of feudal allegiance, the western 
half of the peninsula and helped to delay the Turkish invasion 
of Europe for two centuries and a half. 

After <. rosing the Taurus Mountains and before turning fully 
southwaid a detachment of the Crusading army under Baldwin, 
whose father was count of Boulogne, made a detour into the 
eastern region occupied by Christian Armenians, where al- 
Ruha* was captured early in 1098. 5 Here on Christian territory 
the first Latin settlement was made and the first Latin state 
founded. Baldwin became its prince- Other detachments under 
the Norman Tancred of Southern Italy had turned in the oppo- 
site direction to Cilicia, whose population was likewise Armenian 
with an admixture of Greeks. Here he occupied Tarsus, the 
birthplace of St. Paul. 

1 See W. B. Stevenson, The Crttsaders in the East (Cambridge, 1907), p. 1?. 

* Gtsia Frauccrum tt cltorum Htcrosotymitanorutrt^ cd. HeinricK Hagenmcyer 
(Heidelberg, 1890), p 197, n, n, p 2oS, n. 62; Fulchcr, Ifisicria HicntalymUana, 
cd. Hngenmcyer (Heidelberg, 1013), p. 192, n. 10. Cf. ibn al-QaJanisi, cd. Amcdroz, 
p. 134} tr- U. A. R Gibb, The Damascus Chranicle of the Crusades {London, 1932), 
p. 42, 

* Matthew of Edessa, Chrontque, cd E. Dul tuner (Paris. 1S5S), p. 318. 



638 - LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES *artv 

Antiocb In the meantime the main body had reached Antioch. 1 The 
r ** uccd city was under a Saljuq amir named Yaghi-Siyan * appointed by 
the third Great Saljuq Malikshah. After a long and arduous 
siege (October 21, 1097-June 3> 1098) the metropolis of northern 
Syria fell to the hands of Bohcmond through treachery on the 
part of an Armenian commanding one of the towers. Bohemond 
was a kinsman of Tancred and the shrewdest of the leaders. The 
one serious attempt to relieve the city before its fall came from 
Ridwan of Aleppo. 

No sooner had the besiegers entered the city than they were 
themselves besieged by Karbuqa, 3 amir of al-Mawsil, who had 
rushed from his capital with reinforcements. Enthused by the 
discovery of the "holy lance", which had pierced the Saviour's 
side as He hung upon the cross and had lain buried in a church 
in Antioch, the Christians by a bold sally raised the siege (June 
28), almost annihilating Karbuqa's army. The city was left in 
charge of Bohcmond and became the capital of the second 
principality acquired* For about a century and three-quarters 
Antioch remained in Christian hands. 

Dissatisfied, Raymond of Toulouse, the wealthiest leader of 
the Franks, whose men had made the sensational discovery 
in Antioch, pushed southward. After occupying Ma'arrat al- 
Nu'man, famous as the birthplace of abu-al- r Ala*, his men left 
the town (January 13, 1099) after destroying "over 100,000' ' of 
its population and committing it to the flames.* Count Raymond 
then occupied rjisn al-Akrad, 5 commanding the strategic pass be- 
tween the plains of the Orontes (al-'Asi) and the Mediterranean, 
besieged 'Arqah* on the western slope of northern Lebanon 
and occupied Antartus 7 on the coast without resistance. The 

1 Ar. AnfaUyab, from Gr. Antiochia after Antiochus, father of its founder 
Seleucus I (300 B.C.). As the place inhere the disciples •were first called Christians 
(Acts II 1 26), this city was of special significance. 

* "Baghi-Siyxin" in ibn-al-Athir, voL x, p. 187; abu-al Kda\ vol. ii, p. 220; 
itm-KhaIdun> voL v t p. 20, 

8 Cf. ibn-al-Athlr, vol. x, p. iSS; ahu-al-Hda', Yol.il, p 221. A Turkish adventurer 
vrho in 1096 had vrrested ai-Mav^il from the Arab banu-*Uqa>l and merged it 
vnih the Saljuq empire. 

4 Ibn-al-Athir, vol. x, p. 1 90, copied by tabu al-Fida\ ice. tit. Cf. GesiaFranccrum, 
p. 387; Kama! -al- Din, **Mtmtakhabat min Ta'nkh tJalafc*** in Recvnh enettlcuXy 
vol. Hi, pp. 586-7. 

8 Literally "castle of the Kurds", today QiTat al-Hisn; Crac des Chevahers of 
the Franks. This "Crac" was originally "Crat", a corruption of "Alrad". 

* Birthplace of Alexander Severus (222-35), of the Syrian dynasty of Roman 
emperors. 7 Tortosaofthe Laun chronicles, prcsent-da} Ta^rtns 



CH. XLV 



THE CRUSADES 



639 



Maronite Christians of Lebanon provided him with guides and 
a limited number of recruits. All these possessions, however, 
Raymond relinquished and at the urgent appeal of Godfrey 
of Bouillon, count of Lorraine and Baldwin's brother, joined the 
army in its march on Jerusalem, the main goal. 

On the way southward al-Ramiah was found deserted and 
became the first Latin possession in Palestine. 1 On June 7, 
1099, some forty thousand Crusaders, of whom about twenty 
thousand were effective troops, 11 stood before the gates of 
Jerusalem. The Egyptian garrison may be estimated roundly at 
about one thousand. Hoping the walls would fall as those of 
Jericho had done, the Crusaders first marched barefoot around 
the city, blowing their horns. A month's siege proved more effect- 
ive. On July 15 the besiegers stormed the city and perpetrated 
an indiscriminate massacre involving all ages and both sexes. 
"Heaps of heads and hands and feet were to be seen through- 
out the streets and squares of the city." 3 Another important 
victor)'' over the Egyptians near *Asqalan about a month later 
rendered the position of the Latins in Jerusalem more secure. But 
e Asqalan remained the base of the Egyptian fleet and the head- 
quarters of a garrison which under the Egyptian vizir al-Malik 
al-Afdal continued to harass the enemy/ A third Latin state, 
the most important of all, was thus established. Raymond, 
rather than a clerical, was reportedly offered the kingship but 
declined because he was unwilling to wear a crown of gold where 
the Saviour had worn a crown of thorns. 5 Godfrey, 6 an honest 
leader and hard fighter, was chosen with the title "baron 
and defender of the Holy Sepulchre". Many of the Crusaders 
and pilgrims, considering their vows now fulfilled, sailed back 
home. 

Godfrey's immediate task was to reduce the coast towns, with- 
out which the occupation of the interior would have been pre- 

1 Ibn*aI«Qalanisi, p. 136. 

* Cf. "Annalcs de Tcrre Sainte", Archives de Vonent latin, vol. u (Paris, 1SS4), 
pr. 2, p. 429; Rnimundus de Agiles, "Historia Francorum qui ceperunt Jerusalem", 
in Mignc, Patrohgja LaU'na, vol. civ, p. 657. 

s Agilcs, p. 659. Over 70,000 were slaughtered at the Aqsa Mosque according to 
ibn-al-Athtr, vol« x, p. 194; 65,000 according to Matthew of Edessa, p. 226. 

* Ibn-Muyassar, Akhbar Aftsr, ed. Henri Masse* (Cairo, 1919), pp. 39 teg. 

* Agiles, p. 654. 

* "Kundufrt" in ibu-al-Qalonisi, p. 138; "Kunduhri" in ibn-Taghri-Birdi, ed. 
Popp r» vol. ii, pt. 2, p. 304* 



640 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES PART V 

carious and communication with the homeland difficult The 
problem was solved with the co-operation of the Italian ships 
transporting pilgrims, whose commanders saw in the possession 
of such towns new markets and free ports for their merchandise. 
In the early part of the next year (1100) the Pisans received 
special rights in Jaffa (Yafa). Shortly after, Arsuf, Cassarea 
(Qaysariyah) and 'Akka offered tribute in return for a short 
period of truce. 1 The Venetian fleet, which in the summer of the 
year of Godfrey's death was operating against 'Akka, captured 
y ayfa (Haifa) within a month after his death. 51 rjayfa's garrison 
and inhabitants were invited to gather round a cross, as a place 
of safety, and then mercilessly butchered. The Egyptian fleet, 
the only Moslem one which could come to the defence of these 
ports, was ineffective if not inactive throughout. 

In the meantime Tancred 3 was penetrating inland to the dis- 
trict around the Jordan. Here Baysan, situated on the route of 
the armies between the Mediterranean coast and Damascus, 
formed one of the early acquisitions. Nabulus voluntarily sub- 
mitted. Tancred took up his residence in Tiberias as Godfrey's 
vassal. In the following March (i 101), however, he relinquished 
his fief in favour of Antioch, the principality of his uncle Bohe- 
mond, who had been taken captive by Gumishtigxn* while on an 
expedition near Mar f ash. In 1 103 Bohemond was released on the 
payment of a ransom. 
Baldwin I, On the death of Godfrey 5 his men summoned his brother 
Jerusalem Baldwin 6 to be his successor. Baldwin came from al-Ruha and 
on Christmas Day 1100 was crowned king at Bethlehem, rather 
than in Jerusalem, in deference to the clerical party, which 
aspired to hold Jerusalem as a church domain* 

The Latins had in Baldwin a capable, energetic and aggress- 
ive leader. During his reign (1 100-18) the kingdom extended 
from al-'Aqabah at the head of the Red Sea to Beirut. His 
cousin and successor Baldwin II 7 (11 18-31) added a few towns, 

1 Albert orAk,' c IhstonaHt<^osoly^tanKcxpediUonis , '^Iignc,%ol,clxvi > p. 575, 

* Consult ibn-Khalhkan, \ol i, p. lox. 

* "T&nkari" in ibn-al-Qalanisi, p. 138; "Dankan" in TJsamab, ed. Hitti, p. 65. 

* Founder in SI was of the Turkoman dynasty of the Damshmands, which vms 
later absorbed in its greater Saljuq neighbour. 

* Ibn-al-Qalanisi, p 138= Gibb, p. 51, 

1 "Baghdawm" in ibn-al-Qalanist, p. 138, ibn-Taghri-Birdi, vol. ii, pt. 2, p. 343; 
cf. p. 3*7 ("BardaxuH 

* For a genealogy of the royal house of Jerusalem consult Rene Grousset, fftstetrt 
des croisades t \ol. 1 (Pans 1934), p. 686. 



auxiv *• THE CRUSADES 641 

chiefly on the Mediterranean. In breadth the kingdom did not 
reach beyond the Jordan. Beirut and Sidon were conquered in 
1 1 ro. The only source from which such cities to the north could 
hope for aid was Damascus, now under the Atabeg Tughtigm, 
formerly a slave of the Saljuq Sultan Tutush and the regent over 
his young son Duqaq. 1 But Tughtigm was for several years in 
treaty relations with Baldwin. After a short period of truce, 
Arsuf and Csesarea capitulated in hoi to a Genoese fleet, which 
received one-third of the spoils and had special quarters assigned 
to it; but Tyre, secure on its peninsula, remained in Moslem 
possession until 1 124 and *Asqalan until 1153. In the region 
south of the Dead Sea Baldwin, in 1115, built a formidable 
fortress, al-Shawbak, 2 commanding the desert road from Damas- 
cus to al-rjiijaz and Egypt. 

In Syria the city of Tripoli CJarabulus, from Gr. Tripoli's) was 
at this time the most frequented port Count Raymond 3 had his 
eye on it ever since he had wound his long way southward from 
Antioch to Jerusalem. After the establishment of the kingdom 
he returned and began its siege (1 101). In order to isolate the 
town he built two years later a castle* on an adjacent hill on the 
ravine of the abu-*Ali (Qadlsha) River, The hill ^as named 
Mons Pelegrinus (pilgrims' hill) and soon became a centre 
round which grew a Latin quarter. The siege dragged slowly 
on in spite of reinforcements from the neighbouring Christians 
and mountaineers. 6 At intervals adjacent towns were reduced by 
Raymond. With the co-operation of a Genoese fleet of forty 
galleys he captured Jubayl in 1104, which henceforth marked 
the southern limit of the county of Tripoli. Raymond died in 
xroj in his castle without having attained his goal; beleaguered 
Tripoli did not fall till July 12, U09. 

Thus was now founded, in addition to the county of al-Ruha* 
and the principality of Antioch (which included Cilicia) — both 

x Following the example of many other atSbegs, he usurped the power in 1103 
and became the founder of the Burid dynasty, which lasted till 1154 

* Called by the Latins Mons Rcgahsl(Mont Royal, Montreal). According to early 
chronicles Cracde Montreal refers to its sister to the north-east, Crat des Moabites 
(al Karak; Ar. %ara& b from Aram, kzrkha, town, % hence KarVh, name of a quarter 
in Baghdad). 

* Because he was called Raymond of Saint-Gilies, the Arabs referred to him as 
$anjU or ibn-§anj*L 

* Repaired later by the Turks, this QaTat Tarabulus has been used until recently 
as * prison. * Ibn-Khaldfln, vol. v f p. 1 86, 



CH. xtv ~ * % , THE CRUSABES 



643 



held as fiefs of Jerusalem 3 — the county of Tripoli, also under the 
kingdom of Jerusalem. Al-Ruha' and Jerusalem were Burgun- 
dian princedoms, Aotioch was Norman and Tripoli Provencal, 
These four were the only Latin states ever established on Moslem 
soil. Their control was confined to the northern part of Syria and 
to the narrow littoral, a small Christian territory set against a 
vast and dark background of Islam. Not a town was more than 
a day's march from the enemy. Even in their states the Latin 
population was but thinly scattered. Such inland cities as Aleppo, 
Hamah, I^ims, Ba'labakk and Damascus were never conquered, 
though at times they paid tribute. In the year beginning Sep- 
tember 1156, Damascus, under Nur-al-Din, paid 8000 dinars. 2 

With the dynastic successions in these Latin states, their 1 
squabbles and petty rivalries, we are not concerned. They form c 
a chapter of European rather than of Arab history. But the 
friendly and peaceful relations developed between the men from 
the West and the natives should not escape our attention. 

It should be remembered in the first place that the Christians 
came to the ff ofy Land with the notion that they were far superior 
to its people, whom they considered idolaters, worshipping 
Muhammad as a God. At first contact they were disillusioned. 
As for the impression they left On the Moslems, Usamah 3 gave 
expression to it when he saw in them 1 'animals possessing the 
virtues of courage and fighting, but nothing else". The forced 
association between the two peoples in times of peace — which, 
it should be notcd^ were of much longer duration than times of 
war — wrought a radical change in the feelings of both towards 
each other. Amicable and neighbourly relations were established. 
The Franks employed trusted native workmen and farmers. The 
feudal system they introduced was gradually adapted to the 
local tenure of the land. They had carried with them horses, 
hawks and dogs, and soon agreements were entered into so that 
hunting ^parties might be free from danger of attack. Safe- 
- conducts for travellers and traders were often exchanged and 
usually honoured by uoth sides- The Franks discarded their 
European dress in favour of the more comfortable and more 
suitable native clothing. They acquired new tastes in food 

1 I.e. allied states which recognized the primacy of Jem$a3em;JohnL,Lsi Monte, 
t Feudal Monarch? in the Latin Kingdort cf Jtrmahm (Cambridge, $03") p 1S7 ' 
* Ibn-at Qakmsi, p> 336. a Ed Hitt5,p. x%z^Ar<^SyrumGtntUmm,i m 16U 



644 



LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES paut v 



especially those varieties involving the generous use of sugar and 
spices. They preferred Oriental houses, with their spacious open 
courts and running water. Some intermarried with natives and 
the half-caste progeny of native mothers were designated as 
poulains} They even in certain instances venerated shrines held 
equally sacred by Moslems and Jews. In their intermittent 
quarrels among themselves the Latins often welcomed assistance 
from the "infidels", and the Moslems often sought alliances with 
Latins against fellow Moslems. 
a. Moslem The rise of f Imad-al-Dln (the pillar of faith) Zangi, the blue- 
reaction. eycc j a tabeg of al-Mawsil (1127-46), marks the turning of the 
Zangids tide in favour of Islam. Zangi was the forerunner of a series of 
NQnds counter- Crusading heroes which culminated in Salah-al-Dln and 
extended to the Mamluks of the latter half of the following 
century. Son of a Turkish slave of Malikshah, Zangi carved for 
himself a principality including Aleppo, rjarran and al-Mawsil, 
where he founded the Zangid dynasty (1127-1262), easily the 
greatest among the many established by the atabegs. His were 
the first hammer-strokes under which the Crusading states were 
destined to crumble away. The first blow fell on al~Ruha\ 
Because of its proximity to Baghdad and its control of the main 
routes between Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean this city 
for half a century had been the outer rampart of all Latin states 
in Syria. After a siege of four weeks Zangi captured it (1 144) 
from Joscelin II. 8 This first of the Crusader states to rise and first 
to fall was strongly fortified but poorly defended. Its capture 
meant the removal of the wedge thrust between Moslem Syria 
and al-'Iraq. In Europe it was a signal for what is usually termed 
the second Crusade (l 147-9), led by Conrad III of Germany and 
Louis VII of France. With an army made up of French and 
German knights, of Templars 3 and Hospitallers 4 and of troops 
provided by Jerusalem, Damascus was laid under a futile siege of 
four days. 6 Nowhere was anything accomplished by this Crusade. 
As champion of the Islamic cause Zangi was succeeded in his 

1 "Kids", "young ones", Latinized Pullanx Cf Ar fuldn t Mr. So-and-so. 

* Ibn-al-Atltfr/'TaVlkh al*Dawlah al-AtabaUyah'\ in Rtcueth t>rtentaux t vdi.h t 
pt 2, pp. n 8 jetr 

* Ar. ftfcmah, corruption of a Syriac word for "poor**, the original name of 
the order in Latin being Paupercs Commili tones Chnsti (Poor Knights of Christ). 

4 Or Knights of St. John, Ar, Isbatari>ah (Asbitanyah) 

5 The clearest account is m the work of ibn-al*QaJanisi, pp. 298*9, who was 
himself at Damascus and held a high post in the city's government. 



ch, xly ; . THE CRUSADES " ' ^ 645 

Syrian possessions by his son Nur-al-Difi (light of the faith) 
Mahmud, who chose Aleppo for his capital. More capable than 
his father, Nur was the second to face the Franks on more than 
equal terms^ In 1154 he wrested Damascus, without striking a 
blow, from a successor of Tughtigln, thereby removing the last 
barrier between Zangid territory and Jerusalem* Gradually he 
completed the conquest of the county of al-Ruha*, whose count, 
Joscelin II, in 1151 had been carried off a prisoner in chains. 1 
Nur also reduced parts of the principality of Antioch, whose 
young ruler Bohemond III he captured in 1 164 together with his 
ally Raymond III of Tripoli. Both prisoners were later released 
on payment of ransom, the former after one year of captivity 
and the latter after nine. 

In Palestine, however, the cause of Islam was not so tri- 
umphant. Here its bulwark *Asqalan, which for half a century 
had resisted the Franks, had fallen (1153) * nto & e hands of 
Baldwin III of Jerusalem, thus opening the way for the Christians 
to Egypt. 

Nur-al-Dih had an able lieutenant in one Shlrkuh, who, under 1 
orders from his chief and taking advantage of the decrepitude *" 
of the Fatimid state, managed after several military and diplo- 
matic victories in Egypt to receive in 1 169 the vizirate under 
al-'Adid (1160-71), the last of the Fatimid caliphs. 2 His pre- 
decessor in this high office, Shawar, had sought and secured 
against Shlrkuh the aid of Amalric I, brother and successor of 
Baldwin III. Shortly after his investiture Shlrkuh died and was 
succeeded by his brother's son, Salah-al-Din (rectitude of the 
faith, Saladin) ibn-Ayyub. 

Al-Malik al-Nasir al-Suitan Salah-al-Dln Yusuf was born in 
TakrJt on the Tigris in 11 38 of Kurdish parentage. In the 
following year his father Ayyub (Job) was appointed commander 
of Ba'labakk by the Atabeg Zangi. Of the youth and early 
education in Syria of Salah-aUDTn little is known. Evidently his 
early interests centred on theological discussion. He did not come 
into the public eye until 1 164, when "in spite of his reluctance" 3 
he accompanied his uncle on his first campaign to Egypt. His 
star then began to rise. The two burning ambitions of his life now 

1 Ibn-aMbri, p. 361; ibn-ai-Athlr, vol. xi, p. lor. Cf. Kamal-al-Din, Zubdct 
6l~Le/t6b min TJrfkh Halcb % tr. E. Blochct {Paris, 1900), p. 25. 

* Ibx^KhaUikan, vol. i, pp. 405*7. Cf. Yaquf, vol. il. pp. 246-7. 

* Abu-Shamah, vol. i t p. 155; abu-al-Fida*, vol Hi* p. 47. 



646 



LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES party 



came to be the substitution of Sunnite for Shfite Islam in Egypt 
and the pressing of the holy war against the Franks. Vizir in 
x 169, he omitted in 1 1 7 1 the mention of the name of the Fatimid 
caliph in the Friday prayer, substituting that of the 'Abbasid 
caliph al-Mustadi*. The momentous change was effected with 
so little disturbance that not even "two goats locked horns", 1 

For the realization of his other and greater ambition sovereignty 
over Moslem Syria was a necessary prelude. Here his suzerain 
Nur~al-Dln ruled, and the relations between the two soon became 
strained. On the death of Nur in 1 174 Salah declared his 
independence in Egypt and, after a few engagements culminating 
in the battle of Qurun (horns of) Hamah, he wrested Syria from 
the eleven-year-old Isma'Il, son and successor of Nur. In the 
meantime Salah's elder brother Turan-Shah had succeeded in 
taking possession of al-Yaman. Al-Sijaz with its holy cities 
ordinarily went with Egypt. In May 1175, Salah-al-Dln at his 
own request was granted by the 'Abbasid caliph a diploma of 
investiture over Egypt, al-Maghrib, Nubia, western Arabia, 
Palestine and central Syria. The caliph thereby gave away what 
was in reality not his to give, but what was flattering to him not 
to refuse. Henceforth Salah considered himself the sole sultan, 
as his kinsman-historian abu-al-Fida** expresses it. Ten years 
later he reduced high Mesopotamia and made its various princes 
his vassals. Nur-al-Din's dream of first enveloping the Franks 
and then crushing them between the two millstones of Moslem 
Syria-Mesopotamia and Egypt was being realized in the career 
of his more illustrious successor. 

In the course of these engagements in northern Syria two 
attempts were made on the life of Salah-al-Din by the Assassins 
at the instigation of his Moslem enemies. Before this a similar 
attempt was made on Nur-al-Din and a successful one on the 
Fatimid al-Amir (1130). Among the Christians the most 
distinguished victims of this redoubtable order, which was 
unusually active in Syria at this time, were Raymond II of 
Tripoli (ca. u 52) and the newly elected king*of Jerusalem, 
Conrad of Montferrat (1 192). 3 In 1 1 76 Salah-al-Din laid siege 
to Masyad, headquarters of Rashid-al-Din Sinan, the Old Man 
of the Mountain, but raised it on receiving a promise of 
immunity against future attacks. 

1 Abu-al-Fida*, vol ui, p. 53. * Vol. in, p. 60. * Jbn-al-Athlr, vol. xii p. $t. 



CH. xuv THE CRUSADES - 647 

Sinan had made himself independent of Persia* He controlled 
an efficient secret service and a pigeon-post enabling him to 
obtain information by what seemed supernatural means. His 
fidais (self-sacrificing ones) excelled in the manufacture and 
use of poisoned knives. 1 It is related that when Henry of Cham- 
pagne, titular king of Jerusalem, visited him in r 194, the grand 
master, wanting to impress his guest vith the blind obedience 
he exacted from his henchmen, made a sign to two on top of the 
castle tower and they immediately leaped off and were dashed 
to pieces, 3 

With the Assassin threat removed Salah was free to devote his 1 
energies to attacks on the Franks. Victory followed victory. On 
July ziSj, he captured Tiberias after a six days' siege. The 
battle of rjUttln (rjattni) followed (July 3-4), It began on Fri- 
day, the day of prayer and a favourite one with Salah for fighting. 
This was a sad day for the Frankish army. Numbering about 
twenty thousand and all but dying of thirst and heat* it fell almost 
in its entirety into the enemy's hands. The list of distinguished 
captives was headed by Guy dc Lusignan, king of Jerusalem, 
The chivalrous sultan gave the crestfallen monarch a friendly 
reception; but his companion Reginald of Chatillon, the dis- 
turber of peace, merited a different treatment. Reginald was 
perhaps the most adventurous and least scrupulous of all the 
Latin leaders and the most facile in the use of Arabic. Entrusted 
with the command of al-Karak he mors than once had pounced 
upon peaceful caravans and plundered them as they passed 
beneath ths walls of his castle — and that in violation of treaty 
relations. He ex r en fitted out a fleet at Aylah and harassed the 
coasts of the sacred territory of al-l^ijaz, preying upon its 
pilgrims. Salah had sworn to slay with his own hand the breaker 
of truce. And now the time came for the fulfilment of his oath. 
Taking advantage of a recognized tradition connected with 
Arab hospitality Reginald secured a drink of water from his 
captor's tent. But the drink was not offered by Salah and 
therefore established 110 guest and host relationship between 
captive and captor. 3 Reginald paid for his treachery with 

1 Ibn-BattfHah, vol. i, pp. 

* Marinas Sanuto, "Liber t secretortim" in Bcmgars, Gexta Dei per Franco$ 
(Ilanau, 1611), vol. 'ii, p* 2QU 
3 See above, p 4 2$, -> 



648 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES VkVX v 

his life. All the Templars and Hospitallers were also publicly 
executed. 1 

The victory of Plittm sealed the fate of the Frankish cause. 
After a week's siege Jerusalem, which had lost its garrison at 
rJUttin, capitulated (October 2, 1187). In the Aqsa Mosque the 
muezzin's call replaced the Christian gong, and the golden cross 
which surmounted the Dome of the Rock was torn down by 
Salah's men. 

The capture of the capital of the Latin kingdom gave Salahi- 
al-Dln most of the towns of Frankish Syria-Palestine. In a 
series of brilliantly executed campaigns most of the remaining 
strongholds were seized. None could offer resistance, for they 
had all been denuded of their best defenders on the day of 
Hittin. Animated with the spirit of holy war which the Crusaders 
seem now to have lost, the great champion of Islam pushed his 
conquests north to al-Ladhiqiyah (Laodicea, Latakia), Jabalah 
and Sihyawn, and south to al-Karak and al-Shawbak. All these, 
as well as Shaqlf Arnun,* Kawkab, 3 Safad and other thorns in the 
Moslem side, fell before the close of 1 189. The Franks came very 
near being swept out of the land. Only Antioch, Tripoli and 
Tyre, besides certain smaller towns and castles, remained in 
their possession. 

The fall of the holy city aroused Europe. Hostilities among its 
rulers were buried. Frederick Barbarossa, emperor of Germany, 
Richard I Coeur de Lion, king of England, and Philip Augustus, 
king of France, took the cross. These three were the most power- 
ful sovereigns of Western Europe, and with them the "third 
Crusade" (1189-92) began. In point of numbers it was one of the 
largest. For legend and romance, both Oriental and Occidental, 
this Crusade, with Salah-al-Dfn and Coeur de Lion as its chief 
figures, has provided the favourite theme. 

Frederick, who was the first to start, took the land route and 
was drowned while crossing a Cilician river. Most of his followers 
returned home. En route Richard stopped to capture Cyprus, 

1 Abu-Shamah, vol. h, pp 75 *e who gives an eye -witness's report, ibn-al* 
Athlr, vol xi, pp 352-5, Ernoul and Bernard Ie Trc'soricr, Chrontque^A, M. L. dc 
Mas Latne (Paris, 1871)1 pp- 172-4. 

* On the Leontes (al-Llram), the Bclfort of Latin chronicles Its owner had been 
known as Reginald of Si don. For etymology see Hitti, Htslory of Syrta, including 
Lebanon and Palestine (London, 1950), 602, n. 5. 

* A newly built Crusading castle north of Baysati by the Jordan. Its full name 
was Kawkab al-Hawa* (the star of the sky), Bclvoir in Latin sources. 



6so LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES part v 

destined to become the last refuge of the Crusaders driven from 
the mainland. 

In the meantime the Latins in the Holy Land had decided on 
*Akka as providing the key for the restoration of their lost 
domain. Against it they marched virtually all their forces, aug- 
mented by the remnant of Frederick's army and the contingents 
of the king of France. King Guy, who had been released by 
Salah-al-Dln on pledging his honour never again to bear arms 
against him, led the attack. Sal ah arrived the next day to rescue 
the city and pitched his camp facing the enemy. The struggle 
was waged by land and sea. The arrival of Richard was hailed 
with great rejoicing and bonfires. During the progress of the 
siege many picturesque incidents took place and were recorded 
by the contemporary Arabic and Latin chroniclers. A Dama- 
scene who compounded explosives and burned three of the be- 
siegers' towers refused the reward offered him by Salah in favour 
of Allah's reward. 1 A flint stone which formed part of three ship- 
loads taken from Sicily by Richard for use in his mangonels and 
was said to have destroyed thirteen 'Akkans, was saved and 
shown to Salah as a curiosity. Salah and Richard even ex- 
changed presents, but never met. Carrier-pigeons and swimmers 
were used for communication between Salah and the be- 
leaguered garrison, which was entirely cut off from the sea. One 
such swimmer was drowned while attempting to makp the pass- 
age, and as his body was washed ashore and the 'Akkans ob- 
tained the money and letters he carried, Salah's biographer* 
was prompted to remark, "Never before have we heard of a man 
receiving a trust in his lifetime and delivering it after his death". 
Richard offered a handsome reward for every stone dislodged 
from the walls of the city, and the combatants, as well as the 
women, performed deeds of great valour. The siege, considered 
one of the major military operations of medieval times, dragged 
on for two years (August 27, 1189-July 12, 1191). The Franks 
had the advantage of a fleet and up-to-date siege artillery; 
the Moslems had the advantage of single command. Salah 
sought but received no aid from the caliph. Finally the garrison 
surrendered. 

* Ibn-Khaldun, vol. v, p, 321. 

* Baha*-al-Dfa ibn-Shaddad, Sirat fa?d$-al-£tn* Al-N&uadir al-Suifantyeh 
wel-Makasw a/- Yitsvfiyah {Cairo, 1317), p. 120. Cf. tr. as " Safadm" ; Or, what 
Bejfll Sultan Yutuf London, 1897), p. 206. 



CH.XLV THE CRUSADES 651' 

Two of the conditions of surrender were the release of the 
garrison on the payment of 200,000 gold pieces and the restora- > 
tion of the holy cross. 1 When at the end of a month the money 
was not paid Richard ordered the twenty-seven hundred cap- 
tives to be slaughtered 5 — an act that stands in conspicuous con- 
trast with Salah's treatment of his prisoners at the capture of 
Jerusalem. He too had then stipulated for a ransom and several 
thousand of the poor could not redeem themselves. At the re- 
quest of his brother, Salah set free a thousand of these poor 
captives; at the request of the patriarch another batch was re- 
leased. Then considering that his brother and the patriarch had 
made their alms and that his own turn had come, Salah freed 
many of the remaining captives, including numerous women and 
children, without ransom. 

*Akka now takes the place of Jerusalem 3 in leadership and 
henceforth negotiations for peace between the two combatant 
parties go on almost without interruption. Richard, who was full 
of romantic ideas, proposed that his sister should marry Salah's 
brother, al-Mahk al-'Adil, and that the two should receive Jeru- 
salem as a wedding present, thus ending the strife between 
Christians and Moslems. 4 On Palm Sunday (May 29, 1192) he 
knighted with full ceremony al-'AdiPs son, al-Malik al-KamiL 
Peace was finally concluded on November 2, 1 192, on the 
general principle that the coast belonged to the Latins, the in- 
terior to the Moslems and that pilgrims to the holy city should 
not be molested. Salah had only a few months to live and enjoy 
the fruits of peace. On February 19 of the following year he was 
taken ill with fever in Damascus and died twelve days later at the 
age of fifty-fivfe. His tomb close by the Umayyad Mosque is still 
one of the attractions of the Syrian capital. 

Salah-al-Dm was more than a mere warrior and champion of 
Sunnite Islam. He patronized scholars, encouraged theological 
studies, built dykes, dug canals and founded schools and 
mosques. Among his surviving architectural monurnents is the 

1 Abu-Shatnah. vol. 11, p iSS- *Imid-al-Dm {aH§fahani), chFatfj. a! Qttsfi fi 
&t-Fat(i al QuJst, ed C. dc Landberg (Lc>den, iSSS), p. 357; ibn-al-'Ibri, pp. 386-7; 
abu-al-Fidl*, \ol hi, pp S3-4. 

* Benedict of Peterborough, cd. \V. Stubbs (London, 1S67), vol. ii, p. 1S9; ibn- 
ShaddSd, pp 164-5. 

* Iln-ai^IbrUp 413* speaks of the "king of 'AkU". 

* C£* abu-al-Fida*, vol. in, p. 84. 



6$2 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES PAKTV 

Citadel of Cairo, 1 which he began together with the walls of the 
city in 1183 and for which he utilized stones from the smaller 
pyramids. His cabinet included two learned vizirs, al-Qadi al- 
Fadil 2 and 'Imad-al-Dm al-Katib al-Isfahani, 3 noted for the 
style and grace of their correspondence. His last private secretary 
was Baha'-al-Din ibn-Shaddad, 4 who became his biographer. 
On overthrowing the Fatimid caliphate, Salah distributed its 
accumulated treasures, one of which was an historical seventeen- 
dirham sapphire as weighed by ibn-al-Athlr 5 in person, among 
his retainers and troops, keeping nothing for himself. Nor did 
he touch Nur-al-Dln's estate; he left it to the deceased ruler's 
heir. He himself left on his death forty-seven dirhams and a 
gold piece. 6 Among the Arabs his name, with Harun's and 
Bay bars*, heads the list of popular favourites to the present day. 
In Europe he touched the fancy of English minstrels as well as 
modern novelists' and is still considered a paragon of chivalry. 
2< Period The sultanate built by Salah-al-Din from the Tigris to the 
and petty Nile was divided among his various heirs, none of whom in- 
vars- The herited his genius. At first his son al-Malik al-Afdal (the superior 
Ayyabids king) succeeded to his father's crown at Damascus, al-*AzIz (the 
mighty) at Cairo, al-Zahir (the victorious) at Aleppo, and 
Salah's younger brother and confidant al-'Adil at ai-Karak and 
al-Shawbak. But between 1 196 and 1 199 al-*Adil, taking advan- 
tage of the discord among his nephews, acquired for himself 
sovereignty over Egypt and most of Syria. In 1200 he appointed 
one of his sons governor of Mesopotamia. Ai-'Adil, the Sapha- 
din 8 of Latin chronicles, was the chief agent in the peace nego- 
tiations of 1 192 and maintained throughout his rule friendly 
relations with the Crusaders. Small collisions were not lacking, 
but his general policy was one of peace and the furtherance of 
commerce with the Frankish colonies. He allowed the Venetians 

1 Qal'at al-Jabal. His inscription can still be read over the old gate. 
* Ibn-Khalbkan, \ ol. i, pp. $09 seq., Subki, Fa&aoat, vol. iv, pp 253-4. 

3 Ibn*Khalhkan, vol 11, pp 495 si 9 I Suyuji, Husn, vol i, p. 270. His aUFatk 
was drawn upon in the composition of this chapter 

4 Ibn-Khallikan, \ol. iii, pp. 428 stg. His Sirah has been extensively used in 
this chapter. 

1 Vol. xi, p. 242. * Abu al-Fida\ vol. iii, p. 9t, 

7 Eg, Walter Scott in his Talisman, Lessing in Nathan der Wtist. Owing to 

SalaVal-Din's fame a legend grew up to explain the greatness of Thomas Beckct 

on the ground of his descent from a Saracen mother. 

1 From his honorific title Sayf-al-DIn (the sword of religion) Jbn-Khallikan. 

vol. li, p. 446. 



THE CRUSADES 



653 



to establish special markets with inns 1 at Alexandria and the 
Pisans to establish consuls there. His name is still borne in 
Damascus by a!- Adillyah school, which he partly built. 5 

After al-'Adil's death in 12 1 8 several Ayyubid branches, all 
sprung from him, reigned in Egypt, Damascus and Meso- 
potamia. Other branches, descended from other members of the 
Ayyubid family, controlled Hims, ffamah and al-Yarnan. The 
Egyptian Ayyubids were the chief branch and frequently con- 
tested with their Damascene kinsmen the sovereignty over Syria* 
The north Syrian branches were swept away in 1260 by the 
Tartar avalanche of Hulagu, with the exception of the insignifi- 
cant yamah branch which continued under the Mamluks and 
numbered in its line the historian-king abu-al-Fida' (f 1332), a 
descendant of Salah-al-Din's brother* 

In the course of these dynastic turmoils not only did Islam « 
lose its power of aggression, but one after another of Salah-al- 
Din's conquests, e.g. Beirut, Safad, Tiberias, *Asqalan and 
even Jerusalem (1229), reverted to Frankish hands. But the 
Franks were in no position to take full advantage of the situation. 
They were themselves in as bad a plight, if not worse. Their 
colonies depended for their maintenance upon new recruits from 
Europe which were not forthcoming. Among themselves quarrels 
between Genoese and Venetians, jealousies between Templars 
and Hospitallers, personal squabbles among leaders and contests 
for the empty title of king of Jerusalem — these were the order of 
the day. In their disputes, as we learned above, one side would 
often secure aid from Moslems against the other. 

The first serious engagements since Salah-al-Dln's death be- 
tween Franks and natives took place on Egyptian soil under al- 
Kamil (1218-38). Al-Kamil, the Egyptian successor of his father 
al- r Adil, was now the leading Ayyubid figure and nominally 
received the homage of Syria. His first task was to clear his land 
of the Crusaders who shortly before his father's death had landed 
near Dimyat (Damietta) and in the following year had occupied 
that town. This invasion of Egypt was prompted by the fresh 
realization by the maritime republics of Italy that the centre of 

1 Ar. fundug, from Gr. pattd^eion; An bunduq (Welnut), from Gr, pontikos 
(adjective, from Pontos); Bunduqlvah, Ar. name of Venice (abu-al-Fida\ Taqwfm 
chButdcn, ed. Reinaud and de Stane, Paris, 1840, j>. 210). from Venettemn. 

* The names of ibn^Khatt&an, al-Subki and others arc associated with this school, 
whose building now houses the Arab Academy of Damascus. 



6$4 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES part v 



Islamic power had shifted from Syria to Egypt and that only by 
the conquest of the latter could their ships reach the Red Sea 
and participate in the opulent commerce of the Indian Ocean, 
After almost two years of conflict (November 1219-August 
122 1) al-Kamil forced the Franks to abandon Dimyat and 
granted them a free passage. 1 

Like his father, al-Kamil took a lively interest in irrigation 
and agriculture and signed several commercial treaties with 
European countries. He was so favourably disposed toward his 
Christian subjects that the Coptic church still recognizes him as 
the most beneficent sovereign it ever had. The year after his 
accession St. Francis of Assisi visited his court and discussed 
religion with him. His interest in learning may be illustrated by a 
personal call he once made to a Cairene subject, 'Umar ibn-al- 
Farid (1181-1235), the greatest Sufi poet the Arabs produced, 
who is said to have refused to receive his royal guest. Formerly 
a friend of Richard, al-Kamil now entered into friendly relations 
with Frederick II, who in 1227 set out on a Crusade. In 1229 an 
infamous treaty was concluded yielding to Frederick Jerusalem, 
along with a corridor connecting it with 'Akka, and guarantee- 
ing al-Kamil Frederick's aid against his enemies, most of whom 
were Ayyubids. 2 This was the most singular treaty between a 
Christian and a Moslem power before Ottoman days. Jerusalem 
remained in Frankish hands until 1244 when, at the invitation 
of al-Kamil's second successor al-Malik al-Salih Najm-al-Dm 
Ayyub (1240-49), a contingent of Khwarizm Turks, previously 
dislodged from their Central Asian abode by ChingTz Khan, 
restored the city to Islam. 3 
Si Umts As he lay on his deathbed al-Salih received the news that 
Dimyat was again threatened, this time by Louis IX, king of 
France, and his chevaliers of the "sixth Crusade". The town 
surrendered (June 6, 1249) without resistance; but as the French 
army marched on Cairo in a region intersected by canals, while 
the Nile was at its height, pestilence spread in its ranks, its line 
of communication was cut off and it was entirely destroyed (April 
1250). King Louis, with most of his nobles, was taken prisoner. 4 

1 Abu-al Fida'jNol.ui, pp. 135-7, lbn-Khaldun, vol, v, pp 34Q-50, ibn-Khalhkan, 
vol, u, p. 451, ibn*I>as, Badd*t* a!-Zuh&r Ji Waqa % i* al*J>uh&r (Bulaq, 1311), 
vol. i f pp. 79 So 

* Abu-al*Fida*,vol.ui,p.i48,ibn-al-Athrr,vol.xii,p.3XS. * Sec above, p 482 

* Maqrizi, vol ii, pp. 236 7; Joinvillc, Htsieirt de Satnt Lcuts % ed. N. dc Watfly 
(Pans, 3874). PP 169 



CH* XLV 



THE CRUSADES 



In the meantime al~§alih had pissed away (November 1249) 
His daring and energetic widow Shajar-al-Durr (the tree of 
pearls) kept the news secret for three months until his son and 
successor Turan-Shah had returned from Mesopotamia. 1 Turan 
failed to make himself agreeable to the slaves (mamluks) of his 
father and with the connivance of his stepmother was murdered 
in 1250, Shajar proclaimed herself queen of the Moslems 2 and 
a six-year-old scion of the Damascene Ayyubids, al-Ashraf 
Musa, was accorded the nominal dignity of joint sovereignty; 
but the titular ruler was the Mamluk Aybak, founder of the 
Mamluk dynasty. After a month of captivity Louis and his men 
were released on the payment of a ransom and the restoration 
of Dimyat. 3 His work in Syria, where he remained from 1250 to 
1254, consisted in the fortifying of such ports as 'Akka, yayfa, 
Cssarea and Sidon. In 1270 he led another futile Crusade, now 
to Tunisia, where he died. Of all the Crusading leaders his, by 
far, was the purest and noblest character. His "whole life was a 
prayer, his noble aim was to do God's wiir\ 

Among the Mamluks it was the fourth, al-Malik al~?ahir' 
Baybars (1260-77), who inaugurated the series of sultans who 
dealt the final blows to the Crusaders' cause. Baybars had dis- 
tinguished himself as a general under his predecessor Qutuz 
when at 'Ayn Jalut he inflicted (September 3, 1260) a crushing 

1 A tree of the Egyptian Ayyubids, all of whom, excepting al-'Aziz, al-Mansur 
and al-Ashraf, were at least for a time acknowledged by Damascus: 




I« $a)afr-nl-Din 



4. APAdil I 
Sayf-al-Dln 
(1199-1218) 



At Afdal) 2. AVAzix 



(AUZahir) 




'Imad-al-Din 
(t 193^8) 



(Al-S&Iih Isma'il of 
Damascus) 



3. Al-Man$ur Muhammad 



7* Al-$alih Najm-al-DTn + Shajar«a1-Durr 



(1240-49) (1249-50) 



8. Al-Mu*ar?am Turan-Shah 



(1250) 



6s6 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES party 



defeat on the Tartars. The Mongolian leader was Kitbugha, 
a Nestorian, whose advance guard had penetrated Palestine 
down to Ghazzah. 1 This victory is memorable for the history of 
civilization; if the Mongols had taken Cairo they would have 
probably destroyed its treasures and manuscripts. Besides avert- 
ing the danger threatening Syria and Egypt it paved the way for 
the reunion of the two neighbouring countries, a reunion which 
lasted under the Mamiuk sceptre until the Ottoman conquest 
two centuries and a half later. 

Baybars* ambition was to be a second Salah-al-Din in the holy 
war against Crusader towns. Especially provoked was he when 
he found those towns making common cause with the Hulaguid 
li-Khans of Persia, now favourably disposed toward the Chris- 
tian religion. From 1263 to 1271 he conducted almost annual 
raids against them. One after another of the Latin establish- 
ments yielded with little or no resistance. The two military orders 
which now occupied the leading fortresses of Frankish Syria and 
formed its bulwark were the ones who received his most deva- 
stating blows. But throughout the opposition was so weak that 
hardly a single battle of importance was fought in the open field. 

In 1263 Baybars took al-Karak from an Ayyubid and demol- 
ished the venerated church of Nazareth (al-Nasirah). In 1265 
he seized Caesarea, and after a forty-day siege received the sur- 
render of Arsuf from the Hospitallers. On July 23, 1266, the 
Templar garrison of Safad capitulated on condition that the 
lives of its two thousand knights be spared. Without delay and in 
spite of the amnesty granted, the sultan ordered them all executed 
on a neighbouring hill. 2 The story of the victory of "the Alex- 
ander of his age and the pillar of faith*' is still engraved on the 
walls of Safad; and the bridge he built over the Jordan stands to 
the present day bearing his inscription, with the figure of a lion 
on either side. In 1268 Jaffa was captured without resistance; 
Shaqif Arnun capitulated after a short siege; and what is more 
important Antioch, which had maintained amicable relations 
with the Tartars, surrendered (May 21). Antioch's garrison with 
others to the number of 16,000 were slaughtered and some 
100,000 are said to have been led to captivity, some to be sold 
in the markets of EgypL When the plunder was divided, money 

1 Maqrizi, tr. Quatnerofcre, vol. i (pt. i), pp. 98, 104. 
* Ibtd* (pt. a), pp. 39*30* abu-al-Fida\ voU iv, p. 3. 



CIT XLV 



THK CRUSADES 



657 



was measured out in cups; an infant fetched twelve dirhams and 
a young girl five. The city with its citadel and world-renowned 
churches was given to the flames — a blow from which it has 
never recovered. 1 On the fall of Antioch a number of minor 
Latin strongholds in the vicinity were abandoned. In 1271 the 
formidable Hisn al-Akrad, the principal retreat of the Hospitallers 
and probably the most beautiful military monument of the 
Middle Ages, surrendered after a siege lasting from March 24 to 
April S. The adjacent casdes of Masyad, al-Qadmus, al-Kahf 
and al-Khawabi, which belonged to the Assassins who were in 
alliance with the Hospitallers and often paid tribute to them, 
were all reduced. The last nest of an order which for years had 
hatched horror and intrigue was thereby for ever destroyed Both 
the Templars of Antartus and the Hospitallers of al-Marqab now 
hastened to make peace. 

Baybars had a worthy successor in Qalawun (1279-90), who 
was almost as energetic and redoubtable an anti-Crusader. 
Baybars* truce with the Templars of Antartus was renewed 
(April 1 S, 1282) for another term of ten years and ten months A 
similar treaty was signed (July 18, 1285) with the princess of 
Tyre who controlled Beirut. 2 On the battlefield he established his 
right to the honorific title he bore, al-Mahk al-Mansur (the 
victorious king). Al-Marqab, 3 which still looks like a dread- 
nought crowning a hill near Tartus and overlooking the sea, 
yielded after a siege of thirty-eight days, ending May 25, 1285. 
The besiegers' arrowheads can still be seen imbedded in its 
outer walls Abu-al-Fida', 4 who was then twelve years old, had 
his first experience in warfare on this occasion. The citadel's 
Knights of St. John were conducted under escort to Tripoli. 
Tripoli, another of the early conquests of the Crusaders and now 
the largest town in their possession, succumbed in April 1289; 
the city and its citadel were almost entirely ruined Abu-al-Fida* c 
himself was oppressed by the smell of the corpses lying thick on 
the island outside the port. After Tripoli the stronghold of al- 
Batrun to the south was captured. Qalawun commemorated his 

1 Ibn-aI-*Ibri» p. 500; Maqnn, tr. Quatremere, voL 5 <pt 2), pp. 52-4; abu-al- 
Tida^vol iv, pp 4 5. 

5 Maqrlzi has preserved the texts of both treaties, ed. Quatremcre, vol 11 (pt 3), 
pp 172-6, 177-S, tr. pp 22-31, 212-2K 

* "The *atch tower", Castrum Mergatbum, Margate 

* Vol. iv, p. 22. * VoL iv, p. 24. 



t>s8 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES part V 



victories with inscriptions which, like those of Bay bars, can still 
be read on the walls of the citadels he reduced. 
'AWca f Akka was now the only place of military importance left. In 
the midst of his preparations against it Qalawun died and was 
succeeded by his son al-Ashraf (1290-93), who commenced 
where his father had left off. After an investment of over a month, 
in which ninety-two catapults were used against its ramparts, 
this last bulwark of the Latin Orient was stormed (May 1291). 
The help received from Cyprus by sea did not save the day. Its 
Templar defenders, to whom a safe-conduct had been promised, 
were massacred. The city was plundered, its fortifications were 
dismantled and houses set on fire. 1 

The fall of T Akka sealed the fate of the half-dozen towns still 
retained along the coast, and none resisted the victorious enimy\ 
Tyre was abandoned on May 18, Sidon on July 14. Beirut 
capitulated on July 21. Antartus was occupied on August 3 and 
the deserted Templar castle of 'AthlTth (Castrum Pcrcgrinorum, 
Chateau Pelerin) was destroyed about the middle of that month. 2 
One of the most dramatic chapters in the history of Syria was 
closed. 8 

1 Abu aMTidii' (who took part in the siege), vol. iv, pp 25-6; Maqrizi, tr. Quatra- 
in ere, vol u (pt 3), pp 125 9, Archives % %ol u, pt. 2, p 460, JLes gestes des Chtprois^ 
ed G. Raynaud (Geneva, iS$7), p 256 

* See Sanuto in Bon^aTs, \ol. n, pp 231 seq. 

1 Later Crusades uerc directed against Rhodes, Smyrna, Alexandria and Turkey 
In Europe, culminating in the Crusade of Nicopohs tn 1396 See A* S. Atiya, The 
Crusade tn the Later Mtddle Ages (London, 193S). 




CHAPTER XLVT 
CULTURAL CONTACTS 



BECAUSE of the richness of the Crusades in picturesque and 
romantic incidents, their historical importance has been some- 
what exaggerated. For the Occident they meant much more 
than for the Orient. Their civilizing influence was artistic, in* 
dustria! and commercial rather than scientific and literary. In 
Syria they left in their wake havoc and ruin intensified by the 
Mamluk destruction of most of those maritime towns formerly 
occupied by the Franks. Throughout the Near East they be- 
queathed a legacy of ill will between Moslems and Christians 
that has not yet been forgotten. 

Notwithstanding its civil and holy wars Syria enjoyed under i 
the Nurids and Ayyubids — more particularly under Nur-al-Din * 
and Salah-al-Dln — the most brilliant period in its Moslem 
history, with the exception of the Umayyad age. Its capital, 
-Damascus, still bears evidences of the architectural and educa- 
tional activities of members of these two houses. Not only did 
Nur renovate the walls of the city with their towers and gates 
and erect government buildings which remained in use until 
recent tirnes,^ but he established in Damascus the earliest school 
devoted to the science of tradition, 1 the celebrated hospital 
bearing his name 3 and the first of those madrasahs (academies) 
which after his time began to flourish in the land, The Nuri 
hospital, the second in Damascus after that of al-Walld, func- 
tioned later as a school of medicine. 8 The madrasahs were in 
reality collegiate mosques or school-mosques, but they boarded 
students and followed the type evolved by the Nizamiyah. Such 
collegiate mosques, all of the Shafi'i rite, were founded by Nur 
in Aleppo, rjirn?, #amah and Ba'labakk. His inscriptions on 
these buildings and on other monuments of his are of special 

* In this JD&r al-Hadlth al-Nfliiyah, the contemporary lbn-'Asakir (vol, i, p, 222) 
lectured* " ( 

* 4!«WtritfSn*i!-Nari. Ibn-TuHvr.p 2$3;ibn*Khoih'k&n, vol u, p 521. 

* <X* iba*abS-U$ayto'ah, \q\. U. p. IQ2 The building is still standing. 

659 



66o LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES PART v 



interest for Arabic paleography, since it was about this time that 
the angular Kufic, in which until then inscriptions were exclus- 
ively cut, was replaced by the rounded naskhi. An inscription of 
his on a western tower of the Citadel of Aleppo is still legible. 
The existing fortifications of this citadel, which is mentioned in 
Assyrian and Hittite records and is considered a masterpiece of 
ancient military architecture, owe their restoration to this Syrian 
sultan. Nur's tomb in his Damascus academy, al-Nunyah, is held 
in reverence even today. Through this madrasah the connection 
between mausoleum and mosque was established in Syria, 1 




Hv <ottrtts> 0/ K.A C Cttsu<ti 

THE ANCIENT CITADEL OF ALEPPO 
Restored by Nur-al*Din (f 1 174) 

During the Marnluk period, which in art was a continuation of 
the Ayyubid, it became the regular practice for the founder of a 
collegiate mosque to be buried under a dome (qttbbah) in the 
building. 

Salah-al-Dln displayed even more munificent architectural 
and educational activity than his predecessor. His policy was to 
combat Shi'ite heresy and pro-Fatimid tendencies by means of 
education. Next to Ni7am-al-Mulk he is reputed to have been 
the greatest builder of academies in Islam. Under him Damascus 
became a city of schools, Ibn-Jubayr, 2 who visited it in 1 184, 
refers to its twenty madtasahs, two free hospitals and numerous 
dervish "monasteries". Salah introduced these "monasteries" 3 
into Egypt. 

1 Cf. above, p. 630. 

* Pp. 283-4; aho\e. pp 408,412. 

* Ar. khanaqah, from Pers khdnagdh. Suytitu &usn> vol. ii, p. 158. 



ch,xlvx " 1 CULTURAL CONTACTS 



661 



"The classical Arab art of the East is represented by the a 
buildings of Damascus and Aleppo dating from the thirteenth \ 
century, under the Ayyubids and their earliest Mameluke 
successors/ 11 The Ayyubid school of Syrian architecture was 
continued in Egypt under the Mamluks and produced some of 
the most exquisite monuments which Arab art can boast. Its 
characteristics are strength and solidity. On its durable material 
of fine stone even the simplest decorative motif assumes infinite 
grace. But like the Andalusian school it depended for its elegance 
and beauty upon excessive decoration. 

It was Salah-al-Dln who introduced the madrasah type of 
school into Jerusalem and Egypt. 2 During his reign al-$ijaz 
also saw its first institution of this type. Notable among his 
Egyptian academies was the one at Cairo bearing his name, 
al-Salahlyah. 8 Ibn-Jubayr* found several madrasahs in Alex- 
andria. None of these Egyptian institutions have sufvived, but 
their architectural influence is manifest. It produced in later 
years the finest Arab monuments of Egypt, among which the 
most splendid exampie is the collegiate mosque of Sulfan £f asan 
in Cairo. Its general plan consists of a square central court 
Qakn) open to the sky, flanked by four walls with four halls or 
porticos (sing, liwan) forming the arms of a cross. Each of these 
four halls was reserved for instruction in one of th$ orthodox 
rites. 

Besides schools Salah-al-DIn maintained in Cairo two hospi- 
tals.* The edifices were probably planned after the Nurid hospital 
in Damascus* Before his time ibn-Tulun and Kafur al-Ikhshldi 
had established in Egypt similar free public institutions. 
Hospital architecture followed also the mosque plan, but has 
left no traces. Only in military architecture do we havfc survivals, 
the Citadel of Cairo being the principal example. This citadel 
shows that Salah owed a part of his knowledge of fortification to 
the Norman castles that had by this time sprung up in Palestine, 
He probably used Christian prisoners in its construction. It was 
in this citadel that he made his residence, while in Cairo, 
surrdunded by a galaxy of talent which included, besides his 

" 1 Rcn6 OrouSsct, The Civilizations of the Bast, vol. i, The Near and Mt&dh 
£W/,tr. Catherine A. Phillips (New York, 1931), p. 235; M.vanBerchem, Matiriaitx 
four m corpus inscriptionum Arabicarum, ptTa, vol. i {Cairo, 1922), pp. 87 seq t 
9 lbn-Kh&Utkan, vol* iii, p. 521, * Suyuti, tfum, vol. ii, pp. 157-8. 

\* Pp. 4t'&* * Ibn-Jubayr, pp. 51 •a. 



662 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES PAtttv 

brilliant vizirs/ such men as his distinguished Jewish physician 
ibn-Maymun and the versatile, prolific 'Iraqi scholar 'Abd-al- 
Latlf ai-Baghdadi (r 162-1231), whose short description of Egypt 2 
stands out among the important topographical works of the 
Middle Ages. 

in science Despite this manifestation of intellectual and educational 
wphy 1 " 10 " act J v * tv Islamic culture in the epoch of the Crusades was already 
decadent in the East. For some time prior to that epoch it had 
ceased to be a creative force. In philosophy, medicine, music and 
other disciplines, almost all its great lights had vanished. This 
partly explains why Syria, which was throughout the twelfth 
and thirteenth centuries a particular focus of relations between 
Islam and Western Christianity, proved as a vehicle of Arabic 
influence very much less important than either Spain, Sicily, 
North Africa or even the Byzantine empire. Although in Syria 
Islam acted upon European Christianity by direct impact upon the 
Crusaders, by the repercussion of that impact upon the West and 
by a process of infiltration along the routes of commerce, yet the 
spiritual and intellectual impress it left is barely noticeable. On 
the other hand, we should recall that the Franks in Syria, besides 
possessing a lower level of culture than their antagonists, were 
largely foreign legions quartered in castles and barracks and in 
close contact with the native tillers of the soil and artisans rather 
than with the intelligentsia. Then there were the nationalistic and 
religious prejudices and animosities which thwarted the play of 
interactive forces. In science and art the Franks had very little 
to teach the natives. The comparative standing of medical lore 
in the two camps may be illustrated by the anecdotes cleverly 
told by Usamah, 3 who also pokes fun at the Franks' judicial 
procedure with its trial by duel and by water. 

Concrete instances of scientific and philosophic transmission 
are not entirely lacking. Adelard of Bath, whose translations of 
Arabic works on astronomy and geometry have already been 
mentioned, visited Antioch and Tarsus early in the twelfth cen- 
tury. About a century later the first European algebraist, 
Leonardo Fibonacci, who dedicated a treatise on square num- 

1 See above, p. 652. 

* Ahlfadah w aUVtibar fi aUUm&r al-Mush&hadah w-aUlIaxaaduh el* 
MtS&yanah bi-Artf Afifr y cd. D. J. White (TGbingen, 1789)1 tr. mto Latin, German 
and French. Ibn-abi-Usaybi'ah, vol. ii, p 207; Kutubi, vol. li. p. 10, 

3 Pp ijt seq.^ ArabSynan Gentleman \ pp. 162 seq. 



CiLXim - CULTURAL CONTACTS 663 

bers to Frederick II, visited Egypt and Syria. Frederick himself 
entertained the ambition of reconciling Islam and Christianity 
and patronized several translators from Arabic. A Pisan, 
Stephen of Antioch, translated the important medical work of 
al-Majusi at Antioch in 1127. This was the only known Arabic 
work the Franks carried back with them; but since in the twelfth 
century we find a number of hospices and hospitals, chiefly lazar- 
houses for leprosy, springing up all over Europe, we may assume 
that the idea of systematic hospitalization received a stimulus 
from the Moslem Orient. This Orient was also responsible for 
the reintroduction into Europe of public baths, an institution 
which the Romans patronized but the Christians discouraged. It 
was again in Antioch that Philip of Tripoli found about 1247 a 
manuscript of the Arabic Sirr al-Asrdr purporting to have been 
composed by Aristotle for the guidance of his great pupil, 
Alexander. Translated by Philip into Latin as Secretum secre- 
torum t this pseudo-Aristotelian work, containing the essence of 
practical wisdom and occult science, became one of the most 
popular books of the later Middle Ages. 

In literature the influence was more pervasive. The legends of 
the Holy Grail have elements of undoubted Syrian origin. The 
Crusaders must have heard stories from the Kaiilah and the 
Arabian Ntghts and carried them back with them. Chaucer's 
Sqiiieres Tale is an Arabian Ntghts story. From oral sources 
Boccaccio derived the Oriental tales incorporated in his De- 
cameron* To the Crusaders we may also ascribe European mission- 
ary interest in Arabic and other Islamic languages. Men like 
Raymond Lull (f 131$) were convinced by the failure of the 
Crusades of the futility of the military method in dealing with 
the "infidel". Lull, a Catalan, was the first European to promote 
Oriental studies as an instrument of a pacific Crusade in which 
persuasion should replace violence. In 1276 he founded at 
Miramar a college of friars for the study of Arabic; it was prob- 
ably, through his influence that in 131 1 the Council of Vienne 
resolved to create chairs of Arabic and Tartar at the Univer- 
sities of Paris, Louvain and Salamanca. 
* In the realm of warfare the influences, as is to be expected, are 3 
more noticeable, The use of the crossbow, the wearing of heavy \ 
-mail by knight and horse and the use of cotton pads under the 
armour are of Crusading origin. In Syria the Franks adopted the 



664 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES PA^TV 



tabor 1 and the naker*for their military bands, which hitherto had 
been served only by trumpets and horns They learned from the 
natives how to train carrier-pigeons* to convey military informa- 
tion and borrowed from them the practice of celebrating victory 
by illuminations and the knightly sport of the tournament 
(jarid)* In fact several features of the chivalry institution de- 
veloped on the plains of Syria. The growing use of armorial 
bearings and heraldic devices was due to contact with Moslem 
knights. The two-headed eagle/ the fleur-de-lis 5 and the two 
keys may be cited as elements of Moslem heraldry of this period. 
Salah-al-Dln probably had the eagle as his crest. Most Mamluks 
bore names of animals, the corresponding images of which they 
blazoned on their shields. Mamluk rulers had different corps, 
which gave rise to the practice of distinguishing by heraldic 
designs on shields, banners, badges and coats of arms. Baybars* 
crest was a lion, like that of ibn-Tulun before him, and Sultan 
Barquq's (f 1398) was the falcon. In Europe coats of arms 
appear in a rudimentary form at the end of the eleventh century; 
the beginning of English heraldry dates from the early part of 
the twelfth* Among modern Moslems the star and crescent 
and the lion and sun form the sole remnant of heraldry. "Azure" 
(Ar. lazaward) and other terms used in heraldry testify to this 
connection between the European and Moslem institutions. 
Gutv- The Crusades also fostered the improvement of siege tactics, 

powder including the art of sapping and mining, the employment of 
mangonels and battering-rams and the application of various 
combustibles and explosives. Gunpowder was evidently invented 
in China, where it was used mainly as an incendiary. About 
1240 it was introduced by the Mongols into Europe. There the 
application of its explosive force to the propulsion of missiles, 
i.e. the invention of fire-arms, was accomplished about a century 
later. No historian of the Crusades makes an allusion to it. The 
first European recipe for gunpowder we find appended to a 

1 Fr. tambcur r from Ar. funbur f from Pexs. furrHr t a kind of late 

* Fr. naccire, fr. Ar. naqqerak, a kettledrum. 

* Consult $alih ibn-Yabya, Tc'rxkh Bayrut, ed. L. Cbeikho (Beirut, 189$), 
pp. 60-61; aUZahiri, Zuld&t Kashf cl-Afamalti y etL P„ Ravaisse {Paris* 1804), 
pp. 1 16*17. Cf . Suyun, &usn f voL it, p. 1S6. 

* Zangi's coins of Sinjar show this symbol of Sumerian anti quity . Above, p. 479 

* L. A. Mayer, Saracenic Heraldry* A Survey (Oxford, 1933), pp. 23-4. This, 
one of the most widely spread dements of decorative art, was known in Assyria. It 
still figures on the Canadian coat of arms for France, 



CK. XLVI 



CULTURAL CONTACTS 



665 



work written about 1300 by a certain Marc the Greek; Bacon's 
recipe is apocryphal Shortly before 1300 Hasan al-Rammah 
(the lancer) Najm-ai-Din al-Ahdab, probably a Syrian, com- 
posed a treatise entitled aUFuriistyah w-al-Manasib a!-Har- 
btyak 1 (horsemanship and military exercises), which mentions 
saltpetre, a component of powder, and contains pyrotechnic 
recipes to which those ascribed to Marc bear close resemblance. 
One of the earliest references to the use of gunpowder is in 
al-'Umari(f 134S). 2 

The Crusaders took with them from Italy and Normandy a 
substantial knowledge of military masonry which was partly 1 
passed on to the Arabs, as the architecture of the Citadel of 
Cairo indicates. Castles and churches were their main structures. 
Most of the castles, including Hisn al-Akrad, al-Marqab and 
al-Shaqlf (Beifort), are extant. In Jerusalem parts of the Church 
of the Holy Sepulchre, "Solomon's Stables" near the Aqsa 
Mosque and several of the vaulted bazaars are their work. The 
Church of the Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock were de- 
liberately imitated by several churches of the round "temple" 
type, of which four are found in England and others in France, 
Spain and Germany. In Beirut the so-called f Umari Mosque 
was built as the Church of St, John by Baldwin I in 11 10. The 
Crusading arch is generally of the pointed form and the vaulting 
simple, usually groined. The most beautiful relic of Frankish 
art in Cairo is a doorway taken from the Christian church 
of *Akka in 1291 and incorporated in the Mosque of al-Nasir. 3 

In the realm of agriculture, industry and commerce thej 

Crusades produced much greater results than in the realm of \ 

intellect. They explain the popularization in the regions of the 

Western Mediterranean of such new plants and crops as sesame 

and carob, millet and rice/ lemons and melons, apricots and 

shallots. "Carob" is Arabic kliarrub (originally Assyrian) ; 

" lemon" is Arabic faymnn, of Indie or Malay origin; and both 

"shallot" and " scailion", meaning originally the onion of 

Ascalon, preserve the name of the Palestinian town. For many 

years apricots were called the plums of Damascus. Also there 

were other trees and products which were simultaneously diffused 

1 Extracts in Ar. and Fr ir. by Remaud and Fare\ jf&urnal asiattque, ser. 4, 
vol siv {1S40), pp 257*327- See also vol. xii, -pp. J03 seq. 

* TJrif (Cairo, 1312), p 20S. * See below, p. 681, 

* QL above, p 53S. "Sesame", At. nmsim, is demed from Assyrian through Ox* 



' CULTURAL CONTACTS 667 

through Moslem Spain and Sicily, and in certain instances it is 
not possible to tell whether the bridge was Syria or one of 
these two other countries. 

Wliile in the Orient, the Franks acquired new t^steSi especially 
in perfumes, spices, sweetmeats and other tropical products of 
Arabia and India with which the marts of Syria were weii 
stocked. These tastes later supported the commerce of Italian 
and Mediterranean cities. Incense and other fragrant gums of 
Arabia, the damask rose (Rosa damascene) and sweet scents in 
which Damascus specialized and numerous fragrant volatile oils 
and attars 1 of Persia became favourites. Alum and aloes figured 
among the new drugs with which they became acquainted. At 
the capture of Csesarea in 1 101 the Genoese, we are told, received 
as their portion of the booty more than sixteen thousand pounds 
of pepper. Cloves and other aromatic spices together with pepper 
and similar condiments came into use in the Occident in the 
twelfth century, and from that time on no banquet was complete 
without spiced dishes. Ginger (Ar. and Pers. zanjabll^ of Skr, 
origin) was added to the Crusaders* menu in Egypt. More 
important than all others is sugar (Ar. sukkar % ultimately Skr.). 
Europeans had hitherto used honey for sweetening their foods. 
On the maritime plain of Syria, where children can still be seen 
sucking sugar-cane, the Franks became acquainted with this 
plant which has since played such an important role in our 
domestic economy and medical prescriptions. William of Tyre 2 
(f f «j. nod), who knew Arabic and wrote the most elaborate 
medieval account of the Crusades (from 1095 to r 1 84), has left us 
interesting observations on the sugar plantations of his native 
town. Sugar was the first luxury introduced into the West and 
nothing fclse so delighted the Western palate. With it went soft 
drinks, waters tinctured by distillation with roses, violets or other 
Sowers, and all varieties of candy and sweetmeats. 

Windmills appear first in Normandy in 11 80 and betrays 
Crusading origin. 3 Water-wheels (sing, noria, from Ar. nd % uraJi) ^ 

, existed in Europe before this period but the Crusaders took back 
with them an improved type. This Syrian type may still be seen 

* in Germany near Bayreuth. 4 In Syria it goes back to Roman 
„ £ Sceatove, p. 351* 

1 * "Historia rcrum*', in Jttcuetl* &cetdcntaux % vol i t p. 559, Jacques de Vifry, 
"Historia Iliero$olim1ttma , \ in Bons&rs, vol. i t p, 1075. 8 Cf. abo\e, p. 385. 
* M. Soberoheira, art< r< ^fama", Encydopadia cf /sldtn. 



668 



LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES party 



days, but was presumably improved upon by such native 
engineers as Qaysar ibn-Musafir Ta*asTf (f 125 1), 1 an Egyptian, 
who was in the service of the ruler of Hamah and produced the 
earliest but one of the Arabic celestial globes extant. 8 As early as 
the days of Yaqut* (f 1229) and abu-al-Fida M (f 1331), FJamah 
was noted for its water-wheels. These wheels, whose perpetual 
wailing has lulled to sleep countless generations of yamatites, 
are still one of the glories of that ancient town. 

Not all of the new tastes developed were gastronomic. Especi- 
ally in the matter of fashions, clothing and home furnishing were 
new desires and demands created. The custom of wearing beards 
was then spread. Returning Crusaders introduced into their 
homes the rugs, carpets and tapestries of which Western and 
Central Asia had for long made a specialty. Fabrics such as 
muslin, baldachin, damask, 5 sarcenet or Saracen stuff, atlas 
(from Ar. atlas\ velvet, silk and satin, 6 came to be more ap- 
preciated. Jewels manufactured by Damascene and Cairene 
Jews, toilet articles and powders became much sought after. 
Mirrors of glass coated with a metallic film replaced those of 
polished steel. Camlets (sing. khamlaK)^ camel's-hair and fine furs 
acquired wider vogue. The rosary became familiar. 7 European 
pilgrims sent home Arab reliquaries for the keeping of Christian 
relics. 8 With fine clothes and metallic wares went lacquers and 
dyestuffs, such as indigo, and new colours, such as lilac (fr. Ar. 
laylak, originally Pers.), carmine and crimson (both fr. Ar. 
qirmizi* originally Skn). Gradually centres appeared in Europe 
for manufacturing wares, rugs and cloths in imitation of the 
Oriental products, as at Arras, whose fabrics became highly 
prized. Stained-glass windows became popular in churches. 9 
Benjamin of Tudela, 10 who visited Antioch under the Franks, 
speaks of its manufacture of glass. Oriental works of art in glass, 
pottery, gold, silver and enamel served as models for European 
products. 

Trade The creation of a new European market for Oriental agricul- 

x Sec )bn-Khalhkan, tr. de Slanc, voL Hi, pp. 471-3* Ibn-Baftutob, vol. iv, p, 255, 
refers to water wheels m Canton, China. 

* Now in the Museo Nazionale of Naples. 

* Vol. n, p. 331. * Tcqimm* p 263. * See above, pp 346, 592. 

* From Ar. zaytum, a corruption of Ts*icn-t T ang (modern Hang chou), a cit> in 
south-east China from which this silk ongimll* came. * See above p 43 S 

* See abo\e, p 631. * See abo\c, p 346 19 Tr. Ashcr, p. 5S. 



CH. XiJVi ' CULTURAL CONTACTS 669 

'tural products and industrial commodities, together with the 
necessity of transporting pilgrims and Crusaders, stimulated 
maritime activity and internationa] trade to an extent unknown 
since Roman days. Marseille began to rival the Italian city 
republics as a shipping centre and share in the accruing wealth. 
The financial needs of the new situation necessitated a larger 
supply and a more rapid circulation of money. A system of credit 
notes was thereupon devised. Firms of bankers arose in Genoa 
and Pisa with branch offices in the Levant. The Templars began 
to use letters of credit, 1 receive money on deposit and lend at 
interest. Perhaps the earliest gold coin struck by Latins was the 
Byzaniinius Saracenatits minted by Venetians in the Holy Land 
and bearing Arabic inscriptions. The consular office, primarily 
commercial rather than diplomatic, now made its appearance. 
The first consuls in history were Genoese accredited to e Akka in 
1 180. They were followed by those sent to Egypt. 2 

An important invention connected with this maritime activity c 
of the Crusades is the compass* The Chinese were probably the 
first to discover the directive property of the magnetic needle, 
but the Moslems, who very early carried on lively trade between 
the Persian Gulf and Far Eastern waters, 5 were the first to make 
practical use of that discovery by applying the needle to naviga- 
tion. This application must have taken place in the eleventh 
century if not earlier, but for commercial reasons was kept secret. 
In Europe, Italian sailors were the first to use the compass. The 
actual use naturally antedates the literary references, of which 
the first to occur in a Moslem work is in a Persian collection 
of anecdotes, Jawami al-ffikaydt wa-Lawamt al-Riwdyatf 
written by Muhammad al-Awfi about 1230. One story tells how 
the author as a sailor found his way by means of a fish rubbed 
with a magnet. The first literary mention in Latin sources 
belongs to the late twelfth century, thus antedating the Persian 
reference. 

The number of Franks assimilated by the native Syrians and R 
Palestinians is hard to estimate. 5 Among the modem population m 

1 Eog. "check" was borrowed from Ar. ja&k in India in tbe lgth century. 
t * See above, pp 652-3 * See above, p 543 

4 See Muhammad Nuamu'd-Dln, Introduction to the Jcwdmt al Hikdy at 
(London, 1939)* p. 251. Cf, F. Hirth and W. W. Rockhill, Chouju-Kua (St. 
T Petersburg, 1911), pp. 28 9. Cf. S. S. Nadavi m Tstamxc Culturt, vol xvi (1942), 
P- 4°4* * See above, pp, 643 4. 



670 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES paktt 

of such towns as Ihdin in northern Lebanon, Bethlehem and 
al-*Arish, the sight of men and women with blue ej'es and fair 
hair is quite common. Certain families, mainly Christian Lcban* 
ese, such as the Karam, the FaranjTyah (Prankish) and the 
Salibi (Crusading), have preserved traditions of descent from 
Frankish ancestry. Among other family names Sawaya is said 
to be derived from Savoie, Duwayhi from de Douai and Bar- 
dawli is undoubtedly Baldwin.* The last name also figures in 
the topography of Palestine and northern Sinai One Palestinian 
village, Sinjil, perpetuates the name of Saint-Gilles, and another, 
al-Raynah, that of Renaud. On the other hand the Druze claim 
to some connection with a count de Drcux is due to a popular 
etymology that has no basis in fact.* 

2 See above, p. 640, n.6. * Kitti, Druze People, p. 1$. 




DINAR OF THE MAMLUK BAYBARS 
Struck 667 (1268/9), showing the lion below his name 



CHAPTER XLVII 
THE MAMLtJKS, LAST MEDIEVAL DYNASTY OF ARAB WORLD 



In other than Moslem annals the rise and prosperity of such 
a dynasty as the Mamluk is hardly conceivable. Even in these 
annals it is most remarkable, almost unique. The Mamluks 
were, as the name indicates, 1 a dynasty of slaves, slaves of varied 
races and nationalities forming a military oligarchy in an alien 
land. These slave sultans cleared their Syrian-Egyptian domain 
of the remnant of the Crusaders. They checked for ever the ad- 
vance of the redoubtable Mongol hordes of Hutagu and of 
Tlmur, who might otherwise have changed the entire course of 
history and culture in Western Asia and Egypt. Because of this 
check Egypt was spared the devastation that befell Syria and 
al-'Iraq and enjoyed a continuity in culture and political institu- 
tions which no other Moslem land outside Arabia enjoyed* For 
about two and three-quarter centuries (1250-1317) the Mamluks 
dominated one of the most turbulent areas of the world, keeping 
themselves all the while racially distinct. Though on the whole un- 
cultured and bloodthirsty, their keen appreciation of art and archi- 
tecturewould have been a credit to any civilized dynasty and makes 
Cairo even now one of the beauty spots of the Moslem world. And 
finally, when they were overthrown in 1 5 1 7 by the Ottoman Sallm, 
the last of the local dynasties that had developed on the ruins of the 
Arab caliphate expired, clearing the way for the establishment of 
a new and non-Arab caliphate, that of the Ottoman Turks. 

The foundation of Mamluk power was laid by Shajar-al-Durr, : 
widow of the Ayyubid al-Salih (f 1249) and originally a Turkish J 
or Armenian slave, Formerly a bondmaid and member of the 
( harem of the Caliph al-Musta T sim, Shajar entered the service of 
al-Salih, by whom she was freed after she had borne him a son* 

„ £)n her assumption of sovereign power her former caliph-master 
addressed a scathing note to the amirs of Egypt saying: /'If ye 

1 have no man to rule you, let us know and we will send you one."* 
1 See above, p. 23$, 0. U * SuyGtf, &us*t f vol. ii, p. 39. See ttbovc, p. 655. 

15 671 



672 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES *A*T Y 



For eighty days the sultanah, the only Moslem woman to rule a 
country in North Africa and Western Asia, continued to function 
as sole sovereign in the area which had once produced Cleo- 
patra and Zenobia. She struck coins in her own name 1 and had 
herself mentioned in the Friday prayer. And when the amirs 
chose her associate and commander-in-chief (atdbeg al-*a$kar) f 
*Izz-al-Dm Aybak, s for sultan, she married him. In the first years 
of his reign Aybak was busy crushing the legitimist Ayyubid 
party of Syria, deposing the child joint-king al-Ashraf and doing 
away with his own general who had distinguished himself 
against Louis IX, In the meantime the queen was not only 
sharing her consort's power but keeping him in subordination. 
Finally, on hearing that he was contemplating another marriage, 
she had him murdered while taking his bath, after a ball game, 
in the royal palace in the Citadel of Cairo. Immediately after 
she was herself battered to death with wooden shoes by the slave 
women of Aybak 's first wife and her body was cast from a tower. 5 
Batm and Aybak (1250-57) was the first of the Mamluk sultans. The series 
Mamiaka * s somewhat arbitrarily divided into two dynasties: Bahri (1250- 
1 390) and Burji ( r 382- 1 5 1 7). The Bahri Maml uks had their origin 
in the purchased bodyguard of the Ayyubid al-Salih, 4 who settled 
his slaves in barracks on the isle of al-Rawdah in the Nile. 5 The 
Bahris were chiefly Turks and Mongols. 0 In their policy of secur- 
ing the services of foreign slaves as a bodyguard the Ayyubids 
followed the precedent established by the caliphs of Baghdad, with 
the same eventual results. 7 The bondmen of yesterday became the 
army commanders of today and the sultans of tomorrow. 

The Burjis represent a later importation. Their origin was 
likewise a bodyguard, but it was founded by the Bahri Mamluk 
Qalawiin (1279-90). They were mostly Circassian slaves who 
were quartered in the towers (Ar. sing, turf) of the citadel. In 
all there were twenty-four Bahri Mamluks, 8 excluding Shajar- 

1 With the exception of certain coins struck in India and Fans, hers are the only 
ones bearing a Moslem woman's name. 

* He was a Turk, as the name (ay moon + big prince) indicates. Maqriri, tr. 
Quatrcmere, vol, i (pt, 1), p. t. 

* Ibid. p. 72; Kht{af, vol. H, p. 237; abu-al-Fida*, vol. iii, p. 201. 
4 Abu-al nda% %ol. hi, p. iSS; ibn-Khaldun, vol, v, p. 373. 

1 Colloquially referred to as Baftr, sea. 

* Ibn-Khaldun, vol. v, p. 369, and Suy utt, ^usn, vol. ii» p. So, designate them as 
Uie^Turkuhdvinst}*'. 

T See &bo\t, p. 466. * For table of Bahri Mamluks see p. 673. 



C3I. XLVU 



THE MAMLOKS 



673 



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674 



LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES party 



al-Durr, and twenty- three Burjis, The Burjis recognized no 
principle of hereditary succession and followed no policy of 
nepotism. Their throne belonged to hirn who could capture it or 
induce the amirs to elect him to it. In several Bahri and Burji 
instances slaves rather than sons of the sultan succeeded him, 
A large number of the sultans met violent deaths while still 
young. The average reign of the Mamluk sultan? was less than 
six years. 

AnQbid* The first task confronting the new dynasty was to consolidate 
Tutus the kingdom and guard its frontiers. Aybak spent most of his 
repdied time on the battlefield in Syria, Palestine and Egypt Al- 
Muzaffar Sayf-al-Dm Qutuz (1259-60), while acting as regent 
(natd al-saita?iah) and before deposing his young protege, 
al-Mansur *AIi, Aybak's son, and usurping the throne, repelled 
an attack from the Avyubid sultan of al-Karak. The Syrian 
Ayyubids considered themselves the legitimate successors of their 
Egyptian kinsmen. No sooner had the Ayyubid invasion of Egypt 
been repulsed than the Tartar army ot Hulagu, led by Kitbugha, 
became a danger. Hulagu's envoys 1 to Qutuz were executed by 
the latter and the issue was settled at 'A>n Jaiut (1260), In this 
battle Baybars led the vanguard and distinguished himself as a 
general, but Qutuz took command in person towards the end. 
The Tartar army was routed, leaving Kitbugha and other leaders 
dead on the held. Eg>pt was spared the horrible desolation 
visited upon its neighbour, which was now occupied by the 
Mamluk army. Baybars expected to receive Aleppo as a fief in 
recognition of his military service, but the sultan disappointed 
him. On the way homew ard through Syria, while hunting with 
Qutuz, a fellow-conspirator addressed the sultan and kissed his 
hand while Baybars stabbed him m the neck with a sword 
(October 24, 1260). 2 The murdered sultan was succeeded by the 
murderer. Qutuz claimed to have been a grand-nephew of a 
Khwanzrn Shah 3 and is said to have been captured by the 
Tartars and sold in Damascus, where he was purchased by 
Aybak. 

Al-Malik al-Zahir (victorious) Rukn-al-Dln (pillar of the faith) 

1 The letter they carried is preserved m Maqnzi, tr. Quatremere, vohi (pt. 1), 

pp 101-2 

3 Abo al-Fidd, \ol. iu> p. 216, ibn Khaldun, vol. v, p 380. Cf. Maqrizi, tr. 
Quatremere, \ol 1 (pt. 0*p "3 
* SuyGji, #tfi«, \ol. ii* p. 4° See ab<»e, p 482. 



CH.XLVI! ,? THEMAMLOKS 67S 

Baybars al-Bunduqdari l (1260-77), the most distinguished of 
Mamluk sultans, was originally a Turkoman slave. When young 
he was sold into Damascus for eight hundred dirhams, but ^vas 
returned on account of a defect in one of his blue eyes. His last 
name, meaning belonging to the arbalester (punduqdar) % he 
acquired from the master who owned him in #amah before he 
was purchased by the Ayyubid al-Salih* a Al-Salih first appointed 
him commander of a section of his bodyguard, from which 
position he worked his way into the highest in the land. Tall, 
dusky in complexion, commanding in voice, brave and energetic, 
he possessed the qualities of leadership among men. 

Baybars was the first great Mamluk, the real founder of 
Mamluk power* His first laurels he won against the Mongols on 
the field of *Ayn Jalut; but his title to fame rests mainly on his 
numerous campaigns against the Crusaders. 3 It was these 
campaigns which broke the backbone of Frankish opposition 
and made possible the final victories won by his successors 
Qalawun and al-Ashraf. In connection with one of his last 
expeditions into northern Syria he crushed for ever the power of 
the Assassins. In the meantime his generals had extended his 
dominion westward over the Berbers and southward over Nubia, 4 
which was now permanently conquered by an Egyptian sultan. 

Baybars was more than a military leader. Not only did he 
organize the army, rebuild the navy and strengthen the fortresses 
of Syria, but he dug canals, improved harbours and connected 
Cairo and Damascus by a swift postal service requiring only 
four days. Relays of horses stood in readiness at each post 
station. The sultan could play polo in both capitals almost 
within the same week. Besides the ordinary mail the Mamluks 
perfected the pigeon posti whose carriers even under the Fatimids 
had their pedigrees kept in special registers, 5 Baybars fostered 
public works, beautified mosques and established religious and 
charitable endowments. Of his architectural monuments 6 both 
the great mosque (1269) and the school bearing his name have 
survived. The mosque was turned into a fort by Napoleon and 
later into a rationing depdt by the British army of occupation. 
The present Zahiriyah library in Damascus is the structure 

3 "Bcudocquedar" of Marco Polo, tr. Yule, 2nd ed., vol. i, p. 32. 

* Abu-al-Fida*, vol. tv, p. it; Kutubi, vol. i, p. 109. 

* See above, pp, 655 s<$* * Jbn-Khaldun, vol. v, p. 400. 

1 See abo\e, pp. 323, 664. • Consult JCutubi, vol. i, pp 113*15* 



676 LAST OF THC MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES PARTY 



under the dome of which he was buried. He was the first sultan 
in Egypt to appoint four qadis, representing the four orthodox 
rites, and organize the Egyptian mahnul on a systematic and 
permanent basis. His religious orthodoxy and zeal, together 
with the glory he brought to Islam in the holy war, combined to 
make his name a rival to that of Harun. In legendary history 
it looms even higher than Salah-al-DuVs. His romance and 
that of *Antar remain to the present day more popular in the 
Arab Orient than the Arabian Nights. 

A feature of Baybars' reign was the many alliances he struck 
with Mongol and European powers. Soon after he became sultan 
he allied himself with the chief khan of the Golden Horde 1 or 
Mongols of Qtpchaq (lobars* birthplace) in the valley of the 
Volga. Common opposition to the Il-Khans of Persia dictated 
the policy. The Egyptian envoys went through Constantinople, 
where Michael Palaiologus, foe of Latin Christianity, authorized 
the restoration of the ancient mosque 2 destroyed by the Cru- 
saders during their occupation of that city. Bay bars sent, at the 
emperor's request, a Melkite patriarch to Constantinople for 
those of that persuasion in its realm. He signed commercial 
treaties with Charles of Anjou (1264), king of Sicily and brotherof 
Louis IX, as well as with James of Aragon and Alfonso of Seville. 
A most spectacular event of Bay bars' reign was his inaugura- 
epSe rion °f a series of 'Abbasid caliphs who carried the name 
but none of the authority of the office. The sultan's object was 
to confer legitimacy upon his crown, give his court an air of 
primacy in Moslem eyes and check the 'Alid intrigues which, 
ever since Fapmid days, were especially rife in Egypt. To this 
end he invited from Damascus in June 1261, an uncle of the 
last 'Abbasid caliph and son of the Caliph al-?ahir who had 
escaped the Baghdad massacre, and installed him with great 
pomp and ceremony as the Caliph al-M ustansir. 3 The would-be 
pensioncr-cahph was first escorted from Syria in state, with even 
Jews and Christians carrying aloft the Torah and the Gospel, 
and the soundness of his genealogy was passed upon by a council 
of jurists. The sultan in turn received from his puppet caliph a 

1 Eastern Mongols, wrongly identified with the Kalmucks, western Mongols; see 
abo\c, p. 483, n. 4 
5 See above, p 621. 

8 Maqrlzi, tr. Quatrcmere, vol. 1 (pt. i), pp 6S, ibn-Khaldun, voL v, pp. 382-3; 
»bu aWTida*, \o). m, p, zzz; ibn-fyas, \ol. i, pp. 100 lot. 



CH.XLVI1 THE MAMLOKS 677 „ 

diploma of investiture giving him authority over Egypt, Syria, 
Diyar Bakr, al«rl ijaz, al-Yaman and the land of the Euphrates. 
Three months later Baybars rashly set out from Cairo to re- 
establish his caliph in Baghdad, but after reaching Damascus 
abandoned him to his fate. Al-Mustansir was attacked in thfe 
desert by the Mongol governor of Baghdad and was never heard 
from again. 

One year later another scion of the ^bbasid house made his 
way to Cairo and was installed by Baybars as ai-rlakim. One 
descendant of al-Hakim after another, for two and a half cen- 
turies, held the pseudo-caliphate, whose incumbents were satisfied 
with having their names inscribed on the coinage and mentioned 
in the Friday prayers in Egypt and Syria. With one exception 
none of them had his name cited in the Makkah prayers. Their 
most important duties consisted in administering the religious 
endowments (wagf) and officiating at the ceremony of installing 
the new sultan. Certain Moslem rulers, including some from 
India and the Ottoman Bayazld I (1394), secured from them 
diplomas of investiture, which in reality had no significance. In 
1412, on the death of the Burji al-Nasir, the Caliph al-'Adil 
al-Musta'In declared himself sultan and ruled for a few days, 
only to be deposed by al-Mu*ayyad Shaykh (1412-2 1). 1 Certain 
caliphs were dismissed from office on grounds of disloyalty 
to the Bahri 'AH (1376-81) and to the Burjis Barquq (1382-98) 
and Inal (1453-60). When in 15x7 the Ottoman Sultan Sallm 
wrested Egypt from the Mamluks he carried away with him 
to Constantinople the Caliph al-Mutawakkil, the last of the line. 2 

After Baybars the outstanding Mamluk figure was al-Malik 
al-Mansur Sayf-al-Din Qalawun (1279-90). Originally, like Bay- 
bars, a Turkoman slave from Qipchaq, the youthful Qalawun 
was carried to Egypt, and likewise sold to al-Salih, as his sur- 
name al-Salihi indicates. His other surname al-Alfi (thousander) 
suggests the heavy price paid for him, a thousand dinars,* and 
shows that the Mamluk sultans were not ashamed of their lowly 
origin. Qalawun secured the throne by deposing his ward Sala- 
mish (1279), Baybars 1 seven-year-old son, who had succeeded his 
nineteen-year-old brother, the pleasure-loving Barakah (1277-9)* 

1 Ibti-Taglm-Birdi, vol. vi, pt. 2, pp. 267-8, 303-21; Suyfiti, vol. ii, pp 
iba*Iy5s* voU i, pp. 357 9. 

* Sec above, p 4$% Ulow, p 705. 

• Suyutf, $us»t t \ol. ii, p. So, Maqrizi, tr Quatremere, vol ri (pt. 3), p 1, 



678 



LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES PAltT v 



Qalawun was the only Mamluk in whose line the succession 
continued to the fourth generation. The last Bahri, al-Salih 
fclajji, was his great-grandson. 

No sooner had Qalawun established himself in power than the 
Mongol li-KMns of Persia began to threaten his Syrian domain, 
Among these Abaqa (1265-81), who was Hulagu's son and 
successor, and Abaqa's son Arghiin (1284-91), had Christian 
leanings and entered into negotiations with the pope and other 
European courts urging a fresh Crusade with a view to driving 
the Egyptians out of Syria. The scheme did not materialize, 
Abaqa's army, though superior m number and reinforced by 
Armenians, Franks and Georgians, was decisively defeated in 
1280 at tfims. 1 Shortly after this the Mongols adopted Islam. 
The sultan strengthened the existing amicable relations with the 
Golden Horde, the Byzantine emperor, the republic of Genoa 
and the kings of France, Castile and Sicily. Even the ruler of 
Ceylon dispatched to his court an embassy with a letter which no 
one in Cairo could read. Little Armenia was ravaged for the 
help its people had given to the Mongols and the Crusaders' 
castles were reduced. 2 Tripoli, which was levelled to the ground, 
was rebuilt a few years later, not on its former site, but several 
miles from the sea where it now stands on the banks of the abu- 
*Ali (Qadisha). Toward the end of his reign Qalawun issued 
orders excluding his Christian subjects from all government 
offices. 

His Qalawun won distinction in other fields. He renovated on a 

hospital grand sca i e the citadels of Aleppo, Ba'labakk and Damascus. In 
Cairo he erected a hospital, connected with a school-mosque, and 
a mausoleum 3 (tomb^'chaper 1 ), which exhibits to the present 
day its remarkable arabesque tracery and fine marble mosaic. 
But his hospital (al-Maristan al-Mansun), whose remains are 
among the earliest relics of a Moslem hospital extant, is the most 
famous of his buildings. The sultan is said to have received the in- 
spiration while lying ill with colic in the Nun Hospital at Damas- 
cus, where he made a vow to establish a similar institution in Cairo 
in the event of his recovery. The structure, including not only the 
hospital proper with annexes but also a school and a mosque, 
was completed in 1284. It comprised special wards for segregat- 

* Abu al-Fida*,voI. iv, pp. 15-16; Maqrizi,tr Quatremere, vol h (pt 3),pp 36 40, 
* Sec above, p. 657. * Ar. qubbak, ibn Khaldun, vol. v, p 403. 



CR. XLVH ' 



TFE MAMLtJKS 



6/9 



ing various diseases, such as fevers, ophthalmia and dysentery, 
and was provided with laboratories, a dispensary, baths, kitchens 
and store-rooms. The chief of its medical staff gave instruction in 
a properly equipped lecture-room. It had an endowment yielding 
about a million dirhams annually, employed male and female 
attendants and was open to the sick of both sexes. 1 So closely 
associated with the curing of infirmities did this sultan thus 
become that his robe preserved in his mausoleum has since his 
time been touched by thousands of dumb children, barren wives 
and diseased people who believed in its healing virtues. 

The only exploit of Qalawun's son and successor al-Malik 
al-Ashraf (the most noble) Khalil (1290-93) was the conquest 
of Akka in May 1291. 3 Its capture precipitated the fall of the 
few remaining pbrts in the possession of the Franks. "A 
mournful and solitary silence prevailed along the coast which 
had so long resounded with the WORLD'S DEBATE." 3 In 1302 
the Templars who had established a last foothold in the islet of 
Arwad (Aradus), off the north Syrian coast, were expelled with 
great slaughter by al-Ashraf s younger brother and successor 
al-Malik al-Nasir Muhammad. 

Al-Nasir shares with al-Mutamassik the unique distinction of 
having ruled thrice: 1293-4, 1298-1308 and 1309-40.* He came 
first to the throne at the age of nine, and his reign is the longest 
among the Mamluks and one of the longest in Moslem annals. 5 
During his rule the last serious invasions of the Mongols took 
place under the seventh Il-Khan Ghazan Mahmud, in whose 
reign Islam was finally recognized as the state religion of the 
Il-Khanate. 6 The Egyptian army, in size about a third of that of 
the Mongols, was routed (December 23, 1299) east of I^irns by 
the invading army, said to have numbered a hundred thousand, 7 
reinforced by Armenians and Georgians. The Mongols con- 
tinued their victorious march and early in 1300 occupied Damas- 
cus, which they spared from pillage, but the rest of northern 
Syria had another sad experience of plunder and rapine. In 
March of that year they evacuated the Syrian capital without 
reducing its citadel and the Egyptians reoccupied all the land. 
Three years later Ghazan's fresh expedition was checked at 

1 Mnqrizi, JChsfaf, vol. it, pp. 406-7. * See above, p. 658, 

* Gibbon » Decline \ ed. Bury, vol- vi, p. 365, * Sec above, p 553. 

* CL nU\e r pp. 481, n. 2, 520, n. 2. « See above, p. 4S8. 

* Maqrfzit tr. Quatrcmere, vol. li (pt. 4), p % 146, 



680 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES JPART V 

Marj al-Suffar, south of Damascus, 1 For the fourth time the 
Mamluks had beaten the most dangerous enemy Egypt had to 
contend with since the Moslem conquest. No successor of Ghazan 
dared risk another encounter. 

Soon after the Mongol evacuation of Damascus al-Nasir 
brought the Druzes of the Lebanon, whose 12,000 bowmen had 
harassed his army in its retreat a few months before, to a severe 
reckoning. Other schismatic sects including *Alids in Kisrawan 
were also chastised. 2 The Maronites of northern Lebanon were 
almost crushed. In 1302 and subsequent years he repeatedly 
devastated the unhappy land of the Armenians. 5 On his Chris- 
tian and Jewish subjects he re-enforced the outworn restrictions 
of 'Umar II and al-Mutawakkii. 

Al-Nasir r s long reign is better known for his achievements in 
therealmof peace rather than war. The sultan himself wasshortin 
stature and lame in one foot, but he had a taste for the beautiful 
and never wearied of luxurious living and lavishing extravagant 
adornment on his surroundings. On his return to his residence 
in the citadel from a trip abroad his retinue spread before 
his mare rugs and costly fabrics for a distance of some four 
thousand cubits. While on a holy pilgrimage his table was sup- 
plied throughout the Arabian desert with fresh vegetables from 
a travelling garden carried on forty camels. 4 At his son's nuptial 
feast 18,000 sugar loaves were consumed, 20,000 beasts were 
slain and 3000 candles shed their light on the royal palace. His 
far-famed al-Qa$r al-Ablaq 5 (the palace of varied colours) was 
built after a model at Damascus. A sportsman, hunter and lover 
of horses, he kept a proper stud book and did not hesitate to pay 
30,000 dinars for a horse he fancied. 6 
Egypt Nor was al-Nasir's extravagance limited to the gratification 
cu/tunU °^ k* s personal tastes. His numerous and beautiful public works, 
height for some ot which forced labour was used, mark his reign as the 

1 Abu al-Fida* (vol. iv, p, 50), a personal friend of al-Nasir and later restored by 
Hm to his ancestors' princedom, saw the imadmg army pass by his native town 
Hamah. 

1 Ibn-Yahya, pp. 136-7. 

* Abu-al Hda*. vol. iv, pp. 48, 53-4, 90-91; ibn-Khaldun, vol. v, pp. 419*20^ 
429-30 

* Abu-al Fida\ vol. iv, p. S9. 

* Maqrizi, Kfojat, vol. 11, pp. 209**0. Cf. MasMdi, TatsSth, p. 258. 

* A unique MS on the horse dedicated to him in gold letters by his secretary 
aMjTusayni is described in Hitti, Faris and *Abd*al*MalijC, Caiahg 9) Arebu Menu* 
tcrtpts, no. 1066 



CK. x£vn " THE MAMLOKS * " 6$f 

climax of Mamluk culture. He dug a canal, on which a hundred 
thousand men toiled, connecting Alexandria with the Nile, 
built(ijJi) an aqueduct from that river to the Citadel of Cairo, 
founded throughout his kingdom about thirty mosques, besides 
a number of dervish "monasteries", public drinking-fountains 
(sing* sabil), baths and schools. Makkah was especially favoured 
by his munificence. His own mosque in the citadel he adorned 
(13 1 8) with materials from the ruined cathedral of *Akka. His 
school, completed in 1 304 and named al-Nasirlyah after him, is 
still standing in Cairo. His mosque and school exemplify the 
finest achievement in Moslem architecture. Minor arts under 
him were also cultivated to a higher degree of excellence than 
ever before, as evidenced by the specimens of bronze and brass 
work, enamelled glass lamps and illuminated Korans preserved 
in the Arab Museum and National Library of Cairo. 

The heavy expenditure in al-Na?ir's long reign burdened the 
people with exorbitant taxes and contributed to the downfall of 
the dynasty. The sultan took certain economic measures to 
alleviate the widespread misery. He encouraged trade with 
Europe and with the East, ordered a new survey of the land, re- 
pealed taxes on salt, chickens, sugar-cane, boats, slaves and 
horses, suppressed wine-drinking and had bakers who charged 
excessive prices flogged. The effect, however, was only temporary, 
palliative. After him, civil wars, famine and plague added their 
share to the wretchedness of the people. The same "black death" 
which in 1 348-9 devastated Europe lingered in Egypt for about 
seven years and carried away more of its people than any other 
plague. The total mortality in the capital, according to the ex- 
aggerated estimate of ibn-Iyas, 1 reached 900,000. The sultan and 
all who could fled. Ghazzah is said to have lost 52,000 inhabit- 
ants in one month, while the daily average in Aleppo was five 
hundred. 

The twelve descendants of al-Nasir who followed him in rapid ' 
succession during forty-two years (1340-82) were mere figure-] 
heads; their amirs ruled, deposing or murdering the sultan at 
pleasure. None of these sultans distinguished himself in any field 
of endeavour, and the only notable monument is the Mosque of 
Sultan al-Iiasan, son of al-Nasir, completed in 1362 and con- 
sidered the most beautiful of those built on a cruciform plan. 

4 Vol. i, p. 191. 



68* 



LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES *artv 



The last Bahri f^er, al-Nasir's great-grandson al-Salih rjajji 
ibn-Sha'ban (138^-2, 1389-90) was a child whose reign of two 
years was first interrupted and later terminated by the Circassian 
Barquq, who became the founder of a new line, the Burji 
dynasty. 1 Barquq began his career as a slave of the sons of al- 
Ashrai Sha^banv* Belore Barquq ano&er Circassian, Bay oars 11 
(1308-9), a slave of Qalawun, was one of the three sultans who 
interrupted al-Nasir's reign, thus presaging the advent of the 
new regime. 

1 Ibn-KhaJdun* vol. v, p. 472; ibn-Taghn-tfirdi, vol, vi, pt. 2, p. 1. 
* Consult table above, p. 673, 



CHAPTER XLVin 
INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC ACTIVITY 



MAMLUK Egypt began its history under proud and triumphant 
rulers who had cleared Syria of the last vestiges of Frankish 
dominion and had successfully stood between the Mongols and 
world power. By the end of the period, however, with its military 
oligarchy, factions among the dominant caste, debased coinage, 
high taxation, insecurity of life and property, occasional plague 
and famine and frequent revolts, both Egypt and its dependency 
Syria were all but ruined. Especially in the valley of the Nile 
persistence of outworn ancient superstition and magic, coupled 
with the triumph of reactionary orthodoxy, hindered scientific 
advance. Under these conditions no intellectual activity of high 
order could be expected. In fact the whole Arab world had by 
the beginning of the thirteenth century lost the intellectual 
hegemony it had maintained since the eighth. 1 Mental fatigue 
induced by generations of effort and moral lassitude conse- 
quent upon the accumulation of wealth and power were evident , 
everywhere* 

In science there were only two branches wherein the Arabs ^ 
after the middle of the thirteenth century maintained their leader- J 
ship: astronomy-mathematics, including trigonometry, andmedi- 
X cine, particularly ophthalmology. But in the first discipline 
\ the contribution was made mainly by Arabic-writing Persian * 
scholars whose centre of activity was the Il-Khanid observatory 
andlibrary of Maraghah headed by the illustrious Naslr~al-Dln 
* al-Tusi (1201-74). It is interesting to find the Syrian Jacobite 
_ Catholicos abu-al-Faraj ibn-al-*Ibri 2 (Barhebneus, 1226-86), 
known as an historian and as the last classical author in Syriac 
literature, lecturing there on Euclid in 1268 and on Ptolemy in 
1272-3. 

* Sec S art on, Introducticn t voL ii, especially the introductory chapter. This 
general decline of Islamic culture marks the end of the Mtddle Ages, sec above, 

1 His TaVtIA Mtikhtas&r cl Dutval was edited by Anfcun §alii?ani (Beirut, *Soo). 

68* 



CH.XLVBI INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC ACTIVITY 685 



The Syro-Egyptian kingdom led in medical science. The J 
elaborate hospital built by Qalawun may be taken as an index 
of Egyptian interest in medicine. Its dean abu-at-IJasan *AIi 
ibn-al~Nafis, who studied in Damascus where he later died 
(X288-9), contributed in his Shark Taskrlk al-Qanun a clear 
conception of « the pulmonary circulation of the blood, two 
and a half centuries before the Spanish Servetus, credited 
with this discovery. 1 To Qalawun's son al-Nasir one of the 
few important Arabic treatises on veterinary medicine known 
was dedicated under the title Kamil al-Sina atayn: ah 
Bayfarah w-aUZartaqah 8 by his master of the stable, abu- 
Bakr ibn-al-Mundhir al-Baytar (f 1340). The Arabic term 
for veterinary surgeon, baytar^ from Greek hippiatra$> suggests 
that although the Arabs since Bedouin days possessed an exten- 
sive empirical knowledge of diseases of camels and horses, yet 
their more systematic knowledge and improved technique must 
have come from Byzantine sources. Many of the Mamluks, like 
QalawQn and Barquq, kept magnificent studs. Several works 
containing Islamic traditions on horses date from this period, 
including the Fadl al-Khayl (the excellence of the horse), by 
r Abd-a3-Mu*mm al-Dimyati (f 1306), a lecturer at the Man- 
§uriyah academy of Qalawun. 

Egyptian medicine since Ayyubid days was dominated by, 
Jewish physicians carrying on the glorious tradition of ibn-l 
Maymun. But among neither Moslem nor Jewish physicians 
do we find creative activity. The Judeo-Egyptian pharmacist 
al-Kuhin (the priest) al- T Attar (the druggist) composed in Cairo 
about 1260 an Arabic treatise on pharmacy, Minhaj al-Dukkdn 
wa-Diistur al-A*yan (a manual of officinal drugs and a canon 
for notables), which has not yet oudived its usefulness in the 
Moslem East. 

The period was especially fertile in works half gynecological, 
half erotic, of the type we now designate "sex books". Arabic 
literature, in all ages primarily a male literature, abounds in 
anecdotes, jokes and remarks which to us today sound obscene. 
Among the leaders in this field was the Egyptian lapidary 
al-Tifashi, who flourished in the middle of the thirteenth century. 

1 Abdul -KaTim Ch£ha<3£, Jhn an^Nafls et la dicavbirte de la circulation pultrwn* 
cirt (Damascus, 1955), 
^Or ahNSfiri; tr. M. Perron, Le tfaceri* la perfection des deux arts cu tr&iil 
^templet d'hippvhgxc ct d'hippiatrie araies, 3 \ols. (Faris, 1852-60). 



686 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES part v 

We also notice at this time special interest in what ai-Razi was 
the first to term tibb rultdni £ildj nafsdni, spiritual cure), corre- 
sponding to our psycho-therapy. An Egyptian pioneer of this 
school was a Jewish physician of Salah-al-Din, Hibatuliah ibn- 
Jumay* (Jam!*) , whose principal work bore the title al-Irshad li- 
Mas&hh al-Anfas w-al~Ajsad (instructions in the interest of souls 
and bodies). Ibn-Jumay f , noticing a passing funeral, discovered 
that the "dead" man was still alive from the fact that his feet 
were standing straight rather than lying flat. 1 
Diseases of Ophthalmology, one of the disciplines early developed by the 
tUeye Arabs, 2 was practised on a more scientific basis in Syria and 
Egypt throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries than 
anywhere else in the world. In the twelfth century the most 
significant Arabic work on the subject was written by abu-al- 
Fada*il ibn-al-Naqid (f ii88-9), 3 a Judaeo-Egyptian oculist of 
Cairo, under the title Mujarrabdt (tested remedies). But Syria 
after that took the lead. Here were composed the only two 
scholarly works of the period: al-Kdfi fi al-Kuhl (the sufficient 
work on collyrium) by Khalifah ibn-abi-al-Mahasin of Aleppo, 
who flourished about 1256, and Nur al-Uyun wa-Jdm? aU 
Funiln 4 (the light of eyes and compendium of arts) by Salah-al- 
Dln lbn-Yusuf, who practised in I.iamah about 1296. Khalifah 
was so confident of his skill as a surgeon that he did not hesitate 
to remove a cataract for a one-eyed man. It is noteworthy that the 
Syrian scholars of the Marnluk period flourished in inland cities, 
the coast having been devastated by the Crusades and later by 
Qalawun and his successors, who feared the return of the Franks. 
Medical The most distinguished historian of medicine the Arab world 
11151017 produced, Muwaffaq-ai-Din abu-ai-'Abbas Ahmad ibn-abi- 
Usaybi'ah (1203-70;, flourished at Damascus in the early 
Marnluk period. Ibn-abi-Usaybt'ah was himself a physician and 
son of a Damascene oculist. He studied medicine in his birth- 
place and Cairo, botanized with the celebrated ibn-al-Baytar 
and corresponded with the scientist-physician 'Abd-al-Latff 
aI-Baghd5di. His masterpiece was his * Uyun al-Anba 'fi Tabaqdt 
al-Atibba 5 (sources of information on the classes of physicians), 

1 Ibn-abi U$a>bi'ah, vol 11, p. 113. s See above, pp 363*4 

* Ibn-abi-Usaybi'ah, vol. u, pp 115-16 4 H&jji Khalfah, \ol vi, p. 393, 

* First edited by " Imru*-al-Qa>s ibn-al-JahhSn '* [August MullerJ, 2 vols. 
(Cairo, 1882), then republished uith additional pages, corrections and index by 
August MOllcr, 2 vols (Komgsberg, iS$4j. 



CH. xmn INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC ACTIVITY 687 



an elaborate collection of some four hundred biographies of Arab 
and Greek medical men. Since most of these physicians were at 
the same time philosophers, astronomers, physicists and mathe- 
maticians, the work is an invaluable source for the history of 
Arab science in general. It is almost unique in Arabic literature, 
the nearest approach to it being al-Qifti's Ikhbdr al-Ulama 
bi-Akhbdr al-Hukama (acquainting the learned uith the story 
of the philosophers and physicians), which has survived only in 
a compendium. 1 r Ali ibn-Yusuf al-Qifti, as the surname indicates, 
was born in Upper Egypt (1 172), but spent a large part of his 
life in Aleppo, where he acted as vizir to its Ayyubid rulers until 
his death in 1248. 

In the social sciences the main contribution under the Mam- j 
luks was in biography. The foremost biographer Islam produced 2 
flourished in Damascus at this time. Shams-al-Dln (sun of the 
faith) Ahmad ibn-Muhammad ibn-Khalhkan, a descendant of 
Yahya ibn-Khalid al-Barmaki, was born in Irbil (Arbela) in 
I2i I. He was educated at Aleppo and Damascus and in 1261 
was appointed chief qadi of Syria with his headquarters at 
Damascus. This position he held, with a seven years' interval, 
until shortly before his death in 1282, His V/afayat al-A'ydn 
wa-Anba Abna a/~Zamdn 2 (obituaries of the eminent men and 
histories of the leading contemporaries) is an accurate and ele* 
gant collection of 865 biographies of the most distinguished 
Moslems in history, the^first dictionary of national biography in 
Arabic. The author took pains to establish the correct spelling 
of names, fix dates, trace genealogies, verify facts, indicate the 
main personal traits, sketch the significant events and illustrate 
by the use of poems and anecdotes. The result is adjudged by 
some "the best general biography ever written". 5 

Not only in biography but in the general field of history the 
Mamluk age was moderately rich. Among those often cited in 
the foregoing pages abu-al-Fida* t ibn-Taghri-Birdi, al-Suyuti 
and al-Maqrlzi were Mamluk historians. As for the illustrious 
ibn-Khaldun (f 1406), who held a professorship and judgeship 
under Sultan Barquq and headed a delegation under Sultan 

1 Ed Julius Lippert (Leipzig, 1903), 

* Several editions The one used here is in 3 vols. (Cairo, 1299), tr. dc Sfcme, 
4 vol^ (Paris, 1S43-71). 

* Nicholson, LUtrcry JZtstory* p. 452. 



688 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES PART v 



Faraj to negotiate peace with Timur at Damascus, his ante- 
cedents and literary activity connect him with Spain and al- 
Maghrib. The his tori an -geographer abu-al-Fida* (i 273-1 332), a 
descendant of a brother of Salah-al-Dln and governor of rjamah 
under Sultan al-Nasir, epitomized for us in his Mukhta$ar 
Tctrikh al-Baskar 1 (epitome of the history of mankind) the 
voluminous history of ibn-al-Athtr and continued the narrative 
to his own time. Abu-al-Mahasin ibn-Taghri-Birdi (1411-69) 
had as his father a high official in the Mamluk court and as 
mother a Turkish slave of Barquq. Ibn-Taghri-Birdi 2 himself 
had close connections with several of the sultans. His major 
work is aUNujum al-Zahirah fi Muliik Misr w~al-Qdhirah z 
(the brilliant stars regarding the kings of Egypt and Cairo), a 
history of Egypt from the Arab conquest till 1453. Jalal-al-Dln 
al-Suyuti 4 (1445-1505), like ibn-al-Jawzi, ibn-Hazm and al- 
Tabari, was one of the most prolific authors of Islam, but his 
works show no originality. He is unquestionably the outstanding 
literary figure of the fifteenth century. His pen traversed the 
whole field of Arab learning: Koran, tradition, law, philosophy, 
history, philology, rhetoric, etc. 5 Titles of about five hundred 
and sixty works of his have come down to us. One of these dis- 
cusses whether the Prophet wore trousers, whether his turban 
had a point and whether his parents were in heaven or in hell. 
He was a fine calligrapher and very likely claimed authorship of 
some manuscripts which he merely copied. His best-known works 
are al-ltgdn fi * If /urn aI-Qur*dnf on koranic exegesis; aU 
Muzhir fi ' Ulum al-Lughah? a treatise on philology; and Jffusii 
al-Mukadarah fi Akhbar Mtfr w-al-Q&hirak* a history of 
Egypt. 

The most eminent of Mamluk historians was beyond doubt 
Taqi-al-Din Ahmad al-Maqrlzi (1364-1442). Born in Cairo of 

1 The edition used here is in 4 vols. (Constantinople, 12S6). His geography is 
Taqwim al-Buldan % ed. J. T» Reinaud and dc Slane (Paris, 1S40); tr. Reinaud, 

2 vols. (Paris, j$4$). 

* Vol. vi, pt, 2, p. 43<>> 1 6; p. 552, 1. 22; p. 743. * *9. 

» Ed. F G. Juynboll and Matthes, 2 vols. (Ley den, 1855-61), ed. William Popper, 

3 vols. (Berkeley, f 909-29}. 

* Born in Asyu\ (Assiut), Upper Egypt. 

* Cf. list in his JVa? m al-Iqydn fi A* yon ol-A*yan % ed. Hitti (New York, 1927), 
pp. kh t d. 

* Several Cairo editions, none critical. 

ff The edition u<ed here is in 2 vols. (Cairo, 1325). 

* The edition used here is in 2 vols. (Cairo, I32i), 



CH. XLVtJi INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIG ACTIVLTY. 089 

Ba'labakkan ancestty, al-Maqnzi held several high offices as 
deputy qadi and as teacher in his native town and in Damascus. 
* His title to fame rests on his al^Mazuaiz w-al-Ftibar fi Dhikr 
al-Khitat w-al-Aihar 1 (sermons and learning by example on 
an account of the new settlements and remains) devoted to 
Egyptian topography, history and antiquities. His contemporary 
al-Sakhawi's 2 charge of wholesale plagiarism in the production 
of this work is well founded; but the fault was common in those 
days. 

Two Egyptian encyclopaedists often quoted in these pages are I 
Ahmad al-Nuwayri (f 1332), author of Nihdyat al-Arab fi\ 
Funun al-Adab? and Ahmad al-Qalqashandi (f 141 8), whose 
Subh al-A x sha* intended as a manual for those who hold secre- 
tarial offices in the government, is replete with historical and 
geographical facts mainly on Egypt and Syria. The remaining 
authors of this period busied themselves with Islamic studies and 
linguistics. An exceptional work of major importance is a com- 
pendium of theoretical and practical navigation by Ahmad 
ibn-Majid 5 of Najdi ancestry, who, it is claimed, in 1498 piloted 
Vasco da Gama from Africa to India. 

In theology reference should be made to the puritan, conserva- 
tive Taqi-al-Din Ahmad ibn-Taymiyah e (1263-1328), who was 
born in yarran and flourished in Damascus. He bowed to no 
authority other than the Koran, tradition and the practice of the 
community and lifted his voice high against innovation, saint- 
worship, vows and pilgrimage to shrines. A follower of ibn- 
y[anbal, his principles were later adopted by the Wahhabis of 
Najd. Eminent in tradition was ibn-I-Iajar al-'Asqalani 7 (1372- 
1449), chief qadi of Cairo, who knew the Koran by heart when 
only nine years old. In poetry perhaps the only name worthy of 
citation is that of Sharaf-al-Din Muhammad al-BusIri 8 (1213- 
rtf. 1296), of Berber extraction, who composed the famous ode 
entitled aUBurdah (the Prophet's mantle) in memory of his 
miraculous cure from a paralytic stroke by a vision of the Prophet 

* 1 The edition used here is in 2 vols. (Bulaq, 1 270). 
. 4 AhTthr al-Masm fi Meyl al-Suiuk {Bulaq, 1S96), p 22. 

s 0 vols (Cairo, 19-3-33). incomplete * 1 4 \oh. (Cairo, 1913-22). 

* Kttdhal'f&wtftdfi L filial- Bahrxv-al Qau-d*xd } cd G.Ferrand (Paris, 1021-3), 

* Of the 500 works ascribed to him some sixty four survive. Consult Kutubi, 
> \q\. i, pp. 4^9 

' Ihs ahjfthnhjt ?6mji& ci-$&£abak 9 8 vols. (Cajro, 1323-7), was cite J ^bovtL 
s * Born in Abusir* 



690 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES partv 



casting his mantle over him. No other Arabic ode has attained 
the popularity of al-Burdah. Over ninety commentaries on it 
have been composed in Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Berber and 
it has been translated into Persian, Turkish, German, French, 
English 1 and Italian. lis verses are still recited as charms and 
the Druzes repeat them to the present day at burials. 
-Story- We should here recall that the two romances (sing, strati) of 
telling *Antar and Baybars, that have not ceased to entertain large 
audiences in the cafds of the Moslem Orient, took their present 
form during the Mamluk period. Likewise the less popular Alj 
Laylah, which through its translations has assumed a place 
among the immortal pieces of international literature, did not 
take its final form until this time. Ardent votaries of sports, 
tournaments, archery, athletics, the chase and horsemanship, the 
Mamluks, especially those of the Crusading period, provided 
the ideal type of hero whose exploits legend never tired of em- 
broidering. The fdris who figures in the Nights portrays the 
Mamluk knight as he flourished in this, rather than in the earlier 
*Abbasid period. Likewise the folk-manners and customs are 
drawn from the society which the narrator saw around him in the 
Cairo of the Mamluks. 
Shadow In the late thirteenth century a highly developed specimen of 
plAy shadow-play literature makes its appearance under the title 
Tayf al-Khayal fi Ma'rijat Khayal al-Zill* (phantoms of the 
imagination on the knowledge of shadow play) by Muhammad 
ibn-Daniyal al-Khuza'i ai-Maw§iii (f ca. 13 10). The author 
was a Moslem physician, possibly of Jewish or Christian origin, 
who flourished under Baybars, and his production is the only 
extant specimen of dramatic poetry from medieval Islam. 
Shadow plays were invented probably in the Far East. The 
Moslems got them from India or Persia. At the end of the ninth 
century Arab story-tellers began to introduce national types into 
their tales and strive for comic effect. By the twelfth century they 
had developed puppet plays. In Spain a reference to khayal 
al-zitt was made in a figure of speech by ibn-rjazm in the 
eleventh century. 3 From Western Asia and Egypt 4 these plays 

1 J. W. Redhouse. "The 'Burden'", in \V. A. Clouston, Arabian Poetry for 
English faadcrs (Glasgow, iSSr), pp. 319-41, 

* ttl. in part by Gcorg Jacob, 3 vols. (Erlangen, 1910-12). Sec Kutubi, vol. ii r 
p 237. * AbAkhUq w-aJ-Sy ar, cd. Mabma? ani (Cairo), p. 2$ 

4 bee ibn I > as, vol. li, p. 33. 



CHf.xLym INTELLECTUAL AND ABTISTIC ACTIVITY ^ 691 > 

» passed to Constantinople, where the principal character was 
styled Qaragoz (black-eyed), and thence to the rest of eastern 
Europe, Some of the material of the Turkish puppet theatre 
shows evidence of having been borrowed from the Nights. The 
Turkish Qaragoz may have influenced the type of modern actors 
represented by Charl ; e Chaplin. 

The most pleasant surprise of the Mamluk period, dominated . 
by a regime of blood and iron, is the extraordinary architectural 1 
and artistic productiveness of a scale and quality that find no 
parallel in Egyptian history since Ptolemaic and Pharaonic days. 
In such mosques, schools and mausoleums erected by Qalawun, 
al-Nasir and al-IJasan, Moslem architecture reached its most 
florid expression* In the Burji period the monuments of Barquq, 
Qa'it-bay and al-Ghawri are equally remarkable. Since then no 
edifice of any importance has made its appearance in Arab 
lands* 

The Mamluk school of architecture, whose origins go back to 
Nurid and Ayyubid models, 1 received fresh Syro-Mesopotamian 
influences when in the thirteenth century Egypt became 
a haven of refuge for Moslem artists and artisans who fled 
from al-Mawsii, Baghdad and Damascus before the Mongol 
invasions. With the ending of the Crusades the obstruction to 
uninterrupted access to the stone-building territory to the north 
was removed and brick was abandoned in minaret construction 
in favour of stone. The cruciform plan of school-mosque struc- 
ture was developed to its perfection. Domes were constructed that 
defy rivalry for lightness, beauty of outline and richness of 
decoration. Striped masonry and decoration (ablaq)* obtained 
by using stones of different colours in alternate courses, of 
Roman or Byzantine origin, became a feature. The period was 
also noteworthy for the development of the stalactite pendentive 
as well as for the two other familiar features of Moslem decora- 
tion: geometrical arabesques and Kufic lettering. Throughout all 
the Moslem ages animal forms were less freely used in Egypt and 
Syria than in Spain and Persia. Happily the finest examples of 
-Mamluk structures have survived and still form one of the main 
attractions for tourists and students alike. 

Almost all branches of applied art maintained intimate con- 
nection with building* especially of the religious type. Extant 

1 Set above, pj>. 660. * Cf. above, p. 680. 



692 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES party 



specimens of ornate bronze mosque doors, bronze chandeliers in 
delicate arabesque designs, gold gem-studded Koran-cases, ex- 
quisite mosaics in niches and intricate woodwork in pulpits and 
lecterns testify to their flourishing state. 1 Most of the massive 
mosque doors are faced with Damascene metal-work. Mosque 
lamps and coloured windows were made of the finest stained 
glass with floral designs and Arabic inscriptions. The inner walls 
of mosques were embellished with the finest decorative glazed 
tiles. In the minarets of the Mosque of al-Nasir in the citadel 
(13 1 8) are found the earliest Mamluk examples of faience archi- 
tecturally employed. Under the Burjis inlay became especiaiiy 
popular as the doors and pulpits of the Qa'it-bay's Mosque indi- 
cate. In mosaics, ivory carving and enamelling the Copts had 
been proficient since pre-Islamic times, 
iiiumina- Among these minor arts none is more individual and char- 
lIon acteristic than the illumination of manuscripts, reserved almost 
exclusively to the "word of Allah". So infinite were the pains 
taken and such was the skill necessary for the arrangement of 
colours and the elaboration of decorative elements, that even the 
best of Korans do not ordinarily have more than two or three pages 
fully illuminated. Here again the finest collection of illuminated 
Korans belonged to the Mamluk sultans and has been recovered 
by the National Library at Cairo from the various city mosques. 
Luxurious The delicate refinements of art were not lavished on sacred 
Uvmg objects only. Various articles of luxury — cups, bowls, trays, in- 
cense burners, testifying to the fidelity of the picture of high life 
depicted by contemporary chroniclers — have come down to us. 
Royal princesses bedecked themselves with anklets, ear-rings, 
necklaces, bracelets and amulets not unlike those still used by 
modern Egyptians. Mamluk banquets were followed by enter- 
tainments featuring the dancers, jugglers and shadow plays. 
The court officers included such high personages as master of the 
household ($i$tdddr\ armour bearer (amir sildh)> master of horse 
(amir dkhilr) and cupbearer (sdqi kkdss)* Barquq established 
between Damascus and Cairo stations to facilitate the transport 
of ice to Egypt by camel. 8 Of the Burji Mamluks Jaqmaq (1438- 

1 For illustration consult Gaston Wiet, Catalogue giniral du mush arahe du 
Caire; lampes ei boutcilUs en verre emailti (Cairo, 1 929). 

' $ubfr, vol. iv, pp. tS seq.\ Maqtiri, Kkifaf, vol. ii, p. 222; Z&hiri, pp. 114 seq.; 
Gaudefroy-Demombynes, La Syrie hVtyoque des Mamlouks (Paris, 1923), pp. L ssq. 

9 Zahirijpp. 117-18; 'Uroari, pp. 1S4 seq* 



CH.XLVin INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC ACTIVITY . ^693* 

1453) expended 3,000,000 dinars in three years on slaves and 
bounties. 1 « - 

With the Ottoman conquest of Syria and Egypt almost all ' 
Mamluk industrial arts began to decay. A number of architects, 
craftsmen and carpenters were sent by Sultan Salim to Constan- 
tinople. In one branch only, glazed tile, craftsmanship after the 
Turkish conquest surpassed anything that had been produced - 
before, as the collection of Damascus tiles in the South Kensing- 
ton Museum proves. The inlaid trays, bowls, candlesticks, flower- 
pots and other varieties of brass-work manufactured today in 
Damascus follow mostly Mamluk patterns. 

* Ibn-Taghri-Birdi, vol, vii, p. 246. 



CHAPTER XLIX 
THE END OF MAMLUK RULE 



UNLIKE the Turkish Bahris, the Burji Mamluks were all Cir- 
cassian with the exception of two: Khushqadam (1461-7) and 
Timurbugha (1467), who were Greek. 1 The Burjis rejected even 
more emphatically than the Bahris the principle of hereditary 
succession; the sultan was only primus inter pares with the real 
power in the hands of a military oligarchy. Of the twenty-three 
Burji sultans, whose reigns covered 134 years (1382-1517), nine 
ruled an aggregate of 124 years. These nine are Barquq, Faraj, 
al-Mu*ayyad Shaykh, Barsbay, Jaqmaq, Inal, Khushqadam, 
Qa'it-bay and Qansawh al-Ghawri. 2 The remaining fourteen 
were almost all of no consequence, and in one year, 1421, three 
different sultans were installed. Qa'it-bay's rule (1468-95) was 
not only the longest but in some respects the most important and 
successful. 3 

1 Ibn-Taghri-Birdi, vol. vii.pp. 685, 842, 847. 

* His name is thus spelled in a Koran written for him (Moritz, Palaograpky, 



vol. i. pi 83); the usual form is Qansuh ahGhun. 
* List of Burji Mamluks: 

1. Al-£ahir Sayf-al-Din Barquq . . . . 1 382 

(interrupted by the Batiri Ham., 1389-90) 

2, Al-Nasir Nasir-al-Din Faraj « . . 139s 
3» AI-MansGr 'Izz-al-Dln 'Abd-al-'Aziz . . ♦ 1405 

Al-Na«jir Faraj (again) , 1406 

4. The Caliph al-*Adil al-Musta'In • ♦ . . 141* 

5. Al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh . . * » * 1412 

6. Al-MuzaSar Ahmad » . . » .1421 

7. Al-Zlhir Sayf-al-Dtn Tatar . . . .1421 

8. Al-Sahb Nasur-al-Dln Muhammad » . . 1421 

9. Al-Ashraf Sayf-aUDin Barsbay , . .1422 
10. Al-*Aziz Jamal-al-Dln Yusuf . • . .1438 
IX. Al-£ahir Sayf-al- Din Jaqmaq . , . 143S 

12. Al-Mansur Fakhr-al-DIn 'Uthman . . .14^3 

13. Al-Ashraf Sayf-al-Din Inal . . . . 14^3 
14 Al-MuVyyad Smhab-at-Dm Ahmad . . . I4vx> 
I 5. A!-£ahir Sayf-aUDm Khushqadam . 4 • 1461 
16 Al-£ahir Sayf-aUDin Yalbay .... 1467 
17. Al-?ahir Timurbugha . 1467 



{Ccnnnucd at f opt of next pagt 
604 



CH. XUX 



THE END OF MAMLOK RULE 



695 



The new regime continued the intrigue, assassination and 
rapine of its predecessor. In fact it is one of the darkest in 
Syro-Egyptian annals* Several of the sultans were treacherous 
and bloodthirsty, some were inefficient or even degenerate, most 
of them were uncultured. Al~Mu*ayyad Shaykh (1412-21), a 
drunkard who had been bought by Barquq from a Circassian 
dealer, committed some of the worst excesses. 1 Barquq was the 
only one of the lot who had a Moslem father. 2 Barsbay (1422-38), 
originally enrolled among the slaves of Barquq, was not familiar 
with Arabic. He had his two physicians beheaded because they 
could give him no relief from a fatal malady. Inal (1453-60), 
another slave of Barquq, could neither read nor write. His con- 
temporary ibn-Taghri-Birdi 3 did not suppose that Inal could 
recite the first surah of the Koran without a mistake. His name 
on the official documents he traced over the writing of a secre- 
tary. Nor was he above suspicion in the matter of paederasty, with 
which Baybars among other Mamluks was charged. The ghil- 
mdn institution of 'Abbasid notoriety* was again flourishing 
under the Mamluks. His third successor Yalbay (1467) was not 
only illiterate but insane. 6 Qa'it-bay (1468-95), who was pur- 
chased by Barsbay for fifty dinars and manumitted by Jaqmaq, 
had the alchemist *Ali ibn-al-Marshushi blinded and deprived of 
his tongue for his failure to turn dross into gold. He levied a 
burdensome tax on the sale of corn which greatly added to the 
misery of the masses. 

Not only the sultans but the whole oligarchy were more or less 
corrupt. The numerous Mamluk amirs and slaves organized 
themselves into various factions originating in the bodyguards 
of Barquq, Faraj, Shaykh and Barsbay and were usually at 
enmity with one another. Each faction was animated solely by the 
desire of grasping all possible wealth and influence. 

The evil economic situation of the kingdom was aggravated De 
by the selfish policy of the sultans. Barsbay forbade the importa- {JJ| 

IS. Al-Ashraf Sayf-al-Dln QaVbay . . . 146S 

19. Al*Nu$ir Muhammad ..... 1495 

20. Al«?ahir Qan$a\vh * 149S 



2!. Al-Ashraf Jan-baUt 

22. Al-A&hraf Qinsauh al*Gha\%ri 

23, Al-Ashraf Tuman-bav . 



. 1499 
. 1500 
. 1516-17 



1 Ibn*Taghri-Birdi t voL\i, pp. 322 teg. 
* Vol. vji, p. 559. 

1 IWTashri-Birdi, vol. vii, pp. S31, 840, 841. 



1 Sujutf, &usn f vol. ii» p. 88. 
* Sec above, pp. 341, 485. 



6g6 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES PARTV 

tion of spices from India, including the much desired pepper, and 
before the price rose he cornered the existing supply and sold it 
to his subjects at a great profit. He also monopolized the manu- 
facture of sugar and went so far as to prohibit the planting of 
sugar-cane for a period in order to realize excessive profits for 
himself. In his reign another of the periodic plagues visited 
Egypt and neighbouring countries, and sugar was in special 
demand as a remedy against the disease. Though not quite as 
devastating as the "black death", this epidemic is said to have 
carried away in the capital alone 300,000 victims within three 
months. Considering the visitation a punishment for the sins of 
his people, the sultan prohibited females from going outdoors 1 
and sought to make atonement by fresh exactions from Chris- 
tians and Jews. He also deprived non-Moslems of their offices in 
the government and enforced on them the dress regulations. The 
same policy against Christians and Jews was pursued by several 
of his predecessors and by Jaqmaq and Khushqadam. 2 Many of 
InaPs predecessors struck debased silver money and frequently 
changed the mint value of the precious metals 

Exactions were not limited to non-Moslems In the absence of 
a regulated system of taxation, the only way these sultans could 
raise enough money for their campaigns, extravagant courts 
and monumental buildings was by extortion from their subjects 
and from government officials who had enriched themselves at 
the expense of the public Marauding Bedouins in the Delta and 
the desert to the east repeatedly fell on the settled fallahtn of the 
narrow agricultural valley and ravaged the land. Locusts, like 
epidemics, made their periodic visitation. Famine became al- 
most chronic in the land and was intensified in the years of 
plague and drought caused by low water in the Nile. In the 
reigns of Faraj and Shaykh starvation was especially wide- 
spread. It is estimated that in the course of the Mamluk period 
the population of Syria and Egypt was reduced by two-thirds. 3 
Indian Towards the end of the period certain international factors be- 
iradcioxt g an to contribute to the poverty and misery of the land. In 1498 
the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama found his way round 
the Cape of Good Hope. This was an event of vital importance 
in the history of the Syro-Egyptian kingdom. Not only did 

1 iDn-Taghri-Bmh, vol vi, p 760. * Jhd. vol vh, pp 186,721-2. 

a Cf. ibn Taghn-Birdi, \'ol vi, pt 2, p. 273. 




CK. XUX" 



THE END OF MAMLUK RULE 



697 



attacks from Portuguese and other European fleets become 
frequent on Moslem ships in the Red Sea and Indian waters but 
gradually most of the traffic in spices and other tropical products 
of India and Arabia was diverted from Syrian and Egyptian 
ports. Thereby one of the main sources of national income was 
for ever destroyed. The fleet of al-Ghawri had several engage* 
ments with Portuguese ships along the coast of Arabia. His 
threat to the pope, that unless the Portuguese were checked he 
would destroy the Christian holy places, was of no avail. In 1500 
the Portuguese established themselves in Calicut on the west 
coast of India, and thirteen years later their general, Alfonso 
d'Albuquerquc (from Ar. abu-al-qurq\jt\ sandal maker), bom- 
barded *Adan (Aden). 

The only redeeming feature in this entire period was the? 
erection — as if to atone for the shortcomings of the rulers — of J 
buildings which have stood out to the present day as impressive 
examples of Moslem architecture* Such were the Mosque and 
Mausoleum of Barquq, the Mosque of Qa*it-bay and the Mosque 
of al-Ghawri. The memorial Mosque of Qa'it-bay consists of a 
mosque proper, a tomb, a fountain and a school. Besides its 
symphony in two colours, red and white, the dome is decorated 
with a charming network of conventionalized foliage and 
rosettes. This and other Mamluk buildings maintain the tradi- 
tions of vigour and virile elegance established by the Ayyubid 
school of Syria. 

The Burjis also continued the earlier practice of applying 
elaborate arabesque ornament to the minor arts. In these in- 
dustries, as in architecture, Qa it-bay's reign was the richest 
since the days of al-Na?ir ibn-Qalawurt. v 

In their foreign relations the Burjis were even less happy than \ 
in their domestic affairs. Before the close of the reign of their T 
first sultan the spectre of a new Mongolian invader, Tirnur, a 
worthy successor of Hulagu and ChingTz, began to loom on the 
northern horizon. Syria itself was convulsed throughout the 
whole period by revolts headed by its local governors, some of > 
whom were instigated by the Mongols. Besides Tlmur another 
and what proved a more deadly enemy began now to threaten 
the kingdom, the Ottomans of Anatolia. 

The only bright spot in this dark period was the conquest of c 
' Cyprus in 1424-1426 by Barsbay. The object of th$ Egyptian 0 




THE MADRASAH OF QA'IT-BAy, CAIRO (EXTERIOR) 



CH. XUX 1 THE END OF MAMLUK RULE 699 

v 

expedition to this Mediterranean island was to deprive the cor- 
sairs, who had repeatedly ravaged Syrian ports, of a base. The 
island had been in the hands of Franks, first the Templars and 
then the house of Lusignan, ever since Richard I occupied it in 
1 191. It was a powerful ally of the Crusaders and later a 
permanent menace to the Mamluk kingdom. In 1270 Baybars 
made the first attempt to retaliate for the frequent raids by 
Cypriotes, but his fleet was wrecked off Limassol. Now Barsbay's 
formidable forces, after seizing Limassol, advanced to Larnaca 
and, having defeated the Lusignan army, took King Janus 
prisoner. Heavily fettered, the king and over a thousand captives 
were paraded through the streets of Cairo and then brought before 
the sultan. After kissing the ground 1 at the sultan's feet the 
king fainted and was borne into the citadel Ibn-Taghri-Birdi,* 
who later had an interview with the exiled king, gives us an 
eye-witness's account. Later, through the intervention of the 
Venetian consul, Janus was returned to his throne on the 
payment of a ransom of 200,000 dinars and the pledge of a yearly 
tribute of 20,000. Barsbay also concluded a treaty of peace with 
Ehodes, whose Knights of St. John had often collaborated with 
the Cypriotes in their attacks on the Egyptian coast. Cyprus was 
the sole acquisition throughout the Burji age, but did not begin 
to compensate for the many losses suffered. 

r Tirnur Lang> commonly corrupted into Tamerlane, was born in 
1336 in Transoxiana. One of his ancestors was vizir to Chinglz' 
son, but the family claimed descent from Chinglz himself, 
j His "satirical biographer ibn-' Arab-Shah, 3 however, cites the 
claim that Timur was the son of a shoemaker and lived at first 
by brigandage, and that the epithet Lang (lame) he received as 
a result of a wound inflicted on him while stealing sheep. In 1380 
Timur at the head of his Tartar hordes initiated a long series of 
campaigns which gained for him Afghanistan, Persia, Faris and 
Kurdistan. *In 1393 he captured Baghdad and in that and the 
following year overran Mesopotamia. In Takrlt, the birthplace 
of Sala^-ai-Dln, he erected a pyramid with the skulls of his 

* The custom of kissing the ground before the sultan, established by the Fatimid 
al Mu'iza, w \s iir«tt aboUshed by Barsbav, who substituted for it the kissmg of the 
sultan** hand. Later, however, the old practice was revived with some modification; 
ri>n» e l«ighn ftirdS, vol* vt t pU 2, pp. 558 9. 

* Vol Yl,pt2 t pp 6t2-t8, 820 

* V//a7£ at*Ma$durfi Akhbar Tcyrtur (Cairo, 1285), p. 6. 



CH.XUX 



THE END OF MAMLOK RULE 



701 



victims. In 1395 he invaded the Qipchaq territory and occupied 
Moscow for over a year. Three years later he ravaged northern 
India and massacred 80,000 of the inhabitants of Delhi. It was 
the envoys of Timur whom Barquq towards the close of his 
reign ventured to execute, although they came on a friendly 
mission, 

Like a cyclone Timur swept over northern Syria in 1400. For 
three days Aleppo was given over to plunder. The heads of over 
twenty thousand of its Moslem inhabitants were built into mounds 
ten cubits high by twenty m circumference, with all the faces on 
the outside. 1 The city's priceless schools and mosques of the 
Nurid and Ayyubid ages were destroyed, never to be rebuilt. 
#amah, Ijlims and Ba'labakk fell in turn. The advance force 
of the Egyptian army under Sultan Faraj were routed and 
Damascus captured (February, 1401). While the city was sacked 
the fire brake out. The invader — a nominal Moslem with 
Shfite proclivities — extorted a religious opinion from its ulema 
approving his conduct Of the Umayyad Mosque nothing 
was left but the walls. 8 Of the Damascene scholars, skilled 
labourers and artisans the ablest were carried away by Timur to 
Jiis capital, Samarqand, there to implant Islamic sciences and to 
introduce certain industrial arts which have since been lost to the 
Syrian capital. Ibn-Taghri-Birdi^ whose father was chief armour 
bearer of Faraj, has left us a graphic description of this campaign. 
Ibn-Kha!dun accompanied Faraj from Cairo and headed the 
Damascene mission which negotiated peace with Timur. From 
JD&mastus th6 wild conqueror rushed back to Baghdad to 
avenge the deaths of certain of his officers and dotted the city with 
a hundred and twenty towers built of the heads of the dead. 

During the next two years Timur invaded Asia Minor, 
crushed the Ottoman army at Ankara (July 21, 1402) and took 
Sultan BayazTd I prisoner. He captured the former capital Brusa 
and Smyrna. The distinguished captive was kept in chains 
during the night and made to travel in a litter surrounded by a 
grille (qafe?) carried on two horses. The word gafas, supported 
by a misunderstood passage in ibn-' Arab-Shah,* gave rise to the 
legend that Bayazid was shut up in an iron cage. Timur's death 



1 Ibn Tnghn Birdi, vol vi, pt 2, p 52 * /bid, p 68 

* Vol vi, pt. 2, p 5, 1 14, pp. 50 Cf Mirkh^Jind, TcriU Kan fat at $afa* 
(Teheran, 1270), Bi. VI, * P. 136 



LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES part v 



in 1404, in the course of a campaign against China, came as a 
relief to the Egyptian Mamluks. His tomb can still be seen in 
Samarqand. 

TfmOnds His son and successor, Shah-Rukh (1404-47), held an angry 
correspondence with Barsbay demanding the right, in fulfilment 
of a vow, of furnishing the Ka'bah with its precious curtain — a 
privilege maintained by the Mamluks as the leading sovereigns 
of Islam. After holding a consultation with his qadis of the four 
rites, Barsbay deftly replied that Shah would be absolved of his 
vow if he would spend the money on the poor of Makkah. 1 
Shah sent another envoy with a courtly robe, commanding that 
the Mamluk sultan should receive investiture in it as his vassal, 
but Barsbay tore up the robe and had the envoy flogged and 
ignominiously ducked head downward in a pooh It was a cold 
day in winter and the scene was witnessed by ibn-Taghri-Birdi. 2 
After Shah the Timurids exhausted themselves in internal 
struggles which encouraged the rise of the Safawids and the 
rcconstitution of the Ottoman empire, 
ottoman Reference has been made 8 to the ultimate origin of the 
Turks Ottoman Turks in Mongolia, their admixture with Iranian 
tribes in Central Asia and their advent into Asia Minor, where 
they gradually superseded and absorbed their Saljuq cousins, and 
m the first years of the fourteenth century established a kingdom 
destined to supersede the Byzantine empire as well as the Arab 
caliphate. Bayazid I (1 389-1402) was the great-grandson of 
*Uthman (1299-1326), the eponymous founder of the dynasty. 
Under him the Asiatic part of the kingdom, extending from 
the northern frontier of Syria to the Danube, was almost all lost. 
In the following ten years, however, it was largely recovered 
from Europe as a base by Bayazid's son Muhammad I (1402-21). 
The Ottoman problem began to confront seriously the Egyptian 
sultans at the time of Muhammad Vs great-grandson, Bayazld II 
(1481-1512), a contemporary of Qa*it-bay. Rivalry between the 
two powers found its first expression in repeated conflicts among 
their vassals on the borders of Asia Minor and Syria. Qa'it-bay 
invited fresh trouble in 1481 by harbouring the fugitive Jem, 
brother of BayazTd II and pretender to the throne; and when 
Jem later was taken to Rome the Mamluk sultan negotiated with 

1 Ibn Taphn-Btrdi. \ol vi pt a pp 722, 7*5 
* Vol vi, pt. 2, p. 743 8 l»p 475. 47*>\ 4&9 



CH.xlix* ' THE END OF MAML0K RULE - 



703 



the pope with a view to his return to Egypt. But the Immediate 
cause of the final breach was the secret promise of support made 
by Qinsawh al-Ghawri to the arch-enemy of the Turks, the 
Persian Shah Isma'il (1502-24). 

Isma'jf was the founder of the Safawid dynasty (1502-1736), 
the most glorious of the native dynasties of Moslem Persia. Its 
name is derived from the pious Shaykh Safi~al-Din (the pure one 
of the faith), from whom Isma'Il was sixth in descent. The family 
traced its origin to the seventh imam, Musa al-Kafcim, and be- 
came ardent m its Shi'ism. Its founder on his accession declared 
Shf ism, more particularly the doctrine of the Twelvers, the state 
religion of Persia, which has ever since remained true to this 
faith. His collision with the Sunnite Ottoman Salim I (1512-20), 
son of Bayazld II, took place in August, 1514, at Chaldiran, 
north of Lake Urmiyah, where his cavalry gave way before the 
Janissaries'* superior artillery. The Turks then occupied Ismail's 
capital Tibriz, Mesopotamia and part of Armenia (15 15). 

In the spring of the following year Qansawh proceeded to 
Aleppo under the pretext of acting as intermediary between the ' 
two contestants, but in reality to aid his Persian ally. In order to 
give his mission a peaceful appearance, he brought in his train 
his puppet Caliph al-Mutawakkil and the chief qadis of his 
realm. But Salim would not be deceived; he was kept informed 
of the intentions of the Mamluk sultan through a system of spies. 
When Qansawh's envoy arrived at SalTm's camp his beard was 
shaved — a grave insult — and he was sent back on a mule with a 
declaration of war. His attendants were put to death. There was 
no way of averting the impending catastrophe. Though about 
seventy-five years old, Qansawh, once a slave of Qa it-bay, was 
still vigorous. Throughout his reign he had proved himself a man 
of no mean ability. But he could not depend upon the loyalty of 
his north Syrian governors, or upon the co-operation of several 
of his Egyptian amirs. 

The two armies met on August 24, 15 16, at Marj Dabiq, a 
i day's journey north of Aleppo. Qansawh entrusted the command 
1 of the left wing to Kha'ir Bey, the treacherous governor of 
Aleppo, who at the first charge deserted with his troops. Soon 
"afterward the aged Mamluk fell from his horse, stricken with 

3 Tur.jewV/rr^ncw troops, n imp given to the regular infantry recruited mainly 
from young captured Christians, and largely responsible for the Ottoman conquests. 

. A* > 



704 LAST OF THE MEDIEVAL MOSLEM STATES i\artv 



apoplexy. 1 The Ottoman victory was complete. The Turkish 
army was better equipped with the new arms — artillery, muskets 
and other long-range weapons — which the Mamluk army, com- 
mitted to cavalry and comprising Bedouin and Negro con- 
tingents, disdained. The Turks had for some time been using 
powder, but the Syro- Egyptians clung to the antiquated theory 
that personal valour is the decisive factor in combat. Saltm 
entered Aleppo in triumph and was welcomed as a deliverer 
from Mamluk excesses. The cahph he treated kindly. In the 
citadel of the city he found immense treasures, estimated in 
millions of dinars, which the sultan and princes had deposited 
there. In mid-October he advanced upon Damascus, whose 
leading men went over to him or fled to Egypt. Syria passed into 
Ottoman hands, in which it continued for the next four centuries. 

Egypt From Syria the Ottoman conqueror swept south into Egypt. 

conquered pj ere Tuman-bay, a slave of Qansawh, had become sultan. The 
two armies met on January 22, 1517, outside Cairo, where 
Tuman at first battled valiantly. But the corrupt state of his 
army, the jealousies among his amirs, the lack of funds and ade- 
quate firearms and the superiority of the Ottoman artillery were 
sure to tell as the struggle dragged on. Salim, supported by 
Bedouin contingents, finally entered and plundered the city, 
slaughtering all the Mamluks who fell into his hands. His guns 
on the right bank of the Nile were brought into action against 
the remnant of the army, Tuman-bay fled to a Bedouin chief, but 
was later betrayed and, strange as it may seem, hanged (April 14) 
at one of Cairo's main gates. 2 The Mamluk sultanate was for 
ever crushed. Cairo, the centre of Eastern Islam since Saiah-al- 
Dln's time, passed away as an imperial city and became a pro- 
vincial town, Makkah and al-Madlnah automatically became a 
part of the Ottoman empire. The Egyptian preachers who led 
the Friday public services invoked Allah's blessing on Salim in 
the following words: 

O Lord! uphold the sultan, son of the sultan, ruler over both lands 
and the two seas, conqueror of both hosts, monarch of the two 'Iraqs, 
minister of the two Holy Cities, the victorious king Salim Shah. 
Grant him, O Lord, Thy precious aid; enable him to win glorious 
victories, O Ruler of this world and the next, Lord of the universe. 8 

1 Ibn«I>as, cd. Paul Kahle eta/ , vul. v (Istanbul, 1932), pp 67*9. 
1 Ihtd pp 138 stq^ I4&seq. 1 Jbid. p. 14$* 



cn. XUX " THE END OF MAMLUK RULE ' 705 



After lingering until the autumn in the valley of the Nile, 
where he visited the pyramids, Alexandria and other places of 
interest, the great conqueror returned to Constantinople, the 
Ottoman capital since 1453, carrying with him the caliph. 
Charged later with misappropriating trust funds, al-Mutawakkil 
was held prisoner until allowed to retire to Cairo by Salim's son 
and successor, Sulayman the Magnificent. There he died in 1 543, 
His death closed the last chapter in the history of the mock 
*Abbasid caliphate. Whether, as is alleged without sufficient 
warrant, he made a transfer of his office to the Ottoman sultan 
or not, 1 the fact remains that the Turkish ruler in Constantinople 
gradually absorbed the caliphal privileges and ultimately the 
title itself Although some of Salim's successors styled them- 
selves caliphs and were so addressed, their use of the title was 
complimentary and unrecognized outside their own territories. 
The first known diplomatic document which applies the term 
caliph to the Ottoman sultan and recognizes his religious author- 
ity over Moslems outside of Turkey is the Russo-Turkish treaty 
of Kuchuk Kaynarji, signed in 1774* 

The sultan-caliph of Constantinople became the most power- 
ful potentate in Islam, an heir not only to the caliphs of Baghdad 
but also to the emperors of Byzantium, 1 With the destruction of 
Mamluk power and the establishment of the Turks on the 
Bosporus the focus of Islamic power shifted westward. In fact, 
by this time the centre of world civilization had moved to the 
West. The discovery of America and of the Cape of Good Hope 
transferred the world's trade to new routes, and the entire realm 
of the eastern Mediterranean began to sink into the background. 
Herewith the history of the Arab caliphate and the Moslem 
dynasties that arose in medieval times on the ruins of the Arab 
empire comes to an end, and the modern history of the Ottoman 
caliphate-empire begins* 

1 See above, pp. 489, 677 
* On the abolition of the Ottoman caliphate sec above, pp 139, 184^ 



PART VI 

OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE 




THE FLAG OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE 



CHAPTER L 
THE ARAB LANDS AS TURKISH PROVINCES 



For about two-thirds of a century after its establishment about 
1300 in Anatolia at the expense of the Byzantine empire and on 
the ruins of the Saljuq kingdom, the Ottoman state was but a 
frontier amlrate. 1 The state was on a war footing znd at times 
precarious. Its capital, beginning with 1326, was Brusa (Bursa)* 
By 1366 the amlrate had become more stable, gained a firm foot- 
hold on the European mainland and developed into a kingdom 
with Adrianople (Edirne) as capital. 2 The conquest in 1453 of 
Constantinople by Muhammad II the Conqueror (1451-81) 
formally ushered in a new era, that of the empire. The new giant 
1 Genealogical tabic of the early Ottoman rulers; 



1. *UthmanI{t209) 

2. tJrkhan (1326) 

3. Murad I (1359) 

3 Murad I (1359) 

4 Baya2id I (1389-1401) 



Sulayraan (claimant) 
{1403-10) 



5. Muhammad I (1403) 
(sole ruler 1413) 



Musa (claimant) 
O410-13) 



6. Murad II (1421) 



7. Muhammad II (1451) 
709 



OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE partvi 



installed himself astride the Bosporus with one foot in Asia and 
the other in Europe, His expanding domain made him heir not 
only to Byzantium but also, through the destruction of the Mamluk 
power, 1 to the successor states of the Arab caliphate. The inherit- 
ance of lands from both East and West had its counterpart in the 
inheritance of ideas, and the combined heritage is perhaps the 
most pregnant fact in the history of Ottoman Turkey. 

Other Arab states, in North Africa, were in the sixteenth 
century drawn within the orbit of the rising Turkish crescent, Of 
these Algeria (al-Jaza*ir, roughly Numidia of the Romans) was 
the first. In 1 5 18, the year after the conquest of Egypt, Khayr-al- 
Din Barbarossa and his brother, two Ottoman corsairs of Greek 
birth, invaded the land, warded off Spanish encroachments and 
bestowed it upon the Sublime Porte. In exchange the Porte 
bestowed upon Khayr-al-Dln the title of beylerbey (bey of beys). 2 
Khayr-al-Dln inaugurated a military aristocracy with a corps of 
Janissaries as its backbone. He also organized for the sultan a 
well-equipped fleet with seasoned crew, recruited mainly from 
renegade Christians, Italians and Greeks, and ready to implement - 
aggressive imperial policy throughout the Mediterranean. The 
fleet carried the terror of the Ottoman name westward to the 
coasts of Spain, as the Janissaries carried it eastward to the banks 
of the Tigris. A dangerous neighbour was thereby installed west 
of Tunisia (Africa of the Romans). Taking advantage of a dispute 
in the native succession to the Tunisian throne, Khayr-al-Dln 
temporarily occupied Tunis in 1534; the country, however, was 
not reduced to a Turkish province till forty years later. The land 
forces against it were led by Sinan Pasha, & brilliant general of 
Albanian descent, who in 1 568 as governor of Egypt had con- 
ducted a campaign against South Arabia which netted al-Yaman 
to the house of 'Uthman. 3 Before Sinan a great Turkish admiral 
of probable Christian origin, Piri Re 'Is, had operated on the 
southern and eastern coasts of the peninsula, occupied f Adan 

1 Sec above, pp. 704-5. 

a Tur. bey, from Turin (East Turkish) Beg, a title of honour that is still commonly 
used, especially by Egyptians. 

* Ct Joseph von Hammer, Geschichie des otmanischen Heiches, vol. iii (Pest, 182S), 
P* SS 1 *' *f' QutWMDIn al-Makki, ebBarq aUYam&ni fi *l*Fct% cl» Oihmdni, tr, 
Silvestre de Sacy in Notim et extratis des manuserits de la Bibliothkque National*, 
vol. iv (Paris, 179Z-6), pp* 468 J*?.; for further on aUYaman, consult Husayn A* 
at- 1 Arshi, Bul&gh al-Mardmfi Skar$ Mtsh ahKhttdm, ed. A. M. al-KirmiU (Cairo, 
l 939)f PP- 60-S0. 



CH.fc THE ARAB LANDS AS TURKISH PROVINCES 7*t 



(Aden, 1547) and Masqat (15 51) and struck as far as the head of 
the Persian Gulf. A recently discovered map of his, the so-called 
Columbus map, shows the Atlantic Ocean and America. 1 First 
called beys, the governors of Tunisia for over a century after 1 70S 
became known as deys> 2 Even before putting an end to Spanish 
rule and native dynasties in Tunisia, Sinan Pasha and two other 
Turkish generals had evicted the Knights of St. John (of Malta) 
from Tripoli and in 1 5 $ I had captured the city. Tripoli (Tarabulus 
al-Gharb) owes its Greek name to three Phoenician-Carthaginian 
colonies which with the adjoining territory once formed the 
province of Tripolitania under Rome. In it the Berber element 
was weakest. Thus did the Barbary 3 states, with the exception 
of distant mountainous Morocco (al-Maghrib al-Aqsa, roughly 
Roman Mauretania), more than half of whose population was of 
Berber descent, fall within the Ottoman embrace. Generally 
speaking, the proportion of Berbers in the population increases 
not only from east to west but also from north to south. 

Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers now became seats of provincial 
governments nominally tributary to the Porte but actually semi- 
independent, and for a long time each under nativeordomesticated 
rulers, many of whom passed on the reins of government to their 
descendants. All three governments were dominated by military 
oligarchies. The claims of the Porte were recognized by the 
annual payment of tribute, which partook more of the nature of 
a present. Occasionally the states were convulsed by revolts pro- 
voked by the extortions of Ottoman agents. From 1711 to 183$ 
Tripolitania was administered by the Qaramanli house. The 
deterioration of the Ottoman fleet from the seventeenth century 
onward loosened the Ottoman grip on the African provinces and 
gave their governors, whether pashas, beys or deys, the oppor- 
tunity to practise an even larger measure of local autonomy than 
their opposite numbers in Egypt and Syria. 

The Barbary provinces developed into corsair states. Directed Pin 
primarily against Christians, piracy partook first of the nature of $tM( 

* \Paul Kahlein The Geographical 'Jtenew, vol. xxiii (1933), pp. 621-38; cf. Hajjt 
Khairah* vol. tt\ pp. 22-3; consult Piri Re'is, Ba^riyak, ed. Paul Kahle, 2 vols. (Berlin, 
1926), The Turks had occupied *Adan once before, 1538. 

* Tut* day, maternal uncle. 
^ * Land of the Barbarians— a term applied by the Greeks to all peoples living out- 
Side the pale of Greek dvihrdtioa. The Romans applied "Barbery" to the region west 
of Egypt. 



712 



OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE 



PART Vt 



a jihad. Like soldiering, it became a profession. The industry was 
profitable to government and people alike. A fixed duty was levied 
on the captives and the booty; captives were held for ransom or 
sold as slaves. For about three centuries the income therefrom 
was the main source of revenue to the state treasury. Piratical 
ships took their place at times as units in the Ottoman fleet. 
Exiles from Moslem Spain 1 swelled the ranks of Mediterranean 
freebooters whose ravages became the scourge of the sea. 1 The 
activity reached its height in the first half of the seventeenth 
century, imperilling the coasts of Italy, France and Spain. In the 
latter half of that century the naval operations of the British and 
French compelled respect for their respective flags, but minor 
powers continued to purchase immunity for their nationals and 
trade by the payment of annual tribute, an immunity that re- 
mained at best precarious. Such was the case with Holland, 
Denmark and Sweden. Even the United States sought safety in 
tribute and was in 1783 involved in a war with Algeria, head- 
quarters of the sea robbers. In 1801 the Qaramanli dey of Tripoli 
insisted on an increase on the §83,000 which the United States 
had been paying annually since 1 796 and a four-year war ensued. 
In 1815 another hostile naval force from America visited Tripoli. 
It was these naval engagements with the Barbary states that in 
part stimulated the development of the American fleet. 
The spicn Most of the North African conquests were achieved during the 
w^Tcon^ ^S 11 °f Sulayman I (1 520-66), son of the conqueror of Syria and 
ttwmnopie Egypt and the man under whom the Ottoman empire hit the 
zenith of its might. 5 In Sulayman *s reign the greater part of 
Hungary was reduced, Vienna was besieged and Rhodes was 
occupied. The Ottoman sway then extended from Budapest on 

1 Sec above, p 556 

* For more on this consult Stanley Lane-Poole, The Story of tkt Barbary Certain 
(New York, 1891), 

* 7. Muhammad II (1451) 

8. Bayazid 11(1481} 

9. Salim I (1512) 

10. Sulayman I (1520) 

11. Salim II (1566) 
12 MurSd HI {1574) 



CH. 1/ THE ARAB LANDS AS TURKISH PROVINCES' '7u 



the Danube to Baghdad on the Tigris and from the Crimea to the, 
first cataract of the Nile, This was the greatest Moslem state of 
modern times; not only that, but one of themost enduring Moslem 
states of all time. No less than thirty-six sultans, all in the direct 
male line of *Uthman, reigned from 1300 to 1922. 1 

Sulayman was known to his people by the honorific title of 
al-Qanuni (the lawgiver) because of the high esteem in which 
later generations held the codes which bore his name. 2 He charged 
Ibrahim al-9alabi (of Aleppo, t!S49) w^* 1 the °f compiling 

1 12. MuradIII(l574) 

13. Muhammad III (1595) 



14, Abmad I (1603) 15. Mustafa I (1617, 1622) 



t6. 'Uthm&n II (1618) 17. Murad IV (1623) 18. Ibrahim (1640) 



19. Muhammad IV {1648) 20. Sulayman II (1687) 21. A^tnad II (1690 



22. Mustafa II (1695) 23 Ahmad III (1703) 

24. Malmadl 25* 'Uthmanlll 26. Mu?fafa IU 27. f AhdJi-Hamrd I 
(mo) (X7S4) 0757) (1774) 

28, Sallm III (1789) 



f 1 

29. Mu?|afa IV 30. Mahm&d II 

(1807) {1S0S) 



r 



31. 'Abd-al-Majfdl 32. 'Abd-al-'AsU 
(1839) (1S61) 

33- MurSd V 34. *Abd J-Haxotd II ^ 35- Muhammad V Rashad 

0876) (1876) (1909) 

36. Muhammad VI 
Wafctd-al-Dm 
(1918-22) 

* M,Cavid Baysun, "EbGssu'ud Efcndi," Isfam Ansikivpedisi. 



714 OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE part vi 



a book, Multaqa al-Abhur (confluence of the se«os), which re- 
mained the standard work on Ottoman law until the reforms of 
the nineteenth century. 1 To Europeans, however, Sulayman was 




THE TVGHRA, CALLIGRAPHIC EMBLEM, OF SULAYMAN 
THE MAGNIFICENT, BEARING HIS NAME 

known as the Magnificent, and magnificent he was. His court 
was certainly one of the most resplendent in Eurasia. Note the 
style he used in addressing a letter to Francis I, king of France: 

I who am the Sultan of Sultans, the sovereign of sovereigns, the dis- 
penser of crowns to the monarchs on the face of the earth, the shadow of 
God on earth, the Sultan and sovereign lord of the White Sea and of the 
Black Sea, of Rumelia and of Anatolia, of Karamania, of the land of 
Rum, of Zulkadria,of Diarbekir, of Kurdistan, of Azerbaijan, of Persia, 
of Damascus, of Aleppo, of Cairo, of Mecca, of Medina, of Jerusalem, 
of all Arabia, of Yemen, and of many other lands which my noble fore- 
fathers and my glorious ancestors (may God light up their tombs t) 
conquered by the forre of their arms and which my August Majesty has 
made subject to my flaming sword and my victorious blade, I, Sultan 
Suleiman Khan, son of Sultan Selim Khan, son of Sultan Bayezid 
Khan: To thee, who art Francis, King of the land of France. 2 

Sulayman equipped and beautified the capital and other cities 
with mosques, schools, hospitals, palaces, mausoleums, bridges, 
aqueducts, caravanserais and public baths, tw T o hundred and 
thirty-five of which are said to have been built by his chief 
architect Sinam Originally a Christian from Anatolia, who per- 
haps found his way into Constantinople with the usual levy of 
youth, 3 Sinan developed into the most energetic and distinguished 

1 See Hitti, History of Syrta, p. G64. 

* Roger B. Memroan, Sulaman the Magnificent (Cambridge, 1944), p 130 

* See above, p. 703, n. 1. 



CH. t THE ARAB LANDS AS TURKISH PROVINCES 715 

architect that Turkey produced. His masterpiece was th£ magni- 
ficent mosque named Sulaymanlyah, in commemoration of his 
Master's name, and designed to eclipse Santa Sophia. Its majestic 
dome exceeds that of the Justinian cathedral by about sixteen 
feet* The mihrdb and rear wall are ornamented with exquisite 
tile in the Persian style. While the limelight illumined the city 
on the Bosporus, the once glamorous Madfnah. Damascus* 
Baghdad, Cairo — former capitals of mighty empires and brilliant 
seats of culture — were functioning as residences for provincial 
governors and armed garrisons from Constantinople, the city 
before whose walls had stood on four historic occasions threaten- 
ing Arab armies from Damascus and Baghdad- 1 

Turkish culture in its entirety was a striking blend of diverse 1 
and disparate elements. From the Persians, with whom the Turks * 
had contacts even before migrating to Western Asia , Came artistic 
motifs, belletristic patterns and such political ideas as the exalta- 
tion of the monarch. Among possible bequests from Central 
Asian nomadism, mention may be made of a predisposition to 
war and conquest and a hospitable assimilative tendency. 2 The 
Byzantines, chiefly by way of the Saljuqs of Rum, provided certain 
military and governmental institutions. But, above all, the Arabs 
were the teachers of the Turks, in the same sense as the Greeks 
were the teachers of the Romans. From the Arabs the Turks 
'acquired their sciences, their religion' — with its socio-economic 
" principles and sacred law — and an alphabetic system of writing 
that lingered till 192S. While still in Central Asia the Turks liad 
but little written literature and, for that, Syriac script, introduced 
by Christian Syrians, 3 was used. With the adoption of Islam and 
^the Arabic characters thousands of religious, scientific, legal and 
Jitcrary terms were borrowed from Arabic and Persian, and many 
of them are still embedded in Turkish despite recent nationalistic 
attempts at linguistic purge. In three fields the Ottomans made 
original Contributions of major significance: statesmanship, archi- 
tecture, and poetry. 

The empiie of the Ottomans, like those of the Romans and 
"Abhasids before it, was essentially military and dynastic in 

1 See above, ?p, 299-300. 
. 1 Albert H. Lybyer, The Government of the Ottoman Empire tn the Tims of 
Sufittnan the Magnificent (Cambridge, 1913), p. iS. 
* See Hitti, History of Syria, pp. 5 18-19. 



716 OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE *artv* 



character and in organization. The main objective sought was 
not so much the welfare of its subjects as the welfare of the state 
personified by the sultan-caliph. The subjects were a conglomera- 
tion of nationalities — Arabians, Syrians, 'Iraqis, Egyptians, 
Berbers, Kurds, Armenians, Slavs, Greeks, Albanians — with 
diverse creeds, languages and ways of life, held together by the 
sword of 'Uthman. Even the peasant Turks — as distinct from 
the ruling class, members of which preferred to call themselves 
x Uthmanli, Osmanli, Ottoman — could be included among the 
subject peoples. The Turks themselves were, and remained, a 
dominant minority group in their vast domain and made no 
attempt at colonization in the Arab lands. But they kept their 
blood fresh by marrying non-Moslem women and by admitting 
to full citizenship any subject who accepted Islam, adopted the 
Turkish tongue and joined their court. The regular levy of boys, 
as long as it lasted, enabled them to press into their military and 
civil service and to assimilate the flower of the male youth of the 
subject non-Moslem communities. Some of the best talent of the 
conquered people was sucked and funnelled into the capital, 
there to be Islamized, Turkicized and utilized to the glory and 
advancement of the imperial state. Circassians, Greeks, Al- 
banians, Slavs, Italians and even Armenians rose to the highest 
offices in the empire including the grand vizirate. 

A state organized primarily for warfare rather than for the 
welfare of its people and covering a far-flung unwieldy area with 
under-developed means of communication and a heterogeneous 
population among whom the line of cleavage was clearly marked 
between Moslems and Christians — even between Moslem Turks 
and Moslem Arabs and between one Christian sect and another — 
had the seedsof decay embedded in its basic structure. Once itwas 
confronted with a world in which nationalism was triumphing, 
its condition became aggravated. The persistence and elabora- 
tion of the millet 1 system whereby each religious community 
enjoyed a considerable measure of home rule — which was the 
classic way by which Islam tried to solve its minority problem — 
the centralization of supreme authority (at least in theory) in the 
hands of one man — the sultan-caliph — and the ambiguity in the 
line of succession added to the inherent weaknesses in the imperial 



Sec below, p. 7*7. 




THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE 

AT ITS HEIGHT 

Ca. 1550 

English Miles 




\Bttvft4* tens 716 i^frr* c 



CH. t THE AHAB LANDS AS TURKISH PROVINCES 



717 



set-up. The wonder is that disintegration did not set in much 
earlier than it did. 

Shortly after the death of Sulayman the empire started on its 
downward course, a course that was both long and tortuous. The 
failure of the second attempt on Vienna in 1683 may be considered 
as marking 1 the beginning of the end; Turkey's expansion in 
Europe made no further progress. After that the problem for the 
Turks became how to hold what they already got rather than to 
get more; the role of the armed forces was no more one of offence 
but of defence. To the internal forces of corruption and decay 
^ ere added external forces in the eighteenth century when France, 
England, Austria and eventually Russia started their quest for 
"spheres of influence" and began to cast covetous eyes on some 
possession of the "sick man" of Europe. Mutual jealousies, how- 
ever, among the competing powers and lack of concerted action 
gave the patient more than one lease on life. 

Of the Arab lands those of North Africa were the first to be lost i 
to the Ottoman empire Those lands constitute a block by thern- * 
selves. Proximity to South Europe, distance from the centre and * 
heart of Islam in Western Asia, the weakness of their Islamic 
tradition and the high proportion of Berber and European blood 
made them from the outset pursue a course of their own. 

Algeria was the first of the Arab states to be detached from the 
empire. This was done in 1830, when French troops landed on its 
shores ostensibly in reprisal for piratical activity and to avenge 
an insult offered by the ruling dey Pj[usayn to the French consul. 
Eighteen years later the country was declared French territory 
with its littoral as an integral part of France. When American 
troops landed there in November 1942, Laval protested, invoking 
the decree of 1848 and maintaining that Algeria was a natural 
prolongation of France. 1 Like any other dipartement^ it sent 
representatives to the French parliament. An eight-year-old 
bloody conflict between French troops and Algerian nationalists 
ended in 1962 with a peace treaty leading to Algeria's inde- 
pendence* 

The eastward expansion of imperial France resulted in 1881 
in the occupation of Tunisia, where the same policy was pursued 
to a hardly less extent. As in Algeria French replaced Arabic 
as the literary language of the natives Though its status was 

1 The New Yvrk Tints ^ November 21, 1942. 



7*B OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE PAttTVf 



that of a protectorate, Tunisia was a French possession in all but 
name. A French resident-general, installed beside the native bey, 
controlled all the public services. Its proximity to Egypt, however, 
has kept the national Moslem tradition in it comparatively strong. 
In Tunisia as in Algeria thousands of French colonists have been 
domiciled. The Tunisian situation is complicated by the large 
number and size of Italian colonies. Both countries admittedly 
enjoyed a higher measure of security and public health and 
greater facilities for communication under the French Tunisia 
was accorded internal autonomy m 1955 and full independence 
in 1956. Both Tunisia and Algeria are now republics 

Tnpolitania, bemg mostly and desert with a string of oases 
along the littoral, was the last Turkish outpost m the Barbary 
states. As a sequel to the Turko-Itahan war of 191 1-12 Tnpoli- 
tania was wrested from Ottoman hands, made a colony, and, 
together with Cyrenaica, incorporated in 1934 into Libia 
Italian a In the course of the second World War the Italian 
troops, assisted by Germans. v\cre expelled from Libya by 
British, French and native forces The country was declared in 
195 1 an independent sovereign kingdom 

In 1901 the French conquest of Morocco, once the seat ot two 
mighty Arab-Berber empires but never a part of the Ottoman 
empire, 1 began; the French zone was fully acquired between 1907 
and 191 2. Meantime Spain was busy acquiring her share in the 
territory just across from its coast In 1956 both France and 
Spain renounced their protectorates in favour of the sultan, now 
king. Thus did the entire "white Africa" (generally separated 
from black Africa by the Sahara), which in the eighty-two years 
following 1830 lay m the hands of the three Latin states of South 
Europe, liberate itself after the second World War. Until then it 
had'remained relatively unaffected by nationalistic stirrings. 

1 As noted above, p 711 



CHAPTER LI 
EGYPT AND THE ARAB CRESCENT 



GEOGRAPHICALLY a part of Africa, Egypt has been throughou 
the ages historically and culturally a part of Western Asia. Witt 
greater Syria and al-*Iraq it forms one Arab block, distinct fronr 
the North African block, on one hand, and from the Arabiar 
block (peninsula), on the other. 

Other than appointing an Ottoman pasha to act as viceroy ovei 
Egypt and leaving an army of occupation consisting of some five 
thousand Janissaries, Sultan Salim made few radical changes ir 
the administration of Egypt, His choice for viceroy fell upon th< 
traitorous Kha'ir Bey, Turkish governor of Aleppo who hac 
betrayed his Mamluk master. 1 Salim spent a few days in Cain 
enjoying himself and returned to his capital with a shadow play 
for the entertainment of his son Sulayman, the crown prince. 
The twelve sanjaqs * into which Egypt was then divided remainec 
under the old Mamluks. Each Mamluk bey surrounded himsel 
with a coterie of slave warriors who did his bidding and uphelc 
his authority. Mamluk blood was kept fresh by the importation 
of slaves mainly from the Caucasus. As in the preceding regime, 
Mamluks collected taxes and levied troops, but now they acknow- 
ledged Ottoman suzerainty through the payment of annual 
tribute. 

It was not long before the Ottoman pasha sent from Con- 
stantinople ceased to exercise any real control over local affairs. 
His igndrance of the colloquial and of the local scene was a 
decided handicap. His tenure of office was at best of short 
duration. In the two hundred and eight)" years of direct Turkish 
rule over Egypt no less than a hundred such pashas succeeded 
s one another. 6 The frequent change in personnel weakened the 
hold over the army which tended to become unruly and un» 

1 See above, p. 703. 1 Cf above, p 690. 

* Ibn-Tvas, vol. v, p. 188. 

. 4 Tur. sanj&q (Ar s*t*jaq) % a translation of Ax. hwd', banner, 

* Cf. list in Zambaur, pp. i66-8, 

t 



730 OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE PAhtm 



disciplined* Beginning with the seventeenth century, mutinies 
became common. Conflicts between pashas and beys became a 
recurring theme in the political history of the land, with the 
pasha getting his chance when mutual jealousies and the struggle 
for supremacy among the beys themselves reached an acute stage. 
As the central authority in Constantinople pursued its downward 
course, respect for its viceroys decreased throughout the empire. 
Under the dual form of control the native sank deeper in the 
abyss of misery and poverty. By pasha and Mamluk the cultivator 
of the soil was relentlessly exploited and driven into a state of 
abjectness unparalleled except perhaps in the preceding era. 
Corruption and bribery prevailed. Insecurity, famine and pesti- 
lence added their quota of misery. One pestilence, that of 1619, 
is said to have carried away more than a third of a million people; 
another, that of 1643, left two hundred and thirty villages 
desolate. 1 A contemporary chronicler al-Ishaqi 2 states that while 
the 1619 plague raged, most of the shops of Cairo were closed, with 
the exception of those which dealt in shrouds and which remained 
open day and night The population of the land, which under the 
Romans reached some eight millions, had by the end of the 
eighteenth century dwindled into one-third its former size. 
♦All B«y The rising Mamluk power reached its zenith in 1 769 when 
aStan** ^ey, reportedly son of a Christian priest from the Caucasus, 
who as a boy had fallen into the hands of brigands and been sold 
into slavery, acquired enough strength to expel the Ottoman 
pasha and declare himself independent of the Porte. With the 
army which the sultan, then engaged in a critical struggle against 
Russia, had ordered him to amass, *Ali Bey now proceeded to 
conquer Arabia and Syria for himself. His lieutenant and son-in- 
law, abu-al-Dhahab, 3 entered Makkah victoriously in July 1770/ 
Its sharlf was replaced by a claimant who in turn bestowed upon 
r Ali the pompous title of "sultan of Egypt and ruler of the two 
seas" (the Mediterranean and Red). The sharifaU or government 
of Makkah was always held by a descendant of the Prophet 6 
*AH not only assumed the title but also the prerogatives that 

1 Cf. Jurji Zaydan, Tctrikh Mtjr al-ffadith, 3rd ed. (Cairo, 1925), vol. ii, pp. 31, 
39 40 

* Ahhbdr al-Uwalfi Jlfan Ta$orrafa fi Mtp* pttn ahDuxtal (Cairo, 1296), p. 258. 

* "Father of gold", so called because he gave nothing but gold pieces as bakshish 

* Al-Jabarti, *Ajftb al-Ath&r Jt ai-Ter&jwt waLAkhb&r (Cairo, 1322), vol. i, 
pp.422, 353. * See above, p. 440, n 8. 



CKi U ) , „. EGYPT AND THE ARAB CRESCENT 721 

certain thereunto, including the striking of coins and the mention 
his name in the public worship. In 1771 abu-al-Dhahab at the 




, British Muumn 

COIN OF 4 ALI BEY 
Silver [yigirmtlik, 20 paras), dated II 83 (1769), struck at Mi$r (Cairo) 

lead of about thirty thousand men marched against Syria and 
raptured several of its cities, headed by Damascus* 1 In the flush 
>f victory he betrayed his master, entered into secret negotiations 
with the Porte and turned his troops against Egypt. c Ali fled 
'April 1772) to his Palestinian ally and fellow-rebel, ?ahir al- 
Umar, s in ' Akka. There he received ammunition and a reinforce- 
ment of 3000 Albanians from Russian warships anchored in the 
larbour and returned to fight for his lost throne. Wounded in 
cattle, he died shortly after that (i?73), either as a result of the 
fvound or by poison. Abu-al-Dhahab, his former slave, thereupon 
rombined in his pet-son the title of shaykk al-balad (head of the 
rommunity), a title which had hitherto distinguished the leading 
MamlGk, and that of pasha, which he received with his investiture 
r rom the Porte. The next highest Mamluk office after the shaykk 
%l~ict}ad*s was that of atntr a/-Aaj/\ held by the official in charge 

the annual holy pilgrimage. The rise of c Ali Bey, ephemeral 
is it was, exposed the vulnerability of the Ottoman position; the 
nstallation of abu-al-Dhahab conceded the right of a Mamluk 
o become Ottoman viceroy. 

The fight among the leading Mamluks for the government of 
Egypt continued until, unexpectedly and as if from nowhere, 
a strange,- mighty invader landed in Alexandria (July 1798), 
Napoleon Bonaparte. His professed purpose was to punish the 
Mamluks, whom he accused in the Arabic proclamation he 
issued ori landing, of being not as good Moslems as he and his 

v 1 Jabarti,voL jj. 367* * See below, pp. 731-2. 



722 OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE party* 



fellow-Frenchmen were, and to restore the authority of the Porte. 1 
His real purpose was to strike a fatal blow at the British Empire 
by intercepting her communication with the East and thus make 
a bid for world dominion. The destruction of the French fleet at 
Abuqir Bay (Aboukir, August 1, 1798), the check of the ill-fated 
expedition at *Akka (1799) 2 and the defeat in the battle of 
Alexandria (March 21, i8or) frustrated the Napoleonic am- 
bitions in the East and forced the evacuation of the French 
troops from Egypt* The land hitherto playing a minor role in 
world events — as a source of tribute for Turkey and a base of 
operation for maintaining Ottoman dominion over Syria and 
Arabia — was suddenly drawn into the vortex of international 
politics as the gateway to India and the rest of the extreme 
Orient. 3 The Napoleonic expedition turned Europe's eyes to the 
somewhat forgotten land route to India and set in motion a 
chain reaction which made the Near East the storm centre of 
European intrigue and diplomacy. 
Mubam- In the Turkish army that helped to drive Napoleon out of the 
fouadttof * anc * was a Y oun % on ** cer born * n Macedonia named Muhammad 
modem f AIL The Porte made him pasha in 1 805 and he made himselt the 
Egypt new jester of the valley of the Nile, in nominal subordination 
to the Porte The history of Egypt for the first half of the nine- 
teenth century is virtually the story of this one man. Founder of 
the dynasty that was until 1952 still ruling, Muhammad e Ali has 
been rightly called the father of his country — at least in its 
modern phase. The initiative, energy and vision he displayed 
and exercised find no parallel among any of his Moslem con- 
temporaries. In peace and in war he stood supreme. By con- 
fiscating all land holdings in the hands of private individuals 
among his subjects he became sole proprietor of the country; by 
creating a monopoly of the chief products of the land he made 
himself its only manufacturer and contractor. This was the first 
attempt at nationalization in the Arab world. In pursuit of his 
economic policy he excavated canals, promoted scientific agri- 

1 Copy of proclamation in Jabarti, \ol hi, pp 4-5, it begins Moslems jse with the 
formula. In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, summarized in 
al Sharqawi, Tufrfat al-Na?trin ft man Wahya Mtsr mm al IValat w ahSolalin 
(Cairo, 12S6), p 55, English translation in Copies 0/ the Original Letters from the 
Army of General Bonaparte in Egypt, Intercepted by the Fleet urder the Command 
of Admtral Lord Nelson, nth ed , vq! i (London, f79$)» pp 235*7. 

* See below, p 733. * On the cultural effects, see below, p 745. 



7?3- 



tciCivJl:* ;C$BC^P% ANS THE "ARABrCRESGENT ' 

: v^t^^aiid:!nlrodticed the cultivation of cotton from India and 
Lvthe^udm : (r821^2). Himself an illiterate man, he yet patronized 
Iilearnirig; ; ;"started a ministry of education, created a council of 
yed6'caLdpn;ahd founded the first school of engineering in his realm 




c r }Wfr ^MyaAMxMAD *AU, FOUNDER OF MODERN EGYPT 



; ( *8i6) andthe first school of medicine. 1 Professors and physicians 
: he ^brought fmostly* from France. He invited missions — military 
— to train his people, and sent native missions — 

1 Ftmnd^d in 1827 tins school is today included in Eu*ad I University; Roderic D. 
"Matthews fjanH v : Matta^ Alcrawi, Education in Arab Countries of the Near Bast 
V^WaiMBEtoni 1949)» P> 80, " " 



724 



OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE paktVi 



military and educational — to study in Europe. Records show that 
between 1813 and 1849 (the year of his death) 1 three hundred 
and eleven Egyptian students were sent to Italy, France, England 
and Austria at an expense to the state of ££273,360.* In Paris a 
special house was maintained for the benefit of these students. 
The preferred subjects of study were military and naval, engineer- 
ing, medicine, pharmacy, arts and crafts. Since then the French 
language has enjoyed a favoured place in the Egyptian curricu- 
lum; the French schools in Egypt have even today a higher 
attendance of students than any other foreign institutions. 2 

A French colonel, Seve, who professed Islam under the name 
of Sulayman Pasha, reorganized and modernized the Egyptian 
army and took part in the invasion of Syria. His name is com- 
memorated in one of Cairo's principal streets and his descendants 
married into the e Alid family. Another Frenchman, a naval 
engineer, constructed the Egyptian navy. The first military 
venture was in 181 1 against Wahhabi Arabia, a war that was not 
ended till 181 8. In honour of the departure of the first troops, 
some 10,000, under his sixteen-year-old son Tusun, the viceroy 
held a reception in the Cairo Citadel to which the Mamluks were, 
of course, invited among the honoured guests. The coffee drinking 
over, the Mamluks filed out through a narrow passage toward 
the main gate and were then and there abruptly assailed and 
slaughtered. Of the four hundred and seventy, very few escaped. 
The slaughter on the hill was a signal for an indiscriminate one 
for the rest of them throughout the land. Their properties were 
confiscated. The almost six-hundred-year-old Mamluk problem 
in Egypt was for ever solved. 

The second series of military campaigns carried the Egyptian 
flag triumphantly in 1820 into the eastern Sudan (al-Nubah). 
The conquest was continued by Muhammad *Ali's successors and 
bequeathed a problem with which the Egyptians and British are 
still grappling. In the third venture the Egyptian army and navy 
collaborated with the forces of the Porte against the Greeks in 
their struggle for independence. Mahmud 1 1 ( 1 808-39), celebrated 
for his bold reforms and the extermination of the Janissary corps, 

1 The centennial of his death was commemorated by founding a university in 
Asyut bearing his name. 

1 *Umar TOsun, al-Bc?Gtk&t <x!*Ilmiyah (Alexandria, 1934), p. 414. 
* Matthews and AJcrawi, p. 116, 



&^ftit^it\the*"ra siiltan: ;The Turk^Egyptia^^JSeet'^^.^dc^ . 
sfrdyed^ 1827) by a; combined Aitgldr 

Ff^bK-^^iari ..- fleet. Of the seven hundred and eighty r twp 
vessels'only twenty-nine remained afloat. The Porte had promised 
his' Egyptian viceroy the government of Syria and the Morea in; 
donsid^ation of his support, and when the promise was not ful- 




vj'.'! V ■ ■ >' * • American Numisvtotf* Seeirfy 

i'v-":', - J" . .-" *' ' " COIN OF MAHMGD II 



Gold {onthftlf sikkak, sequin), dated in the twenty-fifth year of his 
: * fdgn, 1247 (1831-2), struck at Misr (Cairo) 




Tie American Numiimatic Scatty 

COIN OF MAHMOD II 



S^': \ i '"- Copper. (five paras), dated in the thirty.rirst year of his reign, 
! v & ';v; V 1 '• - / : 12 53 (1837)1 struck at Misr (Cairo) 

Wlc^,- ^Mu^ammad commissioned his son and "mailed arm", 
JbrahTmiiri 183T toconquer Syria. Ibrahim had led the Successful 
18 16 tp;i8 1 8 .campaigns against the Wahhabis and the unsuccess- ■ 
fiil ^fekfied|ition against the Greeks. This was indeed the last and 
gr^test ^military, enterprise of Muhammad 'Ali's reign. After ' 
ocjEjuip^n^S^a.for ten years and coming near giving the coup 
dfgrace\tQ the. entire Ottoman empire, Muhammad 'AH at the 
hefre^ European powers had to withdraw his troops to 
Egyptian ^^spil. r Thosepowers \vere determined to keep the empire' 
intact, for their oivn benefit. They considered the rise of a youthful , 
vigorous state as something endangering their influence and lines^ 
pfionim^ in the. East* A firman issued February 13, 1841, 

* See oelow, pp. 733.7, 



726 



OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE PART vi 



made the pashalik of Egypt hereditary in Muhammad 'All's 
family; 1 another of the same date invested him with the govern- 
ment of the Sudan. 2 The dream of an Egyptian-Asiatic empire 
thereby came to an inglorious ending. 
Sym The conquest of Syria by Salim I 3 (15 1 6) resulted in no major 

internal changes in the administration or population of the land. 
The administrative divisions assumed a new name walayah. That 
of Damascus, enlarged by the addition of Jerusalem, Safad and 
Ghazzah, was put under Jan-Birdi al-Ghazali, the treacherous 
governor of Damascus, who like Kha'ir Bey had betrayed his 
Mamluk master al-Ghawri at the decisive battle of Dabiq. 4 This 
made al-Ghazali virtual viceroy of Syria. 8 Not satisfied with that, 
he, on the death of Salim (1520), proclaimed himself an inde- 
pendent sovereign under the title al- Malik aUAshraf (most noble 
monarch), struck coins in his name and invited his Aleppo 
counterpart, Kha'ir Bey, to do likewise. But Sulayman was quick 
to act. His Janissaries demolished a large part of the Syrian 
capital and its environs, meted out a punishment to the populace 
reminiscent of Tlmur's days* and laid the basis for the association 
between Janissaries and terror which stiU haunts Syrian memory* 
Provincial Turkish pashas now followed one another in rapid succession; 
admirm- j n the first hundred and eighty years (15 17-1697) no less than a 
hundred and thirty-three of them in Damascus 7 — much worse 

x Genealogical tree of the royal Egyptian family; 

1. Muhammad 'Ah (1805-48) 



2. Ibrahim (184S) Tusun 4. SaTd (1854-63) 

j 3. 'Abbas 1 (1848-54) 

5. Ismail (1S63-79, khedivc, 1866) 



6. Ta*f> } (iS79-<>2) 8. I^usiyn Kami! (1914-17; 9- Fu'ad (1917-36. 

i sultan, 1917) king, 1922} 

I I 

7. 'Abbas II #ilmi (1892-1914) l0 . Faruq (1936-52) 

* For the Arabic texts consult Zaydan, Ta*rikk Jtft'rn vol. ii, pp 172-5; for French 
translations consult £douard Driault, ISggypte et V Europe; la cn$e menlaU d$ 
i839-t84T> vol. iv (Rome, 1933). PP- 275-82. * See above, p. 703. 

* See above, p. 703; >bn-Iyiis, vol. v, pp. 156, 157; Sa*d-aM>m, Taj al-TcwArikh, 
vol. \\ (Constantinople, 12S0), pp. 364-5. 

* Ottoman authorities revived the old name Suriyah ; Ar. al-Sha'm fell into djsuse; 
see above, pp. 57-8. « Ibn-Iyas, vol. v, pp. 363, 371, 376-8, 418-19. 

* Lammens, vol. ii, p. 62, 



CH.xr^ EGYPT AND THE ARAB CRESCENT 727 

than the Egyptian record 1 Aleppo saw the faces of nine different 
walis in the period of three years. Most of these officials had 
practically bought their appointments and looked upon their 
office as a means of replenishing their financial resources and 
glorifying their own selves. At times, even over its imperial 
officials, the Porte exercised but loose control The subjects were 
rayahs, 2 flocks to be shepherded, fleeced and milked. As rayahs 
they were classified into those religious groups called millets 8 
which made of the Syrians a congeries of small self-contained 
nationalities. Even Europeans residing in the land were treated 
as millets, subject to the laws of their own religious heads and 
enjoying other privileges granted by capitulations. The Vene- 
tians were the first to be granted capitulations In 1521 Sulayman 




Tkt Ameruan A untisnattt Sctitty 

COIN OF SULAYMAN 3 
Gold {ahun), dated 926 (1520), struck at Halab (Aleppo) 

signed a treaty with them set up in thirty chapters. 4 Fourteen 
years later the French received theirs and the English in 1580. 
Weak attempts at ameliorating the condition of the subjects m 
the empire were made by three bold reformers among the 
sultans, Salim III (1789-1807), Mahmud II (1808-39) and f Abd- 
al-Majid P (1839-61), but the practical results were nil No 
effective implementation was provided for the tanzhndt^ reform 
regulations, which aimed at removing disabilities under which 
the rayahs laboured, abolishing the farming out of taxes and 
guaranteeing the lives, property and honour of all subjects — ir- 
respective of creed or race — who were declared equal before the 
law. Equally ineffective were the Young Turks 1 reforms in 1908. 

Ottoman maladministration could not be held entirely re- 
sponsible for the steady decline in Syrian economy. The discovery 
in j $8 of the sea route from Europe to India around the Cape of 

1 Sec above, j» 719 * From Ar, ra&yak, herds. 

* Trent Ar. thjllaA, religion, nationality. 

* Late I&t t capttuh t whence * •capitulation"* 

" % So lumbered to distinguish him from the Caliph 'Abd al-Majid (1922-4). 



728 



OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE part VI 



Good Hope diverted the course of international trade from the 
Arab East and substituted the Portuguese for the Arabians and 
Syrians as the middlemen. The Arab lands were thus commer- 
cially by-passed. The discovery of the New World in 1492 shifted 
the centre of gravity in world affairs westward and relegated the 
Mediterranean, hitherto in name as well as in deed the middle 
sea, to a side position. That sea had to wait three and a half more 
centuries before it could regain its position as the great highway 
of international trade — thanks to the opening of the Suez Canal 
in 1869 by a successor of Muhammad *Ali, Isma*il. 1 In the de- 
populated Palestine of the eighteenth century the revenue from 
pilgrims constituted the main item. By the middle of that century 
the once fertile, sufficiently irrigated plains between Aleppo 
and the Euphrates had become what they are today, a desert. 2 By 
the end of that century the entire population of Syria had esti- 
matedly shrunk to about a million and a half, of whom perhaps 
less than a couple of hundred thousand lived in Palestine. 8 
Jerusalem in the early nineteenth century had an estimated 
population of 12,000; in the mid-nineteenth Damascus had 
150,000, Beirut 15,000 and Aleppo 77,000/ 

As Syrian merchants developed overland trade in the first 
century under Ottoman rule, Aleppo came to be the terminus of 
the route connecting with al- f Iraq and ultimately Persia and 
India. Several European colonies grew in Aleppo, first among 
which was the Venetian. The French colony capitalized on the 
capitulations granted Francis I by Sulayman in 1535 and on the 
treaty signed in 1 740 by Mahmud I and Louis XV, putting all 
Christian visitors to the Ottoman empire under French pro- 
tection, 6 Soon French settlements (factories) were spread into 
other Syrian towns, English merchants followed the French. 
They all tried to meet the Western demand for Eastern luxuries 
and products promoted in the Crusading period. All foreigners, 
being considered by Moslems as inferior to them, had in the 
early period to wear native dress and thus reduce the chances of 
personal insult or harm. In the wake of European businessmen 
came European missionaries, teachers, travellers, explorers. The 

1 See below, p. 750, 

* Christina P. Grant, The Syrian Desert (New York, 1938), p, l6i, n, r. 

» Cf. Alfred Bonne, The Economic D'vthpment of the Near East (New York, 
1945), p. 10. * Bonne, p. 11 

* F. Charlcs-Roux, France etckrituns d'enent (Paris, [1939]), pp. 68-77. 



at* a * EGYPT AND THE ARAB CRESCENT 729 



Christian missionary activity, mostly Jesuit, Capuchin and Lazar- 
-ist, resulted in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the 
founding of Uniat churches — Syrian (using Syriac in the ritual) 
and'Greck (using Greek). The enlightened and liberal regime of 
a Lebanese prince, Fakhr-al-Dm al-Ma'ni II (1590-1635), opened 
1 the door wide to Western cultural influences. 

This prince was named after his grandfather Fakhr-al-Din I 
(f X544)t who, when the battle raged at Dabiq between Turk and 
Mamluk for the mastery of Syria, advised his people to stay on 
the fence and then leap to the winning side as soon as that was 
determined. When Salim emerged victorious, Fakhr-al-Din pre- 
sented himself with his coterie of Lebanese leaders, kissed the 
ground before the conqueror and delivered such an impassion atcly 
eloquent oration 1 that the sultan confirmed him and his fellow- 
amirs and shaykhs in their Lebanese fiefs, allowing them the 
' same autonomous privileges enjoyed under the preceding regime 
and imposing on them a comparatively light tribute. The Turks 
realized at the outset that Lebanon with its hardy mountaineers 
of Druzes and Maronites was entitled to a different treatment 
from Syria. The Turkish waii in Damascus normally acted as 
liaison between the Porte and the Lebanese feudal lords, who 
on the whole acted independently in internal affairs, transmitted 
their fiefs to their progeny, exacted taxes and duties and rendered 
no military service to the sultan. 

* Under Fakhr-al-Dih II the power of the house of Ma*n, 
originally an Arab tribe, reached its apogee. The most energetic 
and fascinating figure in the liistory of Ottoman Lebanon if not 

x of all Syria, this diminutive man, from "whose pocket should an 
egg fall it wouldn't break", cherished a threefold ambition: 
creating a greater Lebanon, severing all relations between it and 
the Porte and setting it on the road of progress — and he came 
near realizing his dream. From the Porte he received the sanjaqs 
of Beirut and Sidon, from his neighbours to the north he wrested 

* Tripoli, Ba*labakk and al~Biqa\ from his neighbours to the south 
he received the homage of Safad, Tiberias and Nazareth. He 

. then began to look beyond the seas. In 1608 he signed with 
"Ferdinand, the Medici grand duke of Tuscany, a treaty contain ing 

s 

* Quoted in Haydar,$6r; IsJifRn ul-Duwaylii, Tarikk aI-?a*ifaA ai-AIarumyak 9 
*ed. RashTd K. al-ShartGni {Beirut, 1890), p. 152; JamiSs at-Shidy5q, TJrikk aU 
Ay$njiJa*Hi! Lxtbncn (Beirut, 1859)* p. 251; see HUti, History t?f Syria, pp. 665-6. 



730 OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE paktyi , 

a secret military article clearly dtrected against the Porte. 1 
A Turkish army from Damascus succeeded in chasing htm out of 
the land, and he, with his family and suite, had to seek haven in 
Florence, capital of his Italian ally. After a sojourn of five years in 
Europe (1613-18) he returned to his hereditary domain more 
determined than ever to enlarge and modernize it. In 1624 the 




Fm*n GtfMnni Mcnii " tston* A FaccarJm* grand imr 
rfi 1 Druu (tn m r»?7> 



FAKHR AL-DlN AL-MA'Nl II, AMlR OF LEBANON" 1590-1635 

Porte recognized him as the lord of *Arabisian, from Aleppo to 
the frontiers of Egypt. He imported from Italy architects, engin- 
eers and agricultural experts and encouraged improved methods 
of tilling the soil among his farmer subjects. 2 One of his projects 
was draining the swampy part of aL-Biqa\ More than that, he 
welcomed Christian missionaries* mainly French Catholic, who 
now established centres in Beirut, Sidon, Tripoli, Aleppo, Damas- 
cus and even in Lebanese villages. Professing Islam before the 

1 For tlm and other treaties consult P. Paolo Carali (Qira'li), Fakhr od Din IT e 
la corn dt T<>seafra(Rome t 2936-$), \6i x, pp 146 scq ,\o) n, pp l^jseg ;0 Manti, 
Ittona di Faccardino grand etntrdet Drusi {Li\omo» 1787), pp 74 stg 

* Carali, vol n, pp 52 seq> 



kh % « EGYPT AND THE ARAB CRESCENT 731 

Ottoman authorities, Druzism before his people, Fakhr mani- 
fested such sympathetic interest in Christianity that he was 
reported to have been baptized. 1 In his amlrate Druzes and 
Christians lived in harmony. His sympathy with Christianity 
aimed once more the suspicious eye of the Porte towards him. 
Again an army from Damascus marched against him. After 
offering some resistance he fled to a cave in the mountain near 
jazzin, where he was discovered and led in chains to Constantin- 
ople in February 1635. 2 There he was beheaded, with his sons, 
who accompanied him, and his corpse was exhibited for three 
days in front of a mosque. The independent greater Lebanon 
which he envisaged and for which he laboured was attempted 
again by another amir, Bashlr al-Shihabi (1788-1840), but was 
notfully realized until 1943. The Shihabs, who in 1697 succeeded 
the Ma*ns, trace their pedigree to one of the noblest Arabian 
tribes, the Quraysh. The founder of the Lebanese ruling family 
was the son-in-law of the last Ma'nid ruler. 

Syrian local governors did not begin to assert themselves until * 
the eighteenth century. First among these was rsma'il Pasha 1 
al- c Azm, a Damascene who in 1724 was made wait over his home 
town. More distinguished than Ismail was his son and successor, 
whose palaces in Flamah and Damascus are still among the show 
places of those cities. Other members of the 'Azm family were 
appointed over Sidon and Tripoli, but, unlike the Lebanese 
amirs, remained loyal to the Porte, despite maltreatment from 
those quarters. Isma*il was jailed before his death and As*ad 
was treacherously killed (1757) in the bath by orders from 
Constantinople.* 

As the Ottoman empire throughout the eighteenth century 1 
speedily declined in authority, dignity and prestige, the number 1 
of local chieftains who sought or achieved independence pro- 
gressively increased. Palestine, like Lebanon and Egypt, was the 
scene of the activity of such men, one of the most colourful among 
whom was al-5haykh ?ahir al-[Al] 'Umar. A Bedouin whose 
father was installed by the Shihabi governor of Lebanon as 
shaykh over the Safad district, young Zahir made his political 

/ * CaratijVo! it, pp. 64O scq+ 

* Dtmayfci, pp 204-5 J Shidyaq, pp 330-35; Caralj. vol 11, pp 340-36 
* * Mubaimxmd Kurd *AU, Khtfal at~Sht?m t vol u (Damascus, 1925), pp 2$$ t 
29a 0?; llaydar al-Shihabi, T<?rikk % ed. Na* 'urn ftughabghab (Cairo, 1900), p. 7C9. 



732 OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE partvi 

debut about 1737 by adding Tiberais to his shaykhdom. 1 Other 
cities submitted to him, and by 1750 the usurper had established 
his seat in *Akka. This city, which had been in partial ruin since 
Crusading days, was fortified and developed into an important 
trade centre. Its new lord ruled with an iron hand. He stamped 
out brigandage and lawlessness, encouraged the raising of wheat 
and the industry of silk and cotton and treated with toleration his 
Christian subjects. In the words of his biographer: 2 "Even a 
woman could travel around carrying gold in her hand with no 
fear of being molested". 

Feeling secure in his dictatorial seat Zahir entered into alliance 
with c Ali Bey of Egypt. With the co-operation of Russian ships 
then manoeuvring in the eastern Mediterranean, Russia at that 
time being embroiled in a bitter struggle with Turkey, he occupied 
in 1772 Sidon 3 at the foot of Lebanon. Three years later the 
Shihabi amir of Lebanon allied himself with the waii of Damascus 
and with a contingent from Constantinople attacked Zahir in his 
capital. In the course of the siege £ahir was killed by one of his 
men hired to do it. In the Syrian army that had tried to defend 
Sidon was a petty officer, named Ahmad al-Jazzar, who then 
succeeded Zahir and played an even more dramatic role. 

Originally a Christian from Bosnia, the boy, later to be called 
Ahmad, committed a sex crime, fled to Constantinople, sold him- 
self to a Jewish slave dealer and landed in the possession of 'AH 
Bey in Cairo. The distinguished service he rendered as execu- 
tioner to his master earned him the epithet aUjazzdr^ the butcher. 
From Egypt al-Jazzar fled to Syria and, in recognition of his per- 
formance in Sidon against ?ahir, was made governor of the city. 4 
Gradually he extended his authority northward into Lebanon 
and southward into Palestine, where he succeeded Zahir in 'Akka. 
Here he surrounded himself with a cavalry corps of Bosnians 
and Albanians and an infantry corps of Maghribis, fortified the 
city by forced labour and constructed a small fleet in its harbour. 
Jn 1780 the Porte deemed it expedient to bestow on its vassal the 
wilayah of Damascus, making him virtually the viceroy of Syria 

* Volney, Voyage en Syrie et en £gypte } 2nd ed. (Paris, 17S7), vol. ii, p. S5; 
Shidyaq, p 360, Haydar, p. 801; Mikha'H N al-$abbagh (aKAkkawi), TJr'tkh 
al Skcykk Zahir aL Umar al-Zayddm, cd Qusjanjin al-Basha (IJarisa), pp. 31*3. 

1 $abba rjh, p. 50 * 5abbagh ( p. 1 15; Shidyaq, p. 389. 

* Hajdar, pp. Si I, 827. 



ck. U * EGYPT AND THE ARAB CRESCENT 733 r 

and the arbiter of Lebanon. Though acknowledging the nominal 
authority of the Porte, he put Sultan Sallm Ill's messenger to 
death with impunity. It was this Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar who, 
with the aid of an English fleet under Sir Sidney Smith, success- 
fully withstood and repelled Napoleon's onslaught on 'Akka. 1 A 
usurper and dictator, al-Jazzar was ruthless in the treatment of 
enemies and suspects. He had a reputation to uphold associated 
with his name and uphold it he did. A native chronicler 2 reports 
how al-Jazzar on one occasion had all thirty-seven of his harem, 
on a suspicion of infidelity on the part of certain ones among them, 
dragged to a burning pyre by his eunuchs. His name still lives 
throughout the land as a synonym of terror and cruelty* In 1804 
a career unmarred by failure or defeat came to an end tiirough 
natural death — an unusual phenomenon. 

n The lord of Lebanon in the days of al-Jazzar was the Amir 
Bashlr II (1788-1840), who on the occasion of Napoleon*s in- 
/asion had failed to rush aid to the lord of r Akka and had thereby 
incurred his disfavour. Bashlr had then to withdraw to Cyprus 
m a British ship. In 1821 he fled to Egypt, after having re- 
attached ai-Biqa f to Lebanon and got involved in disputes with 
the walis of Damascus and Tripoli. While in Egypt he struck up 
a friendship with its viceroy Muhammad f AH. When Egyptian 
troops in 1831 under Ibrahim invaded Syria, 3 they found in 
BashTrand his men a ready ally. Lebanese assisted Egyptian 
troops in storming f Akka, which Ibrahim besieged after occupy- 
ing Jaffa and Jerusalem, Druzes stood before the walls of 
Damascus, when it surrendered. With the routing of the Turkish 
army at ftinis, the way was open to Asia Minor. The pass in the 
Taurus had to be in places widened to enable the Egyptian 
artillery to go through. With the victory at Konieh (Quniyah, 
1832) the road was clear to Constantinople. The Egyptian camp 
was at last pitched at Kutahiah (Kutahiyah), almost within 
sight of the Bosphorus. This aroused Russia. Suspicious of her, 
England as well as France, the latter of which had up to this 
time encouraged Muhammad *AU in his expansive ambitions, 
were forted to act— all in behalf of the sultan. Thus was the 
Egyptian ambition frustrated. 

* Sccjtbo\c,p. ^42, 

* Mikhail Mushaqah, Masfhadml-jf^sn ht+genedtth Surya *.<t~Lubnan t *&, 
Mulhim K 'Abdoh and Aixdanrwus H. ShaUiashTn (Cairo, i^obj, p 34. 

' fceesbo>c, p, yz$. 



734 



OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE 



PART VI 



Ibrahim first wooed the favour of his Syrian subjects, especially 
the Christians among them, by establishing security and justice 
and introducing social reforms. Hitherto no Christian in such a 
city as Damascus could appear in public riding on a horse or 
wearing a white, red or green turban. No Christian could hold a 
responsible position in government. All these disabilities were 
now removed. But later, acting on instructions from his father, 
Ibrahim raised the taxes to about three times of what they had 
been, established a state monopoly over silk and other native pro- 
ducts — following the Egyptian precedent 1 — and worst of all in- 
sisted on disarmament and conscription. Nothing could have 
outi aged the Syrians, particularly the Lebanese, more than that 
last measure* The uprising which started in Palestine in 1834 
spread into all other parts of Syria. In the manifesto issued 
June 8, 1 840, the Lebanese rebels listed disarmament and con- 
scription first among their grievances. 2 Lebanon was at that time 
accorded a privileged treatment under its friendly amir. From its 
forests Muhammad * Ali hoped to rebuild his navy, almost annihi- 
lated at Navarino. 3 Traces of Egyptian exploitation of coal at 
Qarnayil and iron at Marjaba, in the district of al-Matn, are still 
noticeable. Tempted by these uprisings Sultan Mahmud dared 
again in 1S39 to send an army which was crushed at Nizzlb 
(Nezib, north Syria), putting the empire once more at the feet of 
its vassal. But again the powers intervened and forced Muham- 
mad *AIi on November 22, 1840, to evacuate Syria, Ibrahim 
staited on his way back from Damascus December 29 via 
Ghazzah. Bashir was carried on a British ship to Malta* 
On the international level the Syro-Egyptian episode resulted 
in strengthening British interest in the East at French expense. 
Autonomy The Ottoman authorities were now convinced that the only 
°mcr bln0n vva y to b r * n £ Lebanon under their direct control was to stir up 
nationally strife between Maronites and Druzes, among whom the general 

recogmrcd 

1 See above, p. 722, The first modern silk factory was established in a Lebanese 
village, Batatir, by a Frenchman m 1S41. 

4 Asad J. Rustum, at- Usui al-Arablyah li-Tarlkh Suriyah fi *Ahd Afuframmad 
*Ali, \o\.u (Beirut, 1 933), pp 101-3; do > The Roy alArckiz es of Egypt and the Dis- 
turbances in Palestine tgj4 (Curat, 193S), pp. 47-51; Sulayman abu-'Izz-al-Din, 
IbfSllrt Baskafi Surija (Beirut, 1929), pp. 313 seq. 

3 Asid J. Rustum, The Boj al Ai chuts of E^ypt and the Origins: of the Egyptian 
Expedition to Syria (Beirut, 1936), pp. 63 6. Sec above, p. 725. 

4 Shidyuq, p. 620; Mush Hqah, pp. 1 32*4; a!-JanViyah al-Malaktyah al-Jughrafiyah, 
D Intra al-Ba/al al-Ealtjt Ibrahim Bdsha (Cairo, 1948), pp. 372 seq t 



CH. U EGYPT AND THE ARAB CRESCENT 735 

alignment undei Bashlr as under Fakhr-al-Dln had followed party 
rather than sectarian lines; Lebanon's intermittent intestine war- 
fare has up till now been feudal rather than religious. The Turks 
were no novices in the application of the maxim — old as Rome — 
of "divide and rule*'. Then this was the time in which they were 
launching a new policy, that of centralization, in the control of 
the provinces. The masses among both Christians and Druzes— 
particularly Christians — were in a state of unrest, cherishing dis- 
content toward their feudal aristocracy. North Lebanese peasants, 
urged by their Maronite clergy, rose in 1858 against their local 
lords and planned to divide up their large estates among them- 
selves. Bashlr, one of the strongest governors Lebanon ever had, 
had maintained high standards of public safety and equity, 
opened new roads and encouraged Western cultural and educa- 
tional influences, but his namesake and successor was of different 
stuff. 1 

Civil disturbances between Druzes and Maronites* which 
under Turkish stimulation began in 1841, culminated in the 
massacre of 1860, a year which will remain infamous for all time 
in the annals of the land. *Abd-al-Majid I was then sultan. In 




T&b Atntncan ffumuptattc Society 

COIN OF *ABD*AL-MAJlD I 
} Silver {toghurUsft, piastres), dated 1 255 (1839), struck at Mz$r (Cairo) 

this massacre eleven thousand Christians, mostly Maronites, are 
estimated to have perished and a hundred and fifty villages 
burned. Lebanese peasants still date local events xn their history 
from this sanat aUh iraiak (the year of the strife). 2 The massacre 

" 1 Following the Egyptian example, Bashlr I and his sons doffed the turbans m 
favour of the MaghriU fez, {far6usA) t short with thick tassel, still worn by some of the 
otd generation m l-elnnon and Svna Cf Haydar, pp 1035 6. 
• See Hitti, History <>/ Syna> pp 094-5. 



736 OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE partvi 

invited European intervention and the occupation of Lebanon by 
French troops. Consequently the mountain received in 1861 a 
statute, revised three years later, in which it was allowed an 
autonomy under a Christian governor-general (mutasarrif) ap- 
pointed, for a renewable term of five years, with the approval of 
the signatory powers. AH the governors were Catholics. The new 
Mutasarrifiyat Jabal Lubnan, had no Turkish garrison, paid no 
tribute to Constantinople and its citizens rendered no military 
service. The name of its first mutasarrif, Dawud Pasha (t86r~8), 
has been borne by a college for boys in f Abayh, founded in 
1862 and supported as a Druze institution from the waqf. 

Under its mutasarrif and its elected administrative council 
Lebanon prospered as no other neighbouring province prospered; 
it was regarded as "the most useful example of autonomy applied 
to a Turkish province". 1 In it "public security and standards of 
social and political life advanced to a point not nearly reached by 
any other province of the Ottoman Empire* \ a The increase in its 
population found an outlet through emigration to Egypt, the 
Americas and Australia, where descendants of Lebanese colonists 
still flourish. Lebanon's autonomy continued until the first World 
War, when it was destroyed by the Turks. To autonomous Leba- 
non, Western teachers, preachers, physicians and merchants 
were drawn as to no other land of the Near East. The fact that 
its population was preponderantly Christian rendered it more 
hospitable to European and American ideas and practices. More 
than in the days of Bashlr and Fakhr it became the window 
through which the Arab quadrangle looked westward into the 
outside world. 

APiraq The Ottoman career of the valley of the Euphrates, which 
began in 1534, paralleled that of the valley of the Nile. Turkish 
pashas and local lords and Mamluks struggled for ascendancy, 
while the masses suffered from corruption, insecurity and mis- 
carriage of justice. Here as elsewhere the authority of the pro- 
vincial governors began to weaken at the end of the sixteenth 
century, after the brief noontide of the empire had passed. The 
historical theme revolved on personalities and intrigues in 
Baghdad, the most important of the three walayahs into which 
1 WBham Miller, The Ottoman Empire, i$oi~iQ2? (Cambridge, 1936), p. 306 
* Sjria and Palestine (handbook under the direction of the historical section of the 
Foreign Office) (London, 1920), p 37. 



CH. U EGYPT ATQD THE ARAB CRESCENT 737 

the country was divided, the other two being al~Basrah ahd 
al-Mawsil (Mosul)* The land of ancient renown under Hammur- 
abi and Nebuchadnezzar and of medieval splendour under Harun 
and al-Ma*mun faded under the Ottomans to a degree of un- 
precedented and perhaps unparalleled obscurity. 

The distinctive features of the 'Iraqi situation stemmed from 
the preponderance of the Shf ite element in its population, diffi- 
culty of communication with headquarters in Constantinople, 
proximity to Shf ite Persia and cleavage between town and tribe 
Now, as in Byzantine days, the possession of the country was dis- 
puted between Constantinople and Persia. As the seat of the 
lioliest shrines of the Shf ah — those of al-I;Iusayn in Karbala', of 
9 AM in al-Najaf and of the seventh and ninth imams in al-Kazi- 
mayn — al- e lraq was a stronghold of Shf ism, many of whose 
adherents looked upon Sunnite caliphs, like the Ottoman sultans, 
as usurpers. Meanwhile they considered the Persians as friends 
- and allies. The Shf ah cause constituted a strong bond between 
^l-'Iraq and Persia. Throughout the sixteenth century Turkey 
and Persia were in a state of passive if not active hostility. 
In 1508 Shah Isma'il occupied and held Baghdad till after 
SaJlnVs victory, 1 In November 1623 Shah *Abbas occupied 
Baghdad again, thanks to the betrayal by a Janissary rebel. 
For fifteen years al-'Iraq remained a province of the Safawid 
kingdom. Turkish interest, aside from tribute, centred in the 
use of the country as a base against the eastern shores of the 
Arabian peninsula, which, however, the Turks were never able 
to hold firmly. The Turko-Persian wars adversely affected the 
economy of the land and interfered with pilgrimage to the Shf ite 
shrines — an important source of national income. The rise of 
thq English East India Company in the early seventeenth century 
placed al- f Iraq in a strategic position on the overland route be- 
tween East and West. By the end of that century the British had 
won the race for maritime trade supremacy over their Portuguese 
and Dutch rivals in the Persian Gulf. The discovery of oil in 
'Iraqi soil enhanced the strategic importance of the country. 
The oil concession was obtained by the 'Iraq Petroleum Company 
in 1925 for a period of seventy-five years. 

, Bedouins by their raids, undiscipiine and lawlessness were a 
perennial Source nf trouble. Turkish communications between 
1 Sec above, p 703. 



< { 



738 OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE mrvi 



the federal capita! and the provincial capital lay at the mercy of 
wanderers from the desert and tribesmen from the hills. About 
the mid-etghteenth century several Bedouin tribes of the lower 
Euphrates who had banded themselves into a federation, al- 
Muntafiq, brought recurring headaches not only to the pashas of 
Baghdad but also to the local Mamluks and townspeople* 

The Mamluks, whose government was one of autonomous 
vassalage rather than viceroyalty, were mostly imported Cir- r 
cassian (Cherkes) slaves, the first of whom, Sulayman Agha 1 
(later Pasha) abu-Layla, rose to power in 1747. The last Mamluk 
was Dawud (f 1 830), who was enlightened enough to build schools 
in Baghdad. For over eighty years the land was in the grip of 
a Mamluk oligarchy. After the Crimean War (1853-6) Con- 
stantinople endeavoured to assert its authority more pronouncedly 
and planted a strong garrison in Baghdad. It sent in 1869 one of 
its most progressive and liberal statesmen, Midhat Pasha, aswali, 
Midhat tried to check lawlessness, settle the Bedouins as peasants, 
improve irrigation and introduce a system of land registration* 
So honest was this Turkish official that he had reportedly to sell 
his watch to meet his travelling expenses back to Constantinople. 8 
His brief administration stands out as the only bright spot in an 
otherwise dark picture. He won further laurels by writing the first 
constitution of his land, a abolished in 1877 by 'Abd-al-rjamld. 
Arabm The Arabian peninsula stands as a block by itself, distinct from 
the North African and the Egyptian-Fertile Crescent blocks. As 
the cradle of Islam, Arabia has a halo of sacredness around it and 
holds aunique place in the hearts and minds of believers through- 
out the world. Its sacred association, geographic isolation and 
underdeveloped communications stamped it with a medieval 
feature which it still maintains. Especially isolated and insulated 
against Western ideas and influences have been al-IJijaz and 
al-Yaman, the most self-contained parts of the Near East. 

Though it never formed an integral part of the scene of the 
activity of the Prophet, al-Yaman, nevertheless, has been equally 
as self-contained as al-Hijaz, if not more. Its people are followers 
of Zayd, grandson of al-Husayn, who was killed about 740 in art 

1 Onginallj a TurM word meaning elder brother agha v. as used by Ottoman 
Turks first for master, lord, and later as a Mlc for any army officer up to the grade 
of captain 

* Stephen H Longngg, Four Cet tune* 0/ Modern Iraq (CKford. 1925), p 300* 
8 Sec Hitts, History of Sjua.p 070 



m.U " v "EGYPT AND THE ARAB CRESCENT 



739 



Uprising against the Umayyads. Though an offshoot of the Shfah 
the Zaydis (Zuyud) do not emphasize Shi'ite tenets and come 
close to being Sunnites, One of them, Qasim by name, succeeded 
in 1633 in expelling the Turkish wali and establishing a native 
imamate which endured with many vicissitudes till 1S71. Begin- 
ning with 1849, however, the country was again administered as 
a Turkish walayah until the rise of the Imam Yahya in 1904. In 
the following year the imam occupied San* a', later to become his 
capital, but the autonomy of his state was not recognized by the 
Torte until 19x1. In fact the Turks did not entirely withdraw 
from the country until the last year of the first World War. Yahya 
fell victim to a palace conspiracy in February 1948. A recent 
visitor to al-Yaman, himself a Moslem from Damascus and 
accompanied by a special guard from the imam, came near being 
'attacked by natives at Ma'rib simply because he looked ghartb, 
foreign. 1 A Lebanese American writer, Ameen Rihani, met in the 
early 1920s theologians in al-Yaman who would put dark glasses 
on their eyes to avert defilement by the sight of a Christian. 

Aside from the fully independent Su'udi Arabia and al- 
Yaman, the peninsula prior to i960 consisted politically of the 
Aden colony and Aden protectorate, the sultanate of Masqat 
(Muscat) and 'Urnan, the trucial shaykhdoms, and the auto- 
.nomous shaykhdoms of Qatar and al-Bahrayn, all dependent in 
varying degrees on Great Britain, and under her protection. 
Another Persian Gulf shaykhdom, al-Kuwayt, was declared by 
the British autonomous in 1914 and an independent amirate in 
1961. This oil- rich country is perhaps the most affluent in the 
world in per capita income terms. *Uman and the south-eastern 
coast of Arabia came early under Portuguese, and later British, 
^ influence and, unlike al-rjijaz, Najd and al-Yaman, were never 
brought under Turkish control. 2 For nearly a century and a half 
its sultanate, nominally independent with its seat at Masqat, had 
maintained close ties with the British government, ties that were 
reaffirmed in a treaty signed as late as 1939. From the south- 
eastern end of the peninsula of Qatar to a distance of three 
hundred and j sixty miles south-eastward, the coast of the Gulf, 
formerly known as the Pirate Coast, belongs to the trucial 
shaykhs. After a period of hostility with the East India Company 

* Krtflh Us aPAzm, i?t<*M fi Bilad el- 9 Arab ai-Sa'idah (Cairo, 1937 >), p 20 
Koyal Institute of International Affairs, The Mtddic Bast (London, 1950), 
p»*> 30*13 Cf. above*, pp 4 710-n 



740 OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE PARTV] 

these shaykhs signed (1820) with the British government a 
general treaty prescribing peace and abstention from piracy and 
slave trade. Qatar's relation to the British government was 
similar to that of the shaykhdoms to its south and was regulated 
by a treaty signed in 1916 Al-Bahrayn's status is practically the 
same. To the island's world-famous but declining pearl-fishing 
industry was added in 1932 a much more remunerative industry 
— that of oil. 

In 1968 the British government announced plans to withdraw 
in three years all military forces in the Persian Gulf. Repre- 
sentatives of al-Bahrayn, Qatar and the seven trucial states then 
began planning the creation of a federation of Arabian amirates. 

The Aden ( f Adan) protectorate extended eastward from the 
Aden colony and included Lahaj, Fladramawt, Mahrah and 
Suqutra (Socotra). Until the mid-eighteenth century the region 
was under the imam of San*!*. Aden, the seaport-fortress and 
capital, was acquired in 1839. In 1967 the entire area became 
independent and formed the Republic of Southern Yaman. 
Wahhabis The modern history of Arabia does not begin till the rise of the* 
Muwahhidun (unitarians) in the mid-eighteenth century. This 
was a puritan revival inaugurated by a Najdi from al- c Uyaynah 
named Muhammad ibn-'Abd-al-Wahhab (fi792). After travel- 
ling in al-Hijaz, al-'Iraq and Syria, ibn-'Abd-al-Wahhab returned - 
home impressed with the idea that Islam, as practised by his con- 
temporaries, had deviated widely from the orthodox practice and 
theory as prescribed by the Prophet and the Koran, and he himself 
determined to purge it and restore it to its primitive strictness. 
His inspiration he obviously drew from ibn-tf anbal as interpreted 
by ibn-Taymiyah. 1 The new prophet found in Muhammad ibn- 
Su'ud (1*1765), who was then a petty chief in Central Arabia, an 
ally and son-in-law. This was another case of marriage between 
religion and the sword, resulting in the speedy spread of religion 
and of the authority of ibn-Su r ud throughout Central and Eastern 
Arabia. The followers of ibn- f Abd~al-Wahhab were called Wah- 
habis by their opponents. In their zeal to rid Islam of its cult of 
saints and other innovations (sing, bid* ah) they sacked Karbala* 
in 1 80 1, captured Makkah in 1803 and al-Madlnah the following 
year, destroyed venerated tombs and purged these cities of all 

1 See above, p 689. 



EGYPT AND THE ARAB CRESCENT 



74* 



that savoured of idolatry. 1 In the following year they invaded 
Syria and al- f Iraq and extended their domain from Palmyra to 
*Uman, the largest in the peninsula since the Prophet's days. 
Their success was interpreted as a token of displeasure on the 
part of God with the innovations of Sallm 1 1 1. £ Alarmed, the Porte 
requested Muhammad *AH to conduct the series of campaigns 
which ended in 1818 with the destruction of the Wahhabi power 
and the razing of their capital al-Dir'lyah to the ground. 3 Wah- 
habi tenets, however, continued to spread, and their influence was 
felt from Sumatra in the east to Nigeria in the west. 

Except for a short period of restoration beginning in 1833, the 
movement remained in a state of eclipse until resuscitated by its 
present head *Abd-al- f AzTz ibn-Su*ud, the restorer of the Wah- 
habi state and Wahhabi dynasty. Starting his career as an exile 
in al-Kuwayt, 'Abd-al-'AzIz in the first quarter of the twentieth 
century carved for himself a kingdom, at the expense of the ibn- 
Rashld family in IJla'il and the Sharif Husayn family in Makkah, 
extending from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. ftusayn had, at 
the instigation of the British, declared himself "king of theArabs" 
in 1916, and in 1924 he assumed the titles of "caliph of the Mos- 
lems". 4 f Abd-aU c AzIz put an end to the Rashid dynasty in 1921, 
occupied Makkah in 1924, al-Madmah and Juddah in 1925, and 
in 1932 created the Su'udi Arabian kingdom with himself at its 
head. 6 Ibn-Su'ud declared tribal raids illegal* regulated fees for 
the transport of pilgrims, established a high standard of public 
safety, introduced the radio, wireless telegraphy, telephone and 
motor-car to certain localities and tried, but not very successfully, 
to establish his nomadic subjects as Ikkwan (brethren) in agri- 
cultural settlements * More than the holy pilgrimage, the 
Arabian American Oil Company, which received its first con- 
cession in 1933, has become the greatest source of income to 
both government and people. Its contribution to me moderniza- 
tion of Arabia is still progressing. 
^ No intellectual work of high order could be expected under the 

• 1 'Uthtnan ibn-Bishr, t Unwcn al-Majd fi Ta*rtkk Najd (Makkah, 1349)1 vol. i, 
H> 121*3; Mus3, Northern fogd, pp 261.7* 

* Sec above* p. 727, 

* Sec above, p 727; ibn-Bishr, vol. i, pp. 155-207. 

* lor his uprising against the Turks, sec Amln Sa'id, aUTkawrah al'Arablyah of- 
x AY£rff ( volj (Cairo, 193-?), pp. lao nry. 

4 For details, consult H. St. J. B Philby, Arabia (London, 1930), pp. 160 sea, 

* & & Twitchcll. Saudt Arabia ^Princeton, 1947), pp. 121 sea. 



742 OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE *artyi 



political and concomitant social and economic conditions that 
prevailed in Arab states under Ottoman rule. But the source of 
evil went deeper. The Islamic creative spark had faded a^ay 
centuries before the advent of the Turks. 1 The complete victory 
of scholastic theology beginning with the thirteenth century, the 
ascendancy of the orthodox and the mystics in the spiritual realm, 
the decay of the scientific spirit and the prevalence of uncritical 
reverence for the past and adherence to tradition militated against 
scholarly investigation and productivity. The fetters which bound 
Arab intellect did not begin to loosen until the early nineteenth 
century under the impact of the West. 2 

The writers of the period were by and large commentators, 
compilers and abndgers. Literary formalism and intellectual 
rigidity characterized their works. Among the Arabic-writing 
Turks the name of yajji Khalfah(| 1657) stands supreme. Called 
by the Turks Katib Chelebi (young scribe), this Constantinopoli- 
tan started his career as a military clerk in the army operating in 
Baghdad and Damascus. His Kaskf aUZunUn < an al-Asami 
w-al-Funiin 3 (removing of doubts relating to titles and sciences) 
is one of the greatest and most valuable bibliographic and 
encyclopaedic treatises in the Arabic language 

The literary activity in Egypt was exemplified in *Abd-al- 
Wahhab ai-Sha'rani (f 1 565)5 a. mystic whose works embraced 
not only Sufism but also koranic and linguistic sciences. Al- 
Sha'rani conversed with angels and prophets, 4 was tried for 
impiety by conservative theologians and left a long list of works, 5 
some of which became popular despite their lack of originality, 
In his aUTabaqat al~Kttbra € (the great classes) the lives of the 
most famous mystics are sketched. 7 Egypt was the scene of the 
scholarly activity of a noted lexicographer, al~Sayyid Murtada 
al-Zab!di, who was born in 1732 in north-west India. While 
pensioned by the government, al-Zabtdi produced in Cairo a 
voluminous commentary on al-Firuzabadi's monumental aU 

1 See above, p 6S3. * See below, pp 745 seq. 

* Ed and tr. Gustav Flugel, 7 vols. (Letpng and London, 1835-58) 

* Al Aruidr &J Qudsiyafi ji Baydn Adcb a2* Ubudyah, on margin of Ms cl- 
Tclcc&t at Kubra (Cairo, 1035)* vol i, pp 2 seq 

6 For this, consult Brockelmann, Geschch!e t \ol. 2, pp 336 S. 

* 2 vols (Cairo, 1925) 

7 Tor Sufism as the dominant feature of Islam in Ottoman Egjpt consult Tawfiq 
a) Tawfl, ahTcjawwuf Jt Mtsr tbbdn el* Apr cl-Uthrram (Cairo, 1946), pp 6 51, 
200 232 



cm u * jEGYPT AND THE ARAB CRESCENT 743 

Qdmds 1 entitled Taj al~ 'Aries (the bride's tiara). 2 He also wrote 
a massive commentary on al-Ghazzali's Ihya. Al-ZabTdi was a 
victim of the plague o£ 1 791. Of the Egyptian chroniclers used 
"in the composition of this chapter the most important is f Abd- 
al-Rahman ibn-Ilasan al-Jabarti (f 1822), whose ancestors had 
'come to Cairo from Jabart in Abyssinia. Al-Jabarti held the 
chair of astronomy in al-Azhar and was appointed by Napoleon 
member of the grand council {dtwan\ through which the French 
invader hoped to rule the country. That al-Jabarti was murdered 
on his way home on orders from Muhammad 'All, of whom the 
historian was critical, has no basis in fact. His 'Ajd'tb al-Athar 
fi al»Tarajim w-al-Akhbdr z (the marvels of relics concerning 
biographies and news) is partly a chronicle and partly a necrology. 
Of the Lebanese chroniclers cited in this chapter three were 
Maronites. Istifan al-Duwayhi 4 (f 1704) was educated in the 
seminary established by Pope Gregory XIII in 1 584 in Rome for 
training Maronite students for clerical careers. Al-Duwayhi rose 
to the highest office in his church, the patriarchate. Al-Amir 
#aydar 5 (f 1 83 5) was a member of the aristocratic Shihab family, 
which provided Lebanon with many of its feudal governors, 
Tannus al-Shidyaq 6 (f 1859) was born near Beirut and held a 
judgeship under the Shihabi amirs. But the most distinguished 
Maronite — in fact, Lebanese — scholar of the age was undoubtedly 
Yusuf Sim'an al-Sim*ani (Assemani, 1687-1768), another pro- 
duct of the seminary in Rome. It was mainly through the efforts 
of this erudite Lebanese that Oriental studies, especially as they 
relate to Christian sects, were somewhat popularized in the West. 
His work at the Vatican Library resulted in the addition of a large 
number of Oriental manuscripts to the collection now considered 
one of the richest in the world. Al-Sam'ani's masterpiece Bibho- 
theca OnentaJis 7 embodies his researches on these manuscripts 
in Syriac, Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, Ethiopic and 
Armenian, and is still a major source of information on the 
churches of the East. 

* Originally meaning ocean, this word has become synonymous with dictionary. 

* \o vols , Cairo, 1307, 

_ 3 The edition used here is m 4 vols (Cairo, 1322) 

t * TJrJH ct'fa'if&h al+AfftruntjaA, ed Rashid al-Shrirtuni (Beirut, 1890). 
f y * TJrf&A, cd. Na* 'urn Mughabghab (Cairo, 1900). 

* AkhhSrvl-jfyanjiJcbalLubnan (Beirut, 1S59). 

* 4 vols. {Rome, 1719 28), 



r 

744 OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE partvi 



In Syria two authors may be considered as typifying the literary 
spirit of the age, ai-Muhibbi and al-Nabulusi. Both were Dam- 
ascenes and wrote prolifically. Muhammad al-Muhibbi (f 1699) 
received his education at Constantinople and was for a time 
assistant judge in Makkah and professor in his native city. His 
principal work 1 is a collection of twelve hundred and ninety 
biographies of celebrities who died in the eleventh Moslem century 
(1 591-1688). e Abd-al-Ghani al-Nabulusi (f 1731), whose family, 
as the name indicates, was originally Palestinian, was a Sufi and 
traveller. He produced a large number of works, most of which 
remain unpublished, 2 Mysticism lay at the centre of his interest, 
but his travel reports, though emphasizing holy shrines and 
legends connected with them, constitute his main contribution to 
knowledge. 

1 Khttla$at oUAtksr fi A x yan al Qarn cl #adt-*Ashar t 4 voh. (Cairo, 12S4). 
* One ol hislftst works to be published deals with tradition, Dhokh&iral Matv&rith 
/£ al Dalalah *ala Mcwaa*? cl-#adith t 4 vols. (Cairo, 1934). 



CHAPTER LII 
THE CHANGING SCENE: IMPACT OF THE WEST 



NAPOLEON'S descent on Egypt was epoch making in more than 
one way. It marked the beginning of the break with the past 
Along with his other equipment the French invader brought to 
Cairo an Arabic press which he had plundered from the Vatican. 
This press was the first of its kind in the valley of the Nile. It 
developed into the renowned Matba'at Bulaq, still the official 
printing institution of the government. The French conqueror 
used it for issuing a propaganda sheet in Arabic. He moreover 
inaugurated a sort of academie litteraire with a library. Until that 
time the people of the Arab world were generally leading a self- 
contained, traditional, conventional life, achieving no progress 
and unmindful of the progress of the world outside. Change did 
not interest them. This abrupt contact with the West gave them 
the first knock that helped to awaken them from their medieval 
slumber. It kindled the intellectual spark that was to set a corner 
of the Moslem world on fire. 

Recognizing the possibilities of this preliminary cultural con- Cu 
tact, Muhammad r Ali started the process of inviting French and ^ 
other European officers to tram his army. He went beyond that Eg 
and sent student missions to be trained in Europe, x In this he 
followed the precedent established by the Ottoman Turks. In both 
cases the point of departure was the military. But language, a 
prerequisite for military training, once acquired, holds the key 
for unlocking an entire treasure house of thought — in this case 
Western thought with its nationalistic, democratic, scientific, 
secular and other explosive ideas. The founder of modern Egypt 
proceeded to establish on the soil of his own land schools not only 
for military science but for medicine, pharmacy, engineering and 
agriculture. Unfortunately, however, of the multitude of educa- 
tional institutions then founded by Muhammad f AH only a few 
survived his 'death. His grandson 'Abbas (1848-54) dismissed 

1 See above, pp 723 4 
745 



74& 



OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE 



PART V| 



all foreign advisers and abolished all foreign schools as well as 
most other institutions of European character; his successor 
Sa'id (1854-63) was equally opposed to Western ways. Nor did 
many of the institutions founded by Ismail (1863-79) live long. 
Ismail, who employed American officers in his military academy, 
was the first to establish schools for girls in Egypt. His sym- 
pathetic attitude toward the West found expression in the alleged 
declaration that Egypt was part and parcel of Europe. These 
schools were not adequately equipped or effectively implemented, 
had no special endowments, no continuous supply of trained 
scholars from whom to choose the staff, and could count on no 
uninterrupted output of text-books in Arabic, the language of 
instruction. One institution, however, founded by Ismail 
achieved permanency, the national library, which he started 
with a few books from palaces and mosques and now contains 
half a million volumes The Royal Geographical Society of 
Egypt, also founded by him, celebiated its seventy-jfifth anniver- 
sary in 1950 to 1951, 

During Isma'tTs reign an American college was founded at 
Asyut (1865) and is still in operation. The American College for 
Girls at Cairo began as a primary school in 1861. Seven years 
earlier the American United Presbyterian Mission had launched 
its work in Egypt. 

Syria and The decade of Egyptian occupation of Syria (183 1-40) 1 was 
Lebanon e p 0c h making in the cultural history of that land. Ibrahim under- 
mined the powers of local lords (sing. inuqati*jt)) enforced regular 
taxation, and compelled recognition of the rights of non-Moslems 
to hold office in the local government. 2 Unlike earlier proclama- 
tions by sultans, 3 his proclamation in 1839 of equality before the 
law of members of all religious denominations was immediately 
implemented and put into effect. Against the Moslems of Damas- 
cus and Safad w ho objected to the changed status of their dhimmi 
fellow-citizens, he did not hesitate to use force. Four years before 
the issuance of his proclamation the British consul had to be 
closely guarded as he entered Damascus riding; the year follow- 
ing the issuance he could go where he pleased unattended. 4 

The evidence of a new liberal policy and of public security 
attracted Europeans as never before. The Jesuits, whose order 
had been suspended by the pope in 1773, returned in force. 5 

1 Sec above, p 72$. 9 Sec above, p 734. * See above, p 7^7. 

* Svno and JPat'siine, $ 27. * Cf, above, pp 730-31. 



cU tn CHANGING SCENE* IMPACT OF THE WEST 747 

Protestant missionaries — British and American — established a 
firm foothold on Lebanese soil. In 1838 the native Protestant 
Church of Syria was founded. In the same year an American 
'archaeologist, Edward Robinson, made an exploratory tour of 
Palestine, the first in a chain of events that ultimately resulted in 
unearthing, interpreting and publicizing the region's priceless 

, treasures of the past. Three years before that the American 
mission press was moved from Malta to Beirut. The Imprimerie 
Catholique of the Jesuits was founded in 1853 on the other side 

j of the town. These two are still the outstanding Arabic presses of 
Western Asia. Translations of the Bible into modern Arabic were 

1 issued by both establishments. Syria had its first Arabic press 
before this time, in 1 702 at Aleppo, to which it was introduced by 

i Christians. Moslem conservatism as it relates to the treatment of 
the word of God may have retarded the admission of the printing 
industry; even today the Koran may be handwritten or litho- 
graphed but not printed. The origin of the Aleppine press, the 

1 first of its kind in the East, is still shrouded in mystery. Very likely 
it stemmed from some European antecedent. The earliest Arabic 
press in Europe made its appearance in Fano, Italy, evidently 
under papal aegis. From its output there has survived a book of 
prayer dated 1514. Lebanon had, in one of its monasteries, 
Qazhayya, a Syriac press which may have been introduced from 
Rome by one of those Maronite scholars who studied there. 1 
From this press we have copies of the Psalms not only in the 
Syriac language but also in Arabic printed in Syriac characters. 3 
Syriac, it should be remembered, was still spoken in North 
Lebanon'as late as the end of the seventeenth century. 3 

American educational enterprise crowned its efforts in 1 866 by 
the establishment of the Syrian Protestant College, now the 
American University of Beirut. Jesuit educational activity, which 
had its start in the early seventeenth century * culminated in the 
founding in 1881 of the Universite Saint-Joseph in Beirut. These 

^ two universities have maintained their educational leadership in 

- .that part of the world. 
- ^Earlier than the American University came the American 

{ * See above* p, 743^ 

* farsAuni*, see HittJ, Htst&y of Syria, p. 546 Consult Louis CheiUio, "Ta*rikh 
Farm aVTiha*ah ftfll-MasIiriq'*, ct-Mashrt$, vol m (iooo), pp 25T 7. 355 62, 

> Cf d'Arvicux, Memmres (Pans, 1735), vol u, p, 407; above, p. 361. 

* See above, p 730. 



748 OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE paktvi 



School for Girls in Beirut (1830), which has continued to the 
present day. The Lazarist mission, inaugurated in Damascus as 
early as 1755, started about two decades later a school for boys, 
the oldest modern school still in existence in that city. These 
schools preceded any modernized government schools and served 
as models for later institutions, whether public or private. Until 
the present day the study of foreign languages is emphasized, 
even in native schools, and either French or English is often the 
medium of instruction on the higher and professional levels. The 
personnel enjoyed special privileges, including protection by vir- 
tue of the capitulations 

Native schools, presses, newspapers, magazines and literary 
societies, following Western patterns, soon began to make their 
appearance Egypt witnessed its first Arabic paper m 1 828, when 
Muhammad 'Ali founded al-Waqai al-Misrfyah (Egyptian 
events), still the official organ of the government. Syria had its 
first newspaper in 1858, when Khalil al-Khuri founded in Beirut 
tfadiqat al~Akhbar (orchard of news). Twelve years later Butrus 
al-Bustani (1819-83), who headed a native school and collabor- 
ated with American missionaries, started in Beirut a political, 
scientific and literary fortnightly, al-Jiitdn {gardens), one of 
many periodicals founded by him. The motto he chose for his 
new publication, "Patriotism is an article of faith", gave the 
formula a new meaning in the Arabic language. In 1876 al- 
Bustanj began publication of an Arabic encyclopaedia {Dairat 
al-Mdarifr of which he himself completed the first six volumes, 1 
The writings of this Christian scholar, which also included a 
dictionary and several text-books in mathematics and grammar, 
prepared the way for arousing national consciousness and start- 
ing the Arab national movement Lebanon has achieved the 
highest rate of literacy among Arab states largely through the 
efforts of foreign and private institutions of learning rather than 
through publicly supported schools. 2 Even today the highest 
type of education is conducted in American and French institu- 
tions, Lebanon as well as other Arab lands proved hospitable to 
this cultural migration from the West chiefly because their two 
civilizations, while differing in certain important respects, still 

1 7oi more on him consult Jurji Za>dan, Tarajitn Mcshahtr ttl-Sharqfi al-Qam 
al-Tast'Ashar (Cairo, 1903), \o\. 11, pp 24-31. 
* Matthews and nkrawn p 407. 



* cH. Hi CHANGING SCENE: IMPACT OF THE WEST 749 

belong to the same main stream. Both European and Near 
^Eastern civilizations share in a common heritage of Judaeo- 
Christian and Greco-Roman traditions. Social and commercial 
contacts were maintained, with varying degrees of closeness, 
from the earliest of days. In fact, up to the fourteenth century, 
the early Mamluk era, distinction between East and West was 
more artificial than real. It was not until the sixteenth century, 
the dawn of the Ottoman age, that the paths of the two began 
! seriously to diverge, the West exploiting the scientific method 
with its adjunct of experimentation and developing technical 
knowledge with the resultant greater control over physical 
nature, while the East remained unmindful of all that. By the 
end of the eighteenth century the divergence had reached its 
limit and the two cultures began to come together again. 1 

In this process of cultural cross-fertilization al- r Iraq had no 
significant share. Catholic missionaries had been admitted to 
Baghdad and al-Basrah as early as the seventeenth century but 
had left no dent on its Moslem society. Of the * Iraqis hardly any 
but officers and functionaries trained in Constantinople were 
exposed to modern ideas, and those were of a special brand. But 
, the country was wide open to commercial penetration. As the 
British consolidated their position in the Persian Gulf, com- 
mercial infiltration led eventually to political penetration and the 
country was drawn into the orbit of world affairs. 

Ibrahim's invasion of Syria and Napoleon's invasion of Egypt Po 
produced in a sense the same results: they closed the ancient order *£ 5 
of decentralized authority in both lands and ushered in a new era 
of centralized dependence. More than that, they threw these lands 
into the cockpit of foreign imperial machinations. The expansion- 
ist trends of the Great Powers began to clash there as nowhere 
else. Especially keen was the rivalry between England and 
France, each endeavouring to obtain for herself a preponderating 
influence in Egyptian and Syrian affairs for the same reason: 
securing the fullest measure of advantage for her trade with 
India and the Far East. Many of the wars of the nineteenth 
century may be traced to some origin in the Near East. The 
\ Crimean War (1854-6) had as one of its causes conflicting claims 
on the part of France and Russia for the protection of the holy 
places in Palestine. 

* Sarton, Introdueiton, vol.«i, pp. 21-2. 



7SO OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE PAxtvT 



The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 enhanced the strategic 
importance of these lands and accelerated their re-entry upon the 
scene of world trade and world affairs. The canal soon became an 
integral part of the life-line of international communication and 
compensated for the loss sustained through the discovery of the 
route around the Cape of Good Hope. 1 The digging of the canal, 
a hundred miles long, cost about £20,000,000, most of which 
was raised by public subscription in Europe, chiefly in France. 
The khedivial shares were 176,602 at £20 each, which in 1875 
were purchased by the British government. 
The In Egypt the extravagance of Ismail, in whose reign the canal 

jsmish was opened, led to state bankruptcy and eventually to European 
Egypt intervention. In consideration of Isma'il's generous offer to double 
Egypt's tribute, the Porte bestowed upon him (1866 and 1873) 
the right of primogeniture for his family and the title of khedive,* 
which amounted almost to an acknowledgment of sovereignty. 
In 1879 a dual control by England and France was established 
over the land, and the khedive was deposed. Meantime the griev- 
ances of the army, which was officered mostly by Circassians, and 
of the peasantry, which suffered under heavy taxation, conscrip- 
tion and a system of corvie by which the government could force 
any able-bodied male to work for little or no pay on public pro- 
jects often of doubtful utility, found a champion in an army 
officer, Ahmad 'Arabi, who was himself of peasant stock. 3 The 
insurrection was brought to a sudden end by the British victory 
at ai-Tall al-Kabir (Tell el-Kebir) on September 13, 1882, and 
the banishment of 'Arabi. 4 The occasion provided the British 
with a chance to occupy the land which, however, remained 
under nominal Turkish suzerainty until shortly after the outbreak 
of the first World War, when England declared a protectorate 
over Egypt. The Khedive 'Abbas Hilmi was then deported and 
his uncle IJusayn Kamil, with the title of sultan, succeeded.* 
Fu'ad, who in 191 7 followed his brother Husayn, was proclaimed 
vtalik (king) in February 1922, at which time the protectorate 

1 See above, pp. 727*8. 

* Per. hhadtWy lord, ruler. For the Arabic text of the firman consult Zaydan, 
Tdrikh Aft?r, voL ii, pp. 206-8 

* For more on htm consult Zaydan, Tarajim* vol. i, pp. 229 52. 

* For a defence of the 'Arabi case by an Englishman, consult Wilfrid S Blunt, 
Secret fftstory of the English Occupation of Egypt (New York, 1922), pp 323-63* 

* Consult table above, p* 726, ru u 



cn^tl CHANGING SCENE: IMPACT OF THE WEST 751 

was terminated, Egypt was declared independent and a constitu- 
tion was promulgated. This concession by England was nor 
made without struggle on the part of the natives. The national- 
ist leader, Sa r d Zaghlui, was a follower of r Arabi and, like him, 
the son of a peasant, but more capable and more highly edu- 
cated. In 1910 this fiery lawyer, a pupil of Jarnal-al-Dln al- 
Afghani and a former editor of al-Waqai al-Mtsriyak under 
Muhammad \Abduh, 1 sought permission from the British to 
leave the country with a delegation {wafd) to plead its cause 
before the Peace Conference in Paris and in London but was 
rebuffed and sent to Malta, an act which immediately made a 
national hero of him. His and his party's efforts were crowned 
with success when, m 1936, an Anglo-Egyptian treaty was signed 
stipulating the withdrawal of the British troops of occupation to 
the^Canal zone, the relinquishing of British responsibility for the 
life and property of foreigners in favour of the Egyptian govern- 
ment and the rendition of reciprocal aid against enemies involv- 
ing the use of ports, aerodromes and means of communication. 
4 "A bloodless military coup in 1952 dethroned Fu'ad's son, 
King Faruq (Farouk), abolished the monarchy and led, in i954i 
to" a republic headed by Colonel Jamal f Abd-ai-Na$ir (Nasser), 
whose bold stand against Israeli, British and French invaders in 
. 1956 raised him to the rank of a Pan- Arab hero* He has since 
introduced political and economic reforms of the socialistic type. 

In the Arab Crescent political intervention took the form of 
mandates, with the British established in Palestine and al-'Ir&q, 
and the French in S>na and Lebanon subsequent to the first 
World War. France's interest rested on economic considerations, 
a policy of prestige as a counterbalance to British influence and 
amitiS traditioiiiielle going back to Crusading days 2 and sanc- 
tioned by the capitulations granted by Sulayman the Magnificent 
to Francis \? It was French troops who, in t86o, were landed, 
with the consent of the great powers, on the Lebanese shore as 
a measure of security against further massacre.* 

The administration of these mandates, termed class A, fell short 

of the ideal set in the covenant of the League of Nations that the 

well-being of the mandated peoples formed "a sacred trust of 

t»vl^tzation ,, and that the chief concern of the mandatory power 

x See below, pp 753.5 * See above, p 504. 

* Cf above, p 728 * See aliove, pp 735*» 



752 OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE PART vi 

was to provide such advice and assistance as might be necessary 
to achieve their full independence. Especially provoking were the 
grievances felt by the Syrians who charged French officials with 
employing the same colonial methods as in North Africa, use of 
the native government as a facade, failure to take cognizance of 
the rising national spirit, discouragement of the use of Arabic, 
depreciating the native currency by tying it to the franc, playing 
one party or sect against another and resorting to repressive 
measures involving espionage, imprisonment and exile. 1 Dividing 
the country into several Stats for administrative purposes and 
ceding the sanjaq of Alexandretta to Turkey on the eve of the 
second World War were other major complaints. Any benefits 
that might have accrued to the mandated territories by way of 
maintaining law and order, improving communications, widening 
areas of cultivation, extending facilities of education and setting 
up the framework of a modern government and modernized 
society were not enough to stem the tide of rising discontent. 
Rebellion broke out in Jabal al-Duruz in July 192$. It soon spread 
to Damascus and neighbouring towns. The reaction thus set off 
did not cease until the last French troops were expelled in 1945 
from Syrian soil. That was two years after Lebanon, which had 
started with amicable relations with the French mandate, had 
succeeded in freeing itself from it and proclaiming itself a republic. 

Al-'Iraq had even earlier begun to pursue a hostile course 
against the British mandate. The rebellion of 1920, which started 
among the tribes on the lower Euphrates and in the holy cities 
of al-Najaf and Karbala', 2 led the British to substitute indirect for 
direct rule. Faysal, second son of King Irlusayn, 3 was crowned in 
August 192 1 constitutional king over al-'Iraq after occupying the 
improvised Syrian throne from March 8 to July 25, 1920. Several 
treaties followed, in one of the most important of which, that of 

x George Antomu% Arab Awakcntng {Philadelphia, 1939), pp. 3*72-6; Albert H. 
Houram, S}na and Lebanon (Oxford, 1946), pp 176-8. 

» Phihp W\ Ireland, Vrfgt A Study in Political Development (New York, 1938), 
pp 26676. 

* yusayn of al-Hijaz 



'Abdullah of Transjordan 1. Fa>$al of aVIraq (f 1933) 

2 Ghazi (| X939) 

3 Fay$alII(b 1935; 1939-58) 



4 CH,XU CHANGING SCENE • IMPACT OF THE WEST 753 

December 1927, Britain recognized al~ f Iraq as independent and 
entered into a twenty-five-year alliance with it. The treaty of 
June 1930 was decisive: Britain renounced its mandatory rights 
and recognized the full sovereignty of al-'Iraq* 1 Credit for this 
achievement should be given to the statesmanship of King 
Fay?al I (1921-33), whose regime, however, became discredited 
under* his second successor. In a military coup in 1958 Faysal II 
(*939~58) was slaughtered with his regent uncle and prime 
minister, and a socialist republic was established 
* The Arab peoples at this time presented a seeming paradox: An 
resisting with one arm European advances while with the other ^ 
receiving and adopting European ideas and techniques. The new 
acquisitions from Europe were utilized in the fight against 
% Europeans. Of the numberless novel ideas imported from the 
West, nationalism and political democracy were undoubtedly the 
most powerful. The espousal of nationalism encouraged the prin- 
ciple of self-determination and both led to the struggle for 
independence from foreign rule. Meantime the new ideology from 
the West, with its stress on secular and material values and the 
importance it attaches to ethnic limitations and geographic 
< boundaries, ran counter to the most cherished traditions of Islam, 
with its concepts of religious universality, political theocracy and 
exclusive sovereignty. Pan-Islam rather than Pan-Arabism would 
be the ideal toward which Moslems should strive. The conflict 
was on internal as well as external levels. In Egypt of the late 
nineteenth century the intellectual climate was rendered con- 
genial for the reception and growth of the new concepts mainly 
through the writings and speeches of the liberal reformer Muham- 
mad *Abduh (1849-1905), who rose to the highest religious 
position of his land, that of mufti. Muhammad 'Abduh had for 
"teacher Jamal-al-Dln al- Afghani (1839-97), the first chief agent 
in the inception of modernism in Islam. 2 Born in Afghanistan, 
Jamal-al-Dm sojourned in India, Makkah and Constantinople 
before taking up his residence in Egypt, where he identified him- 
self with the movement which culminated in the f Arabi uprising 3 

1 Ireland, pp 409 |S, for Arabic text of the treaty consult 'Abd-al RazzUq al- 
JSaSani, Tarihh at- Iraq al Stycst (Baghdad, 194S), \ol 11 , pp 197 204 

* On modernism in Islam consult H. A R Gibb, Modern Trends tn Islam 
(Chicago, 1945). PP 39«*. 

* 5ecabo\c,p 75o,rorrooreonJamal al*DIn consult Charles C Adams,/>.W<?«rf 
Medermsn in Egypi fL6ndon, 1933), pp 4 seq> Zaydnn, TarSjtm, vol 11, pp 5* 5o. 



OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE partvi 



Muhammad 'Abduh was exiled to Syria for complicity in this 
uprising. The decadent condition of Islam weighed heavily on his 
heart and mind. He followed fbn-Taymlyah 1 in the condemnation 
of superstitions and accretions that had contaminated the faith. 
His prescription embraced intellectual and political revivification 
of religion together with political unification under one supreme 
head The man who had studied and taught at al-Azhar and 




MUHAMMAD 'ABDUH, MODERN EGYPTIAN REFORMER 

edited with Jamal-al-Dln an Arabic paper in Paris, maintained 
that basically there was no conflict between Islam and science. 
He interpreted certain koranic passages rationally and recognized 
the insufficiency of Islamic scholasticism. 2 While Jamal-al-Din 
advocated political revolution, Muhammad 'Abduh advocated 
religious awakening to bring about reform. More than any other 
modern writers, these two contributed to the breaking of the 
scholastic shell which had encased Islam since medieval times. 
While neither achieved fully what he set out to do, yet both left 
an intellectual progeny which counted in its membership Qasim 
Amin (f 1908), the first to attack vehemently polygamy, divorce 

1 Sec above, p 6S9 

s For more on him consult Muhammad Rashid Rida, Tdrikk ol Ustadh al*Im&ri 
al-SAqyl/i AJuliamm&d* Alduh, 3 vols (Cairo, 1324), Adams, pp 106*10. 



CfiLW ^CHANGING SCENE: IMPACT OF THE WEST 755 

arid the use of the veil 1 and Muhammad Rashid Rida (f I935)t 
1 bona in al-Qaiarnun, North Lebanon, who went to Egypt in 
1897, edited Muhammad *Abduh*s works, 2 wrote his biography 
and carried on in the magazine al-Manar his tradition. Recon- 
structing Arab society on a democratic political basis and recon- 
v dlmgjsiam and the modern world remain the greatest tasks con- 
fronting the contemporary generation. 

Arab nationalism started from a wide base — the thesis that all Nai 
Arabic-speaking peoples were one nation. It began as a purely I5m 
intellectual movement having for pioneers mostly Syrian intel- 
lectuals, more specifically Christian Lebanese, educated at the 
American University of Beirut and operating in Egypt 3 Its early 
manifestations in the 1870s were revived interest in the Arabic 
" classics .and research in Islamic history. A consciousness of the 
"past glory of the Moslem empire and of the brilliant cultural 
* achievements of the Arabs suggested a future possibility. Political 
awakening came in the wake of intellectual awakening. Political 
passivity gave way to political activity; for once in centuries 
change became a desideratum. Everywhere the movement fed 
upon resistance to Western imperialism. 

,f Before long this nascent Pan- Arab movement was confronted 
with varied local problems. In Egypt the main hurdle was British 
occupation* Opposition to British rule began to absorb Egyptian 
interest Then and there Egyptian nationalism was born, parting 
company with. Arab nationalism and developing provincial 
aspects. Egypt for the Egyptians became the battle cry of the 
new order. With the further fragmentation of the Arab East, con- 
sequent upon the first World War, Arab nationalism suffered 
further fragmentation. In Syria it concentrated its force against 
the imposition of the French mandate. Lebanon, which was first 
favourably disposed toward the French mandate, became in the 
second World War equally bitter, Likewise in Palestine hostility 
to theiBritish mandate and to its adjunct, political Zionism — 
'which has since eventuated in the birth of Israel — generated a 
- local type of national feeling. Even tiny Transjordan, which was 
amputated by the British in February 192 1 from South Syria and 

* His Tc$r?r rl-Marcih (emanri pation of \roraan) (Cairo, 1 3 1 6) was trans! ate d By 
0, Rescher into German (Stuttgart, 1928) 
* " * £aW among *toch was Tafrir aI*Qur*an a! &c&n f 8 vols (Cairo, 1346)* 
fi * Amoruus, pp. 79 86 



756 OTTOMAN RULE AND INDEPENDENCE *a*tvi 



made a new state under the Amir 'Abdullah, developed a measure 
of nationhood of its own. Its creation was meant to appease 
'Abdullah, who had resented the dethronement of his brother 
Faysal, and to act as buffer against the Bedouins. The amtr 
became, in 1946, king of Transjordan and in 1949 head of the 
Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan (al-Ma?nlakak al-Urduntiiyah 
al-Hashimiyak). A pronounced 'Iraqi nationalism was born in 
the 1920s largely as a reaction against British imperialism. 

As nationalism struggled against foreign powers, political 
democracy contended with native feudalism. Liberty had internal 
as well as external opponents. Throughout the Arab East feudal- 
ism continued to be a dominant social feature with political com- 
plications. The system centred on chiefs who held power by virtue 
of descent and the accumulation of extensive land property. It 
was at first supported by a vassalage not of birth so much as by 
appointment, a hierarchy of muqatiji's? as called in Lebanon 
and Syria, to whom taxes were farmed out and who exercised 
even penal powers. As these vassals acquired wealth, their office 
became hereditary, too. The institution and functioning of a 
democratic form of government against such a background was 
not an easy task. The search for a new political structure has not 
yet ended. Politically, no less than socially and economically, the 
entire Arab East is still in a state of transition. 
Trend If the first World War severed the Arab components of the 
unTon d Ottoman empire and set them on the way to full or semi-nation- 
hood, the second World War^ combined with the threat of political 
Zionism, which was viewed by Arabs everywhere as an intrusive 
movement, contributed to bringing those parts closer together. 
Common interest and the rising feeling of solidarity found expres- 
sion in the pact of the League of Arab States, signed in Cairo, 
March 1945. The pact indicates a firm intention to promote 
co-operation among member states in matters relating to educa- 
tion, trade and communication. It provides for consultation in 
case of aggression against any member state and forbids the use 
of force in settlement of disputes among them To the member- 
ship of the League, consisting of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, al- 
e Iraq, Transjordan, Su'udi Arabia and al-Vaman, were added 
the newly declared independent states of Morocco, Tunisia, 

1 Stc abo\e, p 74b 



Of. Ui CHANGING SCENE : IMPACT OF THE WEST 757 

Dbya,^Sudan, al-Kuwayt and Algeria. A bloodless military coup 
in 1961 broke off the weak three-year-old chain connecting Syria 
with Egypt and forming the United Arab Republic. Al-Yaman, 
which had related itself loosely to the union, soon followed suit, 
and in the autumn of 1962 experienced another one of those 
military coups current in the Near East, aiming at replacing the 
imamate-kingdom by a republic with socialist leanings. The 
record in such coups is held by Syria, which in twenty years end- 
ing February 1966 experienced no less than thirteen coups — 
some unsuccessful. Of all the Arab republics of the area, Lebanon 
has been the most stable. 

Originators of the third monotheistic religion, beneficiaries of 
the other two, co-sharers with the West of the Greco-Roman 
cultural tradition, holders aloft of the torch of enlightenment 
throughout medieval times, generous contributors to European 
renaissance, the Arabic-speaking peoples have taken their place 
among the awakened, forward-marching independent nations 
of the modern world. With their rich heritage and unmatched 
.natural resource of oil, they should be able to make a significant 
contribution to the material and spiritual progress of mankind. 



INDEX 



Title* ct books, as -well as Atahir words and technical term* occurring in the text, In italic*. 

Imdal fetters of book Utles and of certain Oriental nouns capitalized 

Main references indicated in heavv type .... 

$m«-onaunao£ Arabic names the accent centrally falls on the lonfr. vowel beannp the 
xnacron (-)* the * stands for a glottal stop, the * for a cVp jpittural that ha* no correspond* 
etU in Fnglish, such dotted letters as f and / are emphatically sounded, arc and ey are 

^oVthTprenres listed* below, al- meant the; ahu , father of, ibn-, son of; dhu~ t possessor 
warn , mother of, 'Abd , slave (servant) of. 



Aaron sister of, 125; 443 

W 24, 229,334 

Abacjite, see Ibacjite 
Abaqa, 678 
'Abajh, 736 

'Abbad, son of qu# of Seville, 538 
Wbbad, feanu-, 537, 538 
'Abbad, ibn-, al-Sa$»b, 404. 
\Abbadid; domain, 540: days, 550; 

capital, 598 
<Abbiidid% 538, 541, 558, 598 
Abbar, ibn-al-, 566 
*Abb5s 1, 726 zl j, ^45 
*Abba$U, 726 a* 1,750 
*Abbas, banu-al-, 405 
> /Abbas, abu al-, Wbbasid caliph- 284-5, 
2SS, 332; in Chinese records, 344 
'Abbas, al-, son of al-Ma'mun, 318 
AAbbas, al-, uncle of Muhammad, ill, 
1S4 n. 2, 189, 282, 283, 284, 289,291, 
-297 (236 
- \Abbos,abu al-,* Abdullah ibn-al-'Abbas, 
fc *Abbas, ibn ab, *Ah, see al-Majusi 

*Abba$, Shah, 737 
>. 'Abhasah, a!*, sister of Harun, 296 
*Abb3st, aJU, bile of al-Ya r qubi, 385 n. 2 
'Abh&ttL period, 182, 194, 198 segj 
regime, 208, 294, 317, 322, 328; 220, 
2*3, 224, 236, 269, 278, 289, 297, 322, 
^ 329. 33*i 333» 340, 343 *'$ : forces, 
283, ^gent, 284; government, 286; 
pfmer, 300; family, 304; capital, 305; 
afiC* 308, era, 316, glory, 318, spies, 
325, provinces, 380, poets, 405; court, 
"406, poetry, 407; ruins, 417; art, 419; 
inquisition, 435; dynasty, 467; rivals 
fcf aVAzIz, 620, mercenary troops, 
« 620; state, 625; administration in 
j- "Sfcyt, 627; house, 677; ghtlmSri) 695 

* /AbbSsd-'AKd alliance, 2S9 

5 , Albasid caliph, 285, 288, 291, 290, 
' $26, 327, 328,339, 343, 344, 348, 355, 

* 424,451.466,480,605,646 
*All)5sfd caliphate* 184, 328, 450, 633; 

^ AMm&<! cahphs; 184 ru 2, 290, 407, 473; 
I ^^g)Tt,676 



"Abbasids: 6, x8i, 196, 200, 222, 225, 
228, 232, 240, 243, 245, 255, 282 90, 
304, 316, 317, 318, 319, 327, 330. 332, 
337* 348, 140, 3S3. 3S4, 394, 4*3. 4*4* 
41 5» 424, 426, 427, 439, 455. 4^2, 466, 
474, 480, 505» 5*9, <5t7, 619, 621 

Abbrevtatio Arncenne de antrtahbus, 
588, 6u 

*abd, 235 n I 

'Abd, ibn-al-, see Tarafah 

'Abd-AUah, see 'AbduIHh 

"Abd-al-'Aiiz, son of Marvvan 1, 279, 282 

'Abd-al-'Azfc, sultan, 713 n. I 

*Abd-al**AzIz ibn Musa tbn-Nusayr, 

496. 503 
'Abd-al-yalcam, ibn-, 165, 388 
'Abd al-Hamid I, 713 n 1 
'Abd al-Hamid ir, 186, 713 n. 1, 738 
'Abd-al-Hamld al-Katib, 250 
'AbdalKarim.718 

*Abd-al-LatiXal-Baghdadi, 166, 662, 686 
'Abd al-MajTd I, 713 n I, 727, 735 
'Abd al-Majld II, Ottoman, 139, 184 
*Abd-al- Malik ibn-Marwan, Umayyad 
13, 195,205 7,212, 217,220,221, 222, 
226, 227, 22S, 229, 232, 233, 23S, 243, 
252, 253, 264, 265, 267, 278, 279, 2S2, 
322, 354; postal service of, 322 
'Abd-al-Mahk nl-Muzaffar, see 

Mu$affar, al- 
'Abd-ManM, in, 184 n 2, 189 1577 
f Abd-al Mu'min ibn-' Ah, 546, 548, 549, 
'Abd-aKMu'nun nl-Dimyati, 685 
'Abd ai-Muttahb, 11 1, 184 n. 2, 189, 

283, 291 
'Abd-al-Nfisir, 751 
*Abd-al-Qadir, see Jflam, al- 
'Abd-Rabbih, ibn-, 557-8, 559 
*Abd-aJ-Raliman I, Umayyad of Cor- 
dova, 286, 591, 450, 501, 504, 505 9, 
512, 514 n. 1, 519, 594 
*Abd al-Rahman II, 513 16,52m 2,598 
*Abd-al-Rahman III, UmavyaJ of Cor- 
dovn 469, 481 n. 2, 508, 509, 514 n 1, 
520 25, 526, 529-30, 531 , 533, 534 n 5, 
543, 557, 5<>3> S*S> 595* ^9, secretary 
of, 5&4 



759 



760 



INDEX 



*Abd-^Rnhman IV, 53+ 5 
•Abd-al-Rafcman V, 534 a 5, 535, 558 
'Abd-al* Rahman ibn-'Abdullah al-Gba- 

fiqi, see Ghafiqi, a!- 
•Abd-al-Ra^man ibnvil-AsVath, 208-9 
'Abd al- Rahman ibn-'Awf, see *Awf, 

ibn- 

*Abd-al-Rahman al-Awsat, see \Abd- 

al-Rahman II 
*Abd-al-Rabman al-Dakhtl, see 'Abd- 

al -Rahman I 
r Abd-al-Rahxnan ibn-Marwan al-Jiltiqi, 

see Jilliqi, al- 
*Abd-al- Rahman ibn-Mu*aTVjyah, see 

* A bd-al- Rahman I 
'Abd al -Rahman ibn«Muljam, see Mul- 

jam, ibn- 

'Abd-al Rahman Shanjul, see Shanjul 
'Abd-Shams, in, 184 n. 2, 189 
'Abd-aI**Uzza, 99 
*Abd-alAVa!ihab, ibn, 740-41 
'Abd-al-Wahid al-RashJd, Muwafrhid, 

'Abduh, Muhammad, 751, 753 5 
'Abdullah, Umayyad of Cordova, 514 
n. 1, 517, 519, 520 

'Abdullah, father of Muhammad, tot, 

m, 184 n. 2, 189, 283, 2S9, 291 
'Abdullah, king, 752 n. 3, 756 
'Abdullah, son of al-* Abbas, 2S9 
'Abdullah, son of 'Ahd-al-Rahman II, 

'Abdullah, son of *Ah, 285, 290 
'Abdullah, son of al Hasan, 291 
'Abdullah, son of Maymun al-Qaddah, 
4434 

'Abdullah ibn-al** Abbas, see 'Abbas, 

abu-al- 
'Abdullah ibn -'Amir, 157 
'Abdullah ibn-'Amr ibn-al-'A?, 354 
'Abdullah ibn-Maymim, see Maymun, 

ibn- 

* Abdullah iln-Qasim, 530 
'Abdullah ibn-Sa*d ibn-abi-Sarb, see 

Sarh, ibn abi- 

* Abdullah ibn-'Umar ibn-al- Kha^ab, 

236, 394 

'Abdullah ibn-Wahb aI*Rasibi, see 

Rasibi, al- 
'Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr, 191-3, 207 
*Abdun, ibn-, 621 

Abdus, see Abjdos, on the Dardanelles 
*AbdOs, ibn-, 560 
Abcnccrrage, see Sarraj, banu« 
Abi kariba As'ad, 60 



'Abld {'Ubayd) ita-Sharyab, 227, 244 

*Ablab,o6 

<ri/^, 691 

Ablaq, al-, 107 

Ablastha, 200 n. 4 

AbouHr, see Abs.^ Bay 

Abrahah* 54, 62, 64; Inscription of, 105 

Abraham: descendants of, 61, 62, 92, 

100, 125, 161, 264, 443; submission of, 

129 
Abs, 90 

Abulustayn, 200 

Abuqlr Bay, 722 

Abu sir, 689 n. 8. See also Buslr 

Abydos, in Egypt* 33 

Ab> dos, on the Dardanelles, 204, 212 

Abyssinia: 19,48, 57>6o, 62,66,100, to6, 
migration to, \H* emigrants to, 121 

Abyssinian- 100, language, 52, kingdom, 
$6; maritime se^ce, $9; rule, 60, 65, 
66; monarch, &>, overlords, 64; army, 
64; garrison, intervention, 66; 
negro, 106, censes, 107; mercenaries, 
117, 259, eunuch 456 

Abyssin*ans 10, $9* 62, 105; reign of, 64 

academe httcratf** 745 

Achila, 499 
Achilles, 90 
Acrab, 572 
Acre, see 'Aklca 
Acropolis, the, 5^0 
'Ad, 30, 124 

*Ad, ibn-, Luqm^, 54. 124 

°*a& f 335, 400, 4<^ 2 

Adam. 10, 28,92* 100, 125,443; 

creation of, 87, 35* t Adcn 
'Adan, 61, 62, 697 > 7*o, 740. See also 
Adelard of Bith, 375. 37», 57i> 573> 

5SS, 600, 662 
Aden. 711, 740; «>kra>% *4» 739, 740» 

protectorate, i4. 739. 740- See also 

'Adan 

Adham, ibn-, Ibf^Im, 434 
adhan 9 118, 259 2 
Adhanah, 200 

Adharbayjan, 154, 17&> 225, 330 
'Adhra*, 150 n. i 
Adhruh, 119, 18 1 
'Adi, ibn-, Ynhyfi* 3*5 
'Adid, al-, Fattmto. 623, 645 
•Add, al-, I, Ayy Qbid « 6 5*'3> $55 
♦Add, al-, II, Ay/ubid, 655 
•Adiliyah, al-, sc^t 6 S3 
'Aditcs, 30 
'Adnan, 32 



? AdrianopIe,7°9 
Adriatic, 4*3* 

*A£ud-aM)ttwlah, Buwayhid, 366 n. 2, 
" 367* 390, 413^71-2 
Adumu, 38 

Adwar al-Mattsub, al*> 599 
Adwiy&h al-Mujr&dah, ah t 575 
Aegean: waters, 202; islands, 460 
Aegean Sea, 451 
Aelana, 5S 

Aelius Callus, 21, 46-8, 51, 56, 68 
Aesctylus, 44 

Afdai, a!-, Ayyubid, 652, 655 
'Afian, t$g 

'AffSn, ibn*, see *Uthman 
Afghani, al-Jamal-al-DIn, 751, 753 
Afghanistan, 20S, 330, 376. 464, 4^5. 

, 699 ' 

Afla^ibn^Jabir^i, 572 
Aflatun, 316. See also Plato 
Africa: 13, 30* 3*» 36, 154, 260, 305, 330, 
' 344, 3S3» 437, 4$*r 497, 49*", 502, 5' 5, 

519* 52 j, 530, 5401 541, 542, 546, 554, 
- 55°, S7°i 574, 57S, 5$3, 605, 609, 617, 
, 618, 619, 625, 6S9; northern, 22, 136, 

I75» 2*4. 215. 22 4, 39S; geography of, 

387; eastern, 39S 
Africa Minor, 451 

African: shore, 34, 62; rule, 66; revolt, 
502; coast, 521, 532; affairs, 526; 
monarchies, 545; conquerors, 545; 
style of minarets, 594; army in Sicily, 
603; clement in population of Sicily, 
606; territory of Kijimids, 618; 
provinces, 621, 711; mainland overrun 
by Normans, 622 

African*, 555 

Afshin, id-, 339 

Agade, see Akkadu 
„ Agapius of Ttlanbij, 202 

Agar, 43 

Agarenes, 43 

Agha Khan, 448 

Agh&nu at-, 92, 94, 95, 103, 107, 201, 

. 2273 274, 276, 303, 30S, 337, 404, 420. 
425,435, 45$, 53*»35B 

'Aghlab r ibn-al-, Ibrahim, 451 

Aghlabid; ruler of Africa, 5x9, 617; 
State, 602; generals, 604; dynasty, 
605, 017; residence of *Uba}duIIuh 
al-Mahdi, 618; sovereignty in Sicily 
\ er>ds,622 

, Aghlabids, 267, 451-2, 602, 605, 617, 
\ 61S ' 
Aghmatj 341,546 



INDEX 761 

Agur> son of Jakch, 43 
Ahab, 37, 286 n. 1 
Ahasuems, 125 
Alururn inscription, 70 
ah I al~ba*lr^ 22 
Ahlal-Bayt, 172, 249 
A hi al-Dhtmmak, 170 n. 3, 233. Sec also 

Dhimmis 
ahi al kalam. 370 

ahi al-kttab t 122 n. I, X43, 170 ru 3, 233 
ahi al-nass, 179 
M at-oaiam t 295 
Ahmad I 713 n 1 
Ahmad II, 713 n. I 
Ahmad III, 713 n. I 
Ahmad, title of the Prophet, m 
Ahmad jbn-al-Nasjr, Mamluk, 673 
Ahmadiyah, 437 
Ahmar, banu-al-, 549 
Alimar, ibn*al-, see Na§r, ibn-, Muham- 
mad ibn-Yusuf 
Ahnaf, al-, 250 
Ahqaf, al-, 15 
Ahrun, 255 
Ahsa , al-, 445 
Ahsan al-Taqdsjm t 386 
Ahwaz, al-: 325, 330, 443, 46S, 470; 

sugar-cane of, 351 
akzdb > a/-, 117 

VA'tshah, \*ife of the Prophet, 120, 172, 

179-80, 1S4 n 2, 193, 238, 394 
'AMshah bint-TahSah, 238 
Aja', 15 

*AJd*tb cl-A/hdr fi al-Tardjim w-al- 

Athbdr, 743 
Ajnadnyn, 150 

Ajwibak K an al-As % s!ah cl-Stqtlliyak f 

al; 587 
Akhhdr ai-Ttual, <?/«, 389 
abhts, 479 
ckhldq, 400, 401 
Wtldg t al~ t 401 
Akhtal, al-, 196, 220, 246, 252 
Akil al-Murar, 85 

'Akka, 193, 453, 622, 635, 640, 650-51, 
654, 655, 658, 665, 669, 679, 6Si, 721, 
732 

Akkadian language, 52 
Akkadians, 9, 36 
Akkadu, 9 
'Akkans, 650 
akkdr, 20 

Aksum: 57, 66; king of, 60 
Aksumite: inscriptions, Co, viceroy, 
62 

*Ala 1 , abu-al-, see Ma'urrt, al- 



762 



INDEX 



'Ala'-al-DIa "Ali, Mamluk, 673, 677 
'Ala'-al-Dln Muhammad, 482 
'Ala' ibn-Mugrnth, al-, 507 
Alamundarus, 79 Su also Mundblx, al*, 

III and ibn-aJ-Hurith, al* 
AhunGt, 446 8, 486 
A*ldq al*NcJisah t al- t 385 
'Aiawite, 340 
'Alavrites, 449 
Albania, 449 
Albanians, 716,721 
Albatcgnius, set Battani, al* 
Albertus Magnus, 5S5 
Alboacen, see 'AJi abu-al-Hasan 
Albumasar, set Ma'&har, abu- 
Albuquerque, Alfonso d', 697 
Alburz, 446 
Alcazar, 595 

Alcoran of Mahonet^ 126 ru I 
cleph, 71 

Aleppfoe: 404; delegation, 480; press, 
747 

Aleppo, 88, 153, 231, 265 n. 3, 301, 359, 
3^0, 371, 387, 402, 404. 423, 439/ 447 
4S7.4S8. 459,46o. 470, 480, 487. 633, 
635. 638, 643, 644, 645, 652, 659, 661, 
<>74, 678, 68x, 686, 687, 701, 703, 704, 
726, 727, 72S 

Alessandro de Pnganini, 126 n. X 

Alexander, 46, 49* 58, 68, 124 ru 4, 142, 
153, 159, 161,663 

Alexandretta, 752 

Alexandria- 59, 76, 160 $8, 174, 255, 
262, 309. 3M> 343» 363, $n> 529 531* 
548, 569, 580, 602, 61S, 620, 653, 661, 
6Sl* 705, 721; patriarch of, x6l, 356; 
Treaty of, 164; library of, 166; camp, 
169; income from, 321; battle of, 722 

Alexandrian: war, 68; library, 166 

Alexandrian Museum, 310 

Alexandrians, 166 

Alexius Comnenus, 636, 637 

A If ZcyiaJt wa Lcylah > 404, 690 

Alfonsine tables, 570, 600 

Alfonso III, of Leon, 518 

Alfonso VI, of Leon and Castile, 537, 
538, 539, 540, 543, 544 

Alfonso VII, 540 

Alfonso VII L 542, 549 

Alfonso X, 559, 570, 571, 600 

Alfonso of Senile, 676 

Alfonso the Wise, see Alfonso X 

Alfraganus, see Farghani, al* 

Algaby, 605 

Algarve, 518, 52S 

Algeciras, 502 



Algedi, 572 

Algeria, 6, *\% 247, }i6, 361, 437, 54 , 
^48.710,717,718,756 

Algiers, 540, 559, 711 

Alhambra, 529, 550, 553, 554, 59S 

Alhandega, 524 

Alhazen, see Haytham, ibn-al- 

*Ah\ abu-, set Qadisha River 

*Ali abu-al'Hasan, Nasnd, 553 

*Ali al-Hadi, 442 

'Mi ai-Qab, abu-, see Qali, al- 

*AH al-Rida, 439, 441, 442 

*AK Bey, 720 21, 732 

*Ab ibn-abi-Talib: in, 139, 140, -75 
177, 17S. 173 82, 384 n. 2, 189, igo[ 
194, 222, 237, 241, 247-50, 255, 2$2, 
283, 289, 290, 291, 394, 399, 401, 400> 
437. 439. 440, 442, 443, 44$, 449»47r, 
472, 481, 5x3, 521; Muhammad's 
cousin, 113; spouse of, 120, wife of, 
139; followers of, 177; death of, 183; 
descendants of, 197* mosque of, 260 

f AH ibn-Hammud, see HammCd, ibn- 

*AU ibn-'Isa, 469 

"All, ibn-, *Isa, court physician, 369 

'Ali ibn-Muhammad, Zanj leader, 467 

*Ali, ibn-, Sind, 375 

*AH ibn-Yunus, see Yunus, ibn* 

*Aii, Ikhshidjd, 547 n. 1 

*Ali-IIahIs, 24Q n. 2, 449 

*AIi, Murabif, 542, 545 n. 2. 546, 56; 

*Alid: cause, 18 r, 2S3; doctrines 249] 

318, 467; revolts, 450; intrigues, 676 
'Alid, pro-, 289 j 
'Alids, 1S9, 191, 207, 243, 2S2, 289 91, 

502, 680 
Alilat, 99 

Allah: 21, 100-101, 114, 117, 120, X2I, 
1 28, 131, 140, 179, 182, iSs, 215,24$, 
3*7» 393i 4oS, 439, 4°n 092, 
guests of, 27; daughters of, 88, nah 
of, 1x3; service of, 1x4; Ummat of, 
120; word of, 123, 129, i8ij oneness 
of, 124; aid of. 160, name of, 127, 150, 
170, will of, 129, 13S; sword of, 148, 
pact of, 150; share of, 172 n. 3; sight 
of, 173; words of, 176; rcsiil of, 1S5; 
house of, 192; commandments of, 396; 
regard of, 650 

Aild/u. ak&ar t T63 

Almagest ,311 , 314-15, 373. 375» 

Almaqah, 51, 54, 60 

Almeria, 521, 528, 57S, 592 

Almohades, 546 n. 3 

Almoravidcs, see Murabits 

Alp Arslan, SaljCq, 4x0, 475 6, 633, 635 



i 

&\p Att&& al*Akhra$ 635 n, I 
Alpetragius, see Bi*ruji, al» 
Alpharabius, see Tarabi, al- 
Alpme passes, 589 
Alps, flic, 605, 613 
Aiptigm, 4G34 
Alpujarras, 554 **♦ 3 

Altair, 572 
Alvaro r $t6 

Amalefc, 52 

AmalnC of Jerusalem, 624, 645 

Amanus, j« Lukkam, al* 

*Amarah, silversmiths, 35S 

Amat-'Uzzav an, 99 " 

\kmavas, see 'Am was 

America, 8, 347, 465. 7°5- 7**, 73$ 

American: Ideas, 736* officers, 746; enter- 
prise, 747; missionaries, 747; institu- 
tions, 74S 

American College for <3irls, 746, 747 -S 
„ American University of Beirut, 747, 755 

Amidi 325 

'Amid, ibn-al- f 25a 
J W/, 224, 330 
" *er??/f, 462 

; Arrilnyal-, * Abblsid caliph* 207, 303, 304, 
3*7r 3*8, 33*, 337* 340-42, 406, 409, 
414, 417, 419, 425, 46 r; mother of, 333 

Amin, at-, title of the Prophet, Hi 

Aminah, in, 189 

cirjr- of poets, 93, 163,. I73t 224, 317, 
3* 330, 45*> 464, 47*; % 721 

Amir, al*> FStimid, 623, 646 

amir £&tiir r 692 

Amir al-Juyush, 622 
c *Amir, Ibn-aK*, Muhammad, 532 

emir *i!-mu h mmtn* 178, 185, 523, 546, 
V 54$ & Chinese records, 344 

<j«*r el-HushrtJfti 542, 548 

atrfrlat-QatiitaqlTt, 542 

atti> al-umaro, 319, 469 71, 609 

•Amind* S3 2 ; dictator, 534 
•Amirids, S3S 

*Amm t 60 

*8mt**ah muttaqak^ 326 
'Amncir, batru- t 633 
^AmmSr^bn-, 539, 560 
'AiumSribn^Ah al-Mawsili, see Maw?ih, 

a|» <■ > 

Axamknus Marcelhnus, 44 
'Anmunyah, set Amonum 



EX . 763 
Amorites, 9, io, 11 

Amonum, 301, 310, 312 • 4 
f Amr ibn-*Adi ibn*Lakhm, 8? 
'Amr ibn- f Amir, see Muzayqiya* 
'Amr ibn-al-'As, 118, 142, 148, 159*68, 
181, 182, 180, 196, 208, 232, 260, 26r 
*Amr ibn Hind, 83 
*Amr ibn-Ijlujr, 85 
*Amr ibn-Kulthum, 83, 93 
'Amr ibn-Luriayy, 100 
•Amrus ibn-YOsuf, 513 
Amu Darya, 209 n 4, 379 n. 3, 488 
'Aroud al-Sawuri, 1 63 n. 3 
Amurru, 36, 74 
'Amwas, 154, 169 
Anas ibn M5hk, 207, 236, 394 
Anas, ibn*, Malik, see Malik 
Anatolia, 449, 478, 697, 714 
Anaxagoras, 430 
*Anazah, 406 

Anbar, al-, 85, 290, 325, 349 

Anbit, al-> 67 

Ancyra, see Ankara 

Andaius, al-, 214, 498, $0$, 5*4, 5-5- 

534' 557* 500 See also Andalusia 
Andalusia, 398, 502, 506, 545, 54S, 55°, 

554, 562, 564, 5^5> 578, 5So> 59$, 612. 

See also Andaius, al- 
Andalusian* 21, 260, 281, 361, 404^661; 

fagMs, 542, Jewish culture, 543; 

poets, 562; historians, 565, astronomer, 

570; music, 598; sources of popular 

music, 599 
Andus, 204 m 3 
Anglo-Egyptian treaty, 751 
Anglo French Russian fleet, 725 
Am, 475 
Anjou, 6t2 

Ankara* 76, 85, 310, 312, 701; Grand 

National Assembly at, 184 
Annales royales^ 298 
ansdb, 102 

Ansdb al-Ashrdf, 388 
An far, 1 1 6, 140, 193 
*Antar. set 'Antarah 
'Antarah, 90, 96, 676, 690 
Antarctic, 3 
Antarfrus, 638, 657, 658 
Anti Lebanon, 361 
Anti-Taurus, 199 

Antichrist* 433, Cyrus regarded as, 165 
Anbgonus, 68, 70 % 

Antioch, 44, 76, S3, 153, 202, 255, 309, 
3»4» 355, 369i 423- 460, 476, 609, 633, 
640, 641, 643, 645, 648, 656, 657, 662, 
663,66s 



764 



INDEX 



Antiochus, i6x 
Antipatns, see Fujrus, abu» 
Antony, 180 
Anushanvan, 308, 309 
Anwat, dhat*, 98 
% cnwatan % 171 
Aphrodite, 79 
Apocryphal Gospels, X26 
Apollonius of Perga, 314 
'Aqabah, al-, 14, 37, 4*, 58, 119, 
aqdfim ol-maghrib, 330 n. X 
aqatim al-masknq, 330 n. I 
V* 443 

Aqmar, al-, Mosque, 630 
•tfy«r£, 572 

Aq§a, al*, Mosque, 285, 648, 665. »£r* 

also Masjid al-Aqsa, al- 
Aquinas, Thomas, 432, 612 
Aquitainc, 499 
'Arab, 41 

Arab: horse, 21; 22, 42, 82, 209, 2x0, 
2x2, 213, 215, 219, 222, 226, 229, 237, 
289, 323. 328 seq n 416, 484, 497, 499, 
500, Sol, 502 seq, t 602, 676; character, 
27; authors, 8x, 427, 577; delega- 
tion, 46; imagination, 65; story- 
tellers, 65, 74; king* 66; queen. 76; 
history, 79, 318; tribes, 79, 568; 
settlement, 82; chieftains, 84, 473; 
world, 106, 159, 604, 6S3, 686; his- 
torians, t42, 20S, 293; conquests, 142; 
invasion, 144, 195; empire, 145, 
mercenaries, 152; chiefdorns, X56; 
conquest, 166, 453; conquerors, 170; 
monetary system, 172 n. 4; armour, 
173, civilization, 174, 199, 515, 556; 
government, 195; kings, 198; attacks, 
200, 203; marches, 200; ship, 201* 
chronicles, 202; fleet, 202, 605; armada, 
203; coinage, 206; meaning of the term, 
240; medicine, 254, 364, 578; !>rt, 260, 
661; society, 280, 755; merchants, 
305; tradition, 343; geographers, 349, 
3$o? 387; astronomical tables, 375; 
zoologist, 382; poesy, 40$; settlement 
in Athens, 451; poetry, 459; annalists, 
469; caliphs, 478; chivalry, 479; 
colonists, 502; eloquence, 515; aristo- 
cracy, 525; supremacy on the seas, 
529; money, 529; % omen, 560; libraries, 
564; geographical studies, 5 70; astro 
r.omy, 570, astronomers, 572; scien- 
tific influence, 573; thought, 5S0; 
learning, 589, 607, 613; conquest of 
Spain, 597; songs. 599; musicians in 
Spanish miniatures, 599; music, 600; 



corsairs, 602; camp in Sicily, 003J 
chieftains in Sicily, 604; origin of 
Swiss place-names, 605; culture in 
Sidly, 606; husbandmen, 607; hos- 
pitality, 647; monuments, 661 ; tc- 
liquaries, 668; caliphate, 67X, 702, 
705; science, 6S7; lauds, 69X, 7x0, 716, 
728, 748; states, 710, 742, 748, 756; 
armies, 715; world, 722; nationalism, 
755 

Arab, non-. X70, 172 n. 4, 217, 332; cali- 
phate, 184, 671; potentates, 197 

Arab-Berber, 214, 50X, 718 

Arab- Byzantine: relations, 199; border, 
204 

Arab chroniclers, 78, 79, 80, 140, X44, 

156, 499, 503i 5°9 
Arab Crescent, 7x9, 751 
Arab East. 158, 631, 728, 755 
Arab Moslems, 196, 203, 2x8, 243, 444 
Arab Museum, Cairo, 70, 264 n. 5, 423, 

631, 681 

Arab-Norman: art, 607; culture, 607 

Arab Orient, 307 ru l 

Arab Spain, 509, 567, 580 

'Arabi, Ahmad, 750, 753 

'Arabi, ibn*, Muhyi-al-Dln, 436, 585-8 

Arabia: 3, 6-14, 17-18, 21, 23, 33, 34, 
36, 37, 42, 43 seq., 89, 97. xoi, X07, 1 19, 
X20, 123, 127, X38, 140, 14X, 142, 156, 
.68, X75> *97, 207, 215, 236, 250* 273, 
275. 305i 33S, 339, 34°, 357 »- 6, 398* 
489, 605, 622, 646, 667, 671, 697; 
738 scq.\ queen of, 38; south-western, 
39, 105; kings of, 413 northern, 41; 
ancient, 42; tribes of, 48; minerals of, 
48; circumnavigation of, 49; coast of, 
50; north-western, 22, $4; invasions of, 
68, 739, king of, 68; pagan, 106; his- 
tory of, i20> 193; land of, 142; recruits 
from, X63; sons of, X73; eastern, 224; 
the chase in, 228; postal relays of, 
323 

Arabia Dcserta, 44 

Arabia Felix, 44 

Arabia Petraea, 44, 68, 74 

Arabia Provincia, 74 

Arabian: S, 24, 25, 28, 30, 32, 44, 90, 1 54, 
183, 228, 231. 232, 233, 240, 301, 327, 
328, 332. 333. 334, 37°. 402, 544, 6S0; 
peninsula, to, 13, 143, 7*0, 737; poe&< 
17; oases 19, 39; flora, 19; trees, 20, 
thoroughbred, %\\ life. 22, 141; camel, 
22; nation, 32; people, 36, 45; colonists, 
56; blood, 57, 279; origin. 59, 65; 
tribes, 62, 78, X43, 156; pagans, 64* 



heroic age, go^poct, 94; calendar, 94; 
satirist, 941 pag^ 9$; authors, 97; 
goddess, 100; character, 102; posses- 
sion, 106; stories, 124; arms, 143, 152; 
glands', 755; desert, 155 n. 2; troops, 
1595 expansion, 159; ports, 165; garri- 
son, 1 66; primitive society, 167; con- 
querors, 169; army, 174; contribution, 
174; soil, 192; physicians, 254; archi- 
, tecture, 256-69; art, 259; musical 
theory, 275; social life, 280; principle 
of seniority, 282; aristocracy, 287; 
1 king:, 293? nationalism, 307 
Arabian American 03 Company, 17, 741 

* Arabian Gulf, 34 
Arabian "Iraq, 330 n. 2 

' Arabian 1 Moslems, 143, 169, 218, 231, 
, 232,283,2*7 
Arabian, non-, Moslems, 20*3 
+ f r . Arabian Nights, 7, 300, 333, 337, 34©, 
404*5, 425, 591, 663, 676, 690, 691 
Arabian, pan-, pilgrimage, 113 
Arabian Sea, 15 
r Arabianism, 145, 287 
Arabi animation of Islam, 1 18 
Arabians: 4. 6, S, to, 12, 25, 26, 2$, 30, 
"l > 3», 37, 48, 49, S«i 59, 6i f 64, 
70, 76, 78, So, 84, 8S, 90, 93, 97, T 43, 
M5, *53, 163, T &fc 1^9, 173, 174, 228, 
231, 236, 240, 250, 259, 27 r, 2S3, 307, 
310, "316, 332, 39X, 48$, 40, S09, 544; 
pagan, 66; dtwdn of, 95; urban, 102; 
security of, 176; early kings of, 244; 
1 religion of, 249; sage* of the, 250; 

doctor of the, 254 
^/Arabians, non^, 169, 240 
- ' Arabic: 4,^9, 12, 79, 84, 88, 90, 126, 158, 
167, 195, 227. 354> 357, 362, 3^5, 3&7» 

* , 369, 37*, 372, 373, 375 4°o, 427, 
„ „ 463, 49S, 663, 667, 668, 687, 689; 

poets, 19; legends, 60; ballads, 60; 
tradition, 62,* 79, 92, 183; script, 70; 
proper names, 70; vernacular, 70; 
classical, 71; tongue, 78, 174, 253, 
» 851, 390; poetry, 94, 103, 156, 244, 
v7 i' + 407; versifiers, 99, 405; prose, 127; 
^ orthography, 131, 219, 227; collo- 
quial, 134; annals, X41, 198, 252, 505; 
i sources, 1 43, 338, 343, 575; chronicles, 
-152 n. 2, 156, 194, ^95 a. 4, 200; 
culture, 209, 559; grammar, 241-3, 
253, <»o8; prosody, 242; historiography, 
243 t r 565? philology, 243, 565; histori- 
cal Iore*< 244; romances, 25 1> 300; 
f singers, 251; music, 274, 428-8; 
* mathtmaticalscience.soS^orld^is, 

r „ 



EX 765 

34r, 379, 613; books, 340, 3S7, 423, 
555, 5S8, 6l 3J oldest paper manu- 
script, 347; alchemy, 364; treatise on 
ophthalmology, 364, 369, 686; East, 
36S; moral philosophy, 401; poetry, 
406, 407; treatises on education, 409; 
manuscripts, 420, 555, 565, 574, 612; 
poetry in Spain, 560, 561, 562; lexico- 
graphy, 562; geography, 563, 565; 
astronomy, 565; origin of star-names, 
572; terms translated, 573, 579; 
botanical data, 576; translations, 577, 
585; medicine, $79; science, 589; terms 
m Spanish, 593; studies in European 
universities, 612; modern, 747; paper, 
748; press, 745, 747 
Arabic coinage, 217, 529, 542 
Arabic inscriptions, 70, 271, 591, 607, 
669, 692 

Arabic language, 13, 22, 30, 40, 70, 122, 
199, 203, 214, 217, 2^1, 246, 250, 252, 
255, 275, 294, 306, 307, 3*°, 3", 312, 
313, 316, 403, 429, 5*2, 543, 551, 557, 
559, 571, 572, 583, 585, 590, 598, 601, 
607, 611,612, 647, 695, 715 
Arabic literature, 20, 92, 173, 176, 207, 
243> 265, 269, 302, 402-5, 409, 433, 
438, 559, 569, 578, 687 
Arabic numerals, 308-9, 673-4, 607 
Arabic-speaking: peoples, 4, 6, 9, 43, 127, 
199, 557, 592, 757; lands, 27; world, 
93, 436; Jews, 354; region, 452 
Arabic-writing philosophers, 583, 585 
Arabic, proto-: 71; inscription, 82, 88 
Arabic, pseudo-, inscriptions, 592 
Arabicization, 5x6 

Arabicired Christians, 5*6, 543, 558-9 

Arabicizcd Copts, 625 

Arabisra, 172 

Arabissus, 200 n, 4 

'Arabxstan, 157, 730 

Arabists, 52 

Arabs: 3, 4, 8, 21, 41, 71, 90, 106 seq„ 
210, 212 seq tt 329, 363 seq.t 402 seq. f 
484, 493, 502 seq.\ heathen, 84, tongue 
of, 91; political geniuses of, iSt; as 
merchants, 343; use of drugs by, 364; 
geographers, 385; register of, 404; as 
teachers, 715 

Arabs, non-, 332, 381 n. 1, 394, 402, 410, 
484 

4 Arabshah, ibn-, 699* 701 
Araby, 6 
Aradus, 167 
•Arafah, 133, 134 
'ArafSt, mountain, X33 n* 4 



766 



INDEX 



Aragon, 496, $18, $2t, 543, 549* 55*i 

5S6, 599 
Aral Sea, 215 
Aram, 37 

Aramaean: king, 37; stock, 104; in- 
fluences, 106, centres, 107; peasants, 
155, sources, 241 

Aramaeans, 9, 10, 11, 20, 175, 232 

Aramaic 9, 13> 4°» s 4> "7 a, 3, 
characters, 70; inscriptions, 70, 76; 
language, 78, 246, 353. 357, 361. 
ideas, 106, \*ords, 107; origin, 132; 
civilization, 174, 306, 309, 310 

Aramaic spcalmg Jews, 104 

Aramaicism, 195 

Arbcla, 687 

Arbunah, 499 

Archidona, 494, 5°6» 5t$, 52a 
Archimedes, 314* 376 
Arctic, 3 
ArdabU, 330 
Ardashlr, 82 

Arctas III, see Hnrithah III 

ArghQn, 67$ 

Anam 61, 498 

'art&aky 32 

'crif, 328 

erf ft t 384, 570-71 

\Atish, al-, 670 

Aristotelian' 315, 368, 370, 38T, 383, 
works, 427; system of universe, 571, 
572; philosopher, 581, philosophy of 
ibn-Maymun, 58$ 
Aristotelian, pscudo-, work, 663 
Anstotelianism, 316, 371, 584, 585 
Aristotle, 306, 310, 311, 312, 313, 315, 
316, 363, 369, 37o» 37«> 382, 3S7> 40f, 
571, 572, 580, 5S1, 583, 588. 61 1, 612, 
663 

Aristotle, pseudo-, 610 
Aristo^enus, 427 
artthmd{iqi> 311 n* I 
Ark of the Covenant, 136 n, 1 
ark&H) 130 

Armenia- 154, 176, 2x2, 224, 292, 299, 
330, 346, 3$5> 475> S57, 633* 678, 7Q3J 
Byzantine, 157 

Armenian* mercenaries, 152*, of Con- 
stantinople, iS6 t 332, 671; vizir of 
al- Mustansir, 622, origin of two 
vizirs, 630, population of CiHcia, 637; 
betrayer of Antioch, 638 

Armenians, 341, 678, 679, 6S0, 716 

Armcnoid type, 30 

Arnaud,Th S , 51, 55 

Arnold, castle of, 648 n. 2 



Arnold, T. W., 420 
'Arqih, 638 
*arradahy 226 
Arras, 66S 

Arsacid Parthian dynasty, 81 
Arsuf, 640, 641, 656 
aruzz % a/-, 52S n. 5 
Arwad, 267, 679 
Arwad, isle of, 202 
Ar>ans, 158 
Ar>at, 62 

Arzachcl, see Zarqah, al- 
*A$, abu al-, 1S9, 193 n. t 
*A$, ibn-al-, see *Amr 
'asabfyahyZ*!) 2S0 
Asad, tribe, 141 

Asad ibn-al-Furat, see Furat, ibn-al« 

As'ad Kami!, Tubba', 61 

'Asakir, ibn-, 19S, 392 r 

A'snm, al-, see gubaysh ibn-al-Has^n 

asas, 443 

asautr, 334 

Asbttariyah, 644 tx 4 

Ascalon, see 'Asqalan 

as hob al-nass t 140 

Ash'ari, al-, abu-al-Hasan *AU* 410, 

432, system of, 430 31 
Ash'ari, al-, abu-Musa, 181, 260, 434 
Ash'arfyah, 431 

Ash'ath, ibn-al-, see 'Abd-al-Rahman 

ibn-al-Ash r ath 
Ash'ath ibn Qays, al-, 86 
*Askr Jlfagd/dt, arA, 364 
Ashraf Jin-balat, al*, Mamluk, 694 n 3 
Ashraf Khald, al-, 658, 672, 673, 675, 

679 

Ashraf Musa, al-, Ayyubid, 6 in, 655 

Ashraf Sha'ban, al-, MamlQk, 673, 6S2 

Ashtar, al-, see Malik al-Ashtar 

'Ashtart, 61 

f ds/.ura\ 133, 191 

*A$i, al-, see Orontes River 

Asiat 156, coo, 344» 37$, 3S1, Z9h 405, 

4Sii 4°5> S*9> 530, 5 8 3J western, 21s; 

central, 215 
Asia Minor, 20, 33, 75, 76, 199, 205, 224, 

299> 300, 3S6. 437, 459, 475, 47<5, 47$, 

479, 57S> 633, 635, 636, 637, 701, 702, 

733 
Asians, 48 

Asiatic, 33; architecture, 419, mon- 
archies, 545; possessions of AIe\ws 
Comncnus, 636; part of the Ottoman 
kingdom, 702 

IAsim, umnv, 503 
Asir, 18, 19 



INDEX 



767 



'AskarMukraro, 170x1.1 
*AsUri, a!*, see Hasan, al- 
Aslam, ibn-, Shuja', 392 n. 6 
&slama t 1 29 

Asms*, mother of ibn-al*Zul*yr, 193 

"* ahjtiistta } ah, 128 

t 96, 3 88 

'Asqalan, 635, 639, 641, 645, 653, 665 
AsrSr, 366 

jtf/rtfr ct*$iknak aUMashriqlyah^ 587 
Assassin: movement, 446 8; 478 
Assassins, 373, 446 8, 449* 485, 486, 

633, 646, 657, 675 
j Asscmani, r« Sim'fini, al* 
^ Assurbanipal, 39 
Assyria, 39, 330, 664 n, 4 
Assyrian: conquerors, 2X, 665 n, 4; 
fc conquest, 22; period, 36; empire, 37; 
' kings, 38; suzerainty, 38; annals, 39, 

42; provinces, 39; control, 39; fashion, 

40; records, 50, 660; campaign, 67; 

architecture, 260, 262 
Assyrians: 9, io, 38-9, 347, 420, planets 

known to, 415 n. 7 
Assyro-Babylonian- 9, 52; language, 13; 

■records, 21, 39; times, 174 
Assyro- Babylonians, 175 
Asturias, 496 
csfurm, 311 n. J, 375 
Asturlfibi, al-, f Ali xbn-'Isa, 375 
Aswad> a!*, prophet, 142 
oswaifart t al- } 19 
Aswan, see Us wan 
Asyut, 688 n. 4, 746 

'* at$b*gGl~cskar,&jz 

Atabeg dynasty, 480 n. 4 

ct&htgst 480 n. 4 

'Atlibiytih, abu-al*, 304, 406 
K Ath&r al-Baqiyah, at; 377 

Athena, 57 

Athenian emblem, 57 

Athenodorus, 76 

Athens, 451 

ttihfr, 311 n. 1 
_ Athir, ibn-al-, *Izz-al-Dm, 390, 391-2, 

303, 410, 477, 4»3r 6x8, 652, 688 
t 19 

'Athlith, castle of, 658 
'Atfciar, Sh 6t 

'Atikah, daughter of Mu'awiyah, 228 
*AUkah, granddaughter of Mu'awiyah, 
220 

Atlantic Ocean, 3, H» 206, 213,214,383, 

493, $24, $20, 548, 619, 620,7x1 
cjlcs, 66S 



Atlas, Moroccan, 546 
Atsiz, 635 

'Attab, TJmayyad prince, 345 

345 
Attic, 217 

Augustalis Theodoras, 161 
Augustiman scholastics, 5S7 
Augustus Caesar, 46, 164 
Aurehan, 76 
Australia, 736 
Austria, 479, 717 
Austrian: 7; chieftain, 551 
Avempace, see Bajjah, lbn 
Aven Sina, see Sina, ibn- 
Avencebrol, see Gabirol, ben* 
Avenzoar, see Zuhr, ibn«, abu-Maxwan 
AverroSs, 316, See also Rushd, ibn- 
Averroism, 583, 588 
Avicebron, see Gabirol, ben- 
Avicenna, 3x6 See also Sina, ibn* 
Avignon, 501 
'awdstm, al-, 200 
*Awf, iox 

*Awf, ibn-, 'Abd-al-Rahman, 178 
'Awfi, al*, Muhammad, 669 
'Awja' River, 285 
'Awja*, ibn-abi-al*, 394 
A'vvlas, 200 

Aws, changed first name of abu 

Tammam, 407 
Aws, tribe, 89, 99, X04, 116 
'awsqft 149 
'A ww iim, ibn-al-, 575 
Awzi&'i, al-, 398, 400 
Axum, 57. See also Aksum 
Aybak, founder of Mamluk dynasty, 

655, 672, 673, 674 
Aylah* Christian chief of, 119; via, 148; 

647 

*Ayn, al-, 242 

' Ayn JilQt, 487, 655, 674, 675 
*Ayn Shams, 161 
*Ayn al-Tamr, 149, 213, 269, 3S8 
Ayyam al-*Arab, 26, 87, 88, 89 
Ayyub, 43 

Ayyub, father of Salab-al-Din, 645, 655 

Ayyub al-Ansari, abu-, 201 

AyyGbid: sultans, 135; sultan, 610; 

period, 625; dynasty, 625; 653, 656, 

<56o, 661, 672, 674, 68$, 687, &9i; 

school of architecture, 697; age, 701 
Ayyubids, 628, 630, 637, 654, 659, 661, 

672, 674 
Azd, al-, 82 n 2, 284, 380 n. 3 
Azd-Mudar feud, 283 
Azdite party, 280 



768 



INDEX 



Azbar, al-, Mosque, 127, 335 »• 6, 53°i 

567, 619, 628, 630, 743, 754 
Athar al-Afkar, 3S3 
*A2l2, al-, Ayyubid, 584, 652, 655 
'Aziz, al-, Htimid, 619-20, 623, 625, 

627, 628, 629 
'Aziz, al-, Yusuf, MamiGk, 694 n. 3 
'Azm, al-, As'ad, 731 
'Arm, al-, Isma'il, 731 
•Azrns, 731-2 
Azraq, a!-, 269 
AzTaqts, 208 

AT 219 

Baal Shamin, 78 

Baalbek, see Ba'labakk 

tab ehdhahcbt 293, 416 

Bab al-Futuh, 630 

Bab al-Mandab, 13, 32, 34, 5° 

Bab al-Nasr, 630 

Bab al-$aghir, [al-], 198 4 

Bab al-Zawiyab, 630 

Babak, see Babik 

Babalyun, i6x. See also Babylon, in 

Egypt 
Babik, 323 

Babylon, 28, 37, 39, St, 241, *93> 3°5 
Babylon, in Egypt, 16 1-5 
Babylonia, 32, 36, 38, 39, 3<>7t 3**» 357 
Babylonian: goddess, 6j; singers, 81; era, 

X5 6 ; 350, 357, 358, 4*7 
Babylonians; 6, u, 38, 96, 479; 

planets known to, 415 n. 7 
Bacon, Roger, 366, 370, 587, 588, 629, 

66s 

Badajoz, 518, 540 

badal al-'askarj, <*/-, 32O 

Badawi, al-, Ahmad, 437 

Badi* al-Zaman, see Hamadhani, al* 

Badiyah, al-, 15, 44, 19s, 253 

Badiyahs, al-, 195 

Badiyat; al-Sha'm, 15; al-'Mq, 15 

Badr- skirmish, 104; 116-17; victory of, 

132; battle of, 155, 242; battlefield of, 

183 

Badr, craftsman, 591 
Badr, frcedman, 505, $07 
Badr al-Jamali, 622, 630 
Baedeker, 605 

Baghdad: 29. 66,85,86,00, 122, I56n. I, 
158, 184, 185, 191, 240, 289, 296, 297, 
298, 299, 301-6 seq. t 401 , 405, 406, 407, 
408, 4", 412, 414, 4*5, 416, 417* 424t 
425, 426, 432, 434, 436, 437, 438, 440 
5*4, 5-H, 526, $*% 530, 535, 534, 
S42, 557* 570, 578, S So, S83, 592, 598 



S99- 610, 617, GtH, 620, 622, 626, 627, 
633, 641 n. 2, 644, 672, 676, 677, 691, 
699, 705, 713. 737, 749i cafes of, 655 
intellectual development in, 345; 
founding of, 292-3; postal head- 
quarters in, 323; roads through, 
323, 325; first paper-mill in, 347; 
canal connection at, 349; caliphate, 
357; hospital at, 365, 366, under 
Hulagvdds, 488; under Il-Khans, 4SS; 
wall of, 737; garrison in, 738; pashas 
73$; schools in, 73& 

Baghdadi, al-, a!-Kha{ib, see Khatfb, al- 

Baghdfidis, 318 * 

Baha'-al-Dawlah, Buwayhid, 472*3 <■* 

Baha*-al-Dm ibn-Shaddad, 411, 652 

Bahdal, banu-, 195 

Bahili, al-, 578 

Balilra, m 

Bahr al-Khazar, 29^ 

baftr af'pufumdt, 529 

Bahrain Petroleum Company, 740 

Bahr am Gor, 82, 83 

Babrayn,al-. 37, 141, 157, I73»«4,237- 
33°» 739* 740; pearls of, 348 

Bahri Mamluks, 6724, 677, 678, 682, 

694 
batdah) 30 

Bajjah, ibn-, 576, 681, 599, 600 
BakhtIshQ\ ibn-, Jibril, 363, 364 
Bakhtlshu* ibn-jOrjts ibn-Bakhrlshu*, 
309 

Bakr, tribe, 233 

Bakr: woman of, 89; side, 89 

Bakr, banu-, 26, 89 

Bakr ibn-al-Nasir, abu-, Mamluk, 673 

Bakr al-§iddiq, abu-: T 13, 120, 123, 139, 
140-45, 148, 175. -77, 178, 1S3, aS4 
n. 2, 193, 238, 394; caliphate of, 440 

Bakr iba-W&M, subtnbe of, 148 

Bakri, al-, geographer, 668-9 

Baktashi order, 203, 437, 449 

Baktra, see Balkh 

Baku, 292 

baU y 20, 97 

Balaam, 94 

Ba*labakk, 150, 221, 315, 643, 645, 659, 

678, 701, 729 
Baludhuri, al- t 17, 144, 150, 153. -73* 

194, 199, 209, 217, 388, 402. 4" n*S 
Bal'ami, 463 
Balansi, al-, 570 
Balarm, see Palermo 
bal&t al-skuhad&% 501 
Balbis, 161 

Baldwin I, 637, 639, 640 41, 665 



INDEX 



769 



Baldwin IT, 6fc - r 
Baldwin III, 645* ' " 
Balearic Isles, 548,-618 
Balj ibn-Bishrj see QushayTJ, al- 
«Ba)kh, 209, 294, 330,~378. 434» 4$2, 

: Balkbi, al-, abu-^ayd, 385 
'Balqa*, al-, 78, *47» 269 m 2 
Baluchistan, 157, 210, 330 
'bcnrJ', ah, 597 n. 2 
Baqfr, al-j Muhammad 

Barada River, 231 
Barakab, Mamlak, 673, 677 
Baraqxsbi $4 
Jtarbar^zi^Tx. I 

Barbary: 21, 213 n. 2; coast, 521; pro- 
vinces, 711; states, 712 
Barbate River, 494 ' 
Barcelona, 507, 527 
Bardawil, 670 

Barhcbracus, see Ibri, ibn*al- 
Bari, 604, 605 

terttt, a!-, 195, 3* 2 *u $, 3*3 
Barkiyaruq, SaljGq, 480 

tarma.k t 294 

Barmak, ibn-, Khatid, 284, 295, 296 
Barmak, *bn-, Yajiya, 295-6, 315, 323, 

348,68? - 
Barmaki, Ja'far, 304 
Birmakid^295, 323, 414 
Barmakids, 294-6, 304, 319, 364, 4*7 
Barqah, i6S> 170 n. 1 

» 528 n. 6 
BarqSq, 'Mamluk, 567, 664, 677, 682, 

685, 6S7, 6S8, 691, 692, 694, 695, 

701 '< 

Barsbay, Mamlulc, 694, 695, €97-9, 702 
Banich, 43 

Ban al-Qummi, ibn*, Muhammad, 318 

h&tckh, 106 m 3 

Basastri, ^474*5, 622 

^,577* ~, 

fiasnaritt, al-, 554 

h&skifr 340 

Bashir aI-Shiha\bi II, 731, 733 se$., 735, 
73^ 

Bashkuwal, i Dn » f 566 
fcashshlr ibn-Burd, 405, 406 
Basil f t Byzantine, 605 
Basil Jl^Byzantine, 460 
Basqu^^ 507, 521, 531 
Basrah, a!-V 133, j 57> ^ l6Si 170t j 70j 
r 197,208,209,224,226,241-2, 
* *45* 254,255,260,280^290, 292, 32s, 



330, 343r 344r 345> 350, 358, 3 6x, 372, 
395. 403» 413. 430, 439, 444, 445* 4$$, 
622, 628, 737, 749; governor of, 177; 
metropolitan of, 355; litterateurs of, 
402 

Basrah Mosque, 262 
Basrans, 208 

Basri, al-, al-Ha?an, 242, 245, 249 
Basrite scholars, 242 
Ba$ritcs, 243 

Bassora, 241 n. 1. See a/so Basrah, al- 
Basus, al-, 89 
Basus War, 26, 92-3 
Bath-Zabbay, 76 
bafin, 443 
bafinti 586 
Batini sect, 444 
Bafinite, 431, 446 
Bat mites, 443 
Batn al»Sirr, 149 
Batriq, ibn-al-, aLu-Yahyaj 311 
Batrun, al-, 657 
Ba|£aJ, al-, \AbdulJah, 203 
Battani, al-, astronomer, ^ f 35$, S7$ f 
571, 572 

£af?u>n, ion-, J04, iff ti, 2, 335, 4*1, 
479, 483. 589 

Bawan, gap of, 350 

Bawwab, ibn-al- t 424 

Bay of Biscay, 215 

bey* ah, 140, 184, 185 

Bayasi, al-, abu-Zakariyu;' Yahya, 427 

Bayasfd I, 677, 701, 702, 709 m 1 

Bayasid II, 702, 712 m 3 

Bayazul al-Bistiimi, 435 

Baybars II, Mamluk, 622, 673, 6S2 

Bay bars nl-Bunduqdan, al- Malik at- 
?5hir, I35> 448, 4S7, 4S9, 652, 655-6, 
657, 658, 664, 673, 674.7, 690, 695 

Baybars al-Jashnakir, see Baybars H 

ba}da\ ah, 156 

Bayreuth, 667 

Bayruni, al-, 376 n. 7. See c Uo Birum, al- 
Bays&n, 640, 648 n. 3 
bayt, 612 

Bayt al-Hikmab, 310, 373, 410 
Bayt Jibnn, 150 n. 2 
baytalmal, 319, 627 
Bayt ahMagdts, 386 
6ay/ar, 6S5 

Bay^r, ibn al-, 575-6, 581, 686 
baz^ 340 
Becker, 144 

Becket, Thomas, 652 n. 7 
Bedouin: memi'of, 19, 20, 22, 23-8, 8o, 
88, 9?, 98, X34, 176, j 95f 220, 229, 



770 



INDEX 



254, 269 n, Sf 4o6, 539; nuds, 21, 57; 

society, 25, 26; chief, 33, phy- 

larch, 79; tribes, 88, 738; wars, 89; 

life, 89, 253, hospitality, 95; heroism, 

96; religion, 96, 97; astral beliefs, 97; 

mercenaries, 117; woman, 134 n. 3; 

hordes, 144; ally, J$$; sheikh, 175; 

days, 685; contingents, 7°4 
Bedouins, J Si 22 3, 29, 39, 4*, 42, 43; 

44. S3, 87, 95, loz, "9> I44» 148, 156, 

i9S» 327. 458, 696, 737. 738 
Beirut cafes of, 65; 265 n. 3, 400, 424, 

640, 641, 653, 657, 658, 665; sanjaq of, 

729, press in, 747 
Bel, 76 

Belfort, 648 a, 2 
Belshazzar, 39 
Bel voir, see Kav>kab 
Bengal, 570 

Bengalese, origin of sugar-cane, 351 
Bengali, 126 

Bengesla, see Jazlah, ibn- 

Benjamin of Tudela, 357, 668 

Berber, 4, 213, 214, 275, 291, 502, 512. 
5M* 5 J 7, $18, 537, 540, 542, 548, 549, 
561, 689, 71 XJ tribe, x68; tubes, 452, 

565, soldiers, 469; insurrections in 
Spain, 507; dynasties, 537* 546, revolt, 
595; corsairs, 602; troops in Sicily, 
605; bodyguards of Fafimids, 620; 
battalions, 622, blood, 7*7 

Berbers, J36, *44, *59, 168, 213, 214, 
219, 233, 240, 341, 356, 360, 361, 45*i 
485, 493, 502, 5<>7, 508, 509, 534, 545* 

566, 56S, 595,617, 675> 7", 716 
Berlin, 269 

betk, 71 
Bethel, 26 

Bethlehem, 640, 670 
bichi ro7 n. 2 

Bible. 125, 233, 501, 747; Arabic trans- 
lations of, 354, Arabic recension of, 
5i6, 543 

Btbhotheca Ortentahs % 743 

btd'ah, 438, 740 

Bidpaj, fables of, 308 

info Jtay/y 431 

Btl&d ai-Mm, 199 

Bilal, 106, 259 

Bilbays, 32, 161 

BilMs, 161. See also Bilbays 

Bilqis, 42 

btmdnstSn, 365, 454 
Bimaristan al-'Acjudi, al-, 472 
Biqa\ ol-, EX n. x, 729, 73<> 
Bir al-KShinah, 213 



Btrdhawn, 322 n. 5 
Blran, 376 n. 7 

Blruni, al*, mathemabdan, 370-7, 383, 

402, 465, 589 

Biskra, 2x3 
Bismarck, 509 

Bitruji, al-, 387, 572, 581, 588 

Black Sea, trade, 344 

Black Stone, 26, 100, n8, 192,445,626 

Blunt, Anne, 7 

Blunt, Wilfrid S., 15 

Boabdil, see Muhammad XI 

Boccaccio, 663 

Bohemond I, 636, 638, 640 

Bohcmond III, 645 

Bologna, 118 

Bombay, 448 

Book, the, 127, 144 

Book of Allah, 397 

Bordeaux, 500 

Bosnians, 732 

Bosporus, 200, 202, 212, 299, 463, 705* 

710, 715 

Bostra, see Bu$ra 
Boulogne, 637 
Brescia, 127 n. I 

Brethren of Smceriry: epistles of, 401 j 
427. See also IMroan al-Safa* 

Bridge, Battle of the, 155 

British, officers, 6; empire, 206, 722; 
army, 675, 737, 749; naval operations, 
712; interest, 734, ship, 734; influence, 
739; government, 740; consul, 746; 
missionaries, 747; occupy Egypt, 750; 
troops, 751, mandate, 751, 755; rule, 
755; imperialism, 756 

British India, 249 n, 2 

British Isles, 588 

British Museum, 347, 369, 423 

Brusa, 701, 709 

Bu'ath, 89 

Budapest, 489,712 

Budosaf, 246 

Budd, 2x0 

Budd, al- t 246 

Buddha, 210, 212, 246, 292, 405, 434 
Buddhism, 145, 420, 433 
Buddhist- 209, 260; monastery, 294; 

monks, 435 
Buddhistic view of life, 435 
Bugkyat al'Afutlatnu, 566 
Buhayrah, nl-, 494 n. 4 
Bufrturi, al-, 407 

Bukhara: 104, 209, 330, 334, 346, 350, 
367, 452. 462, 463. 474, 482, 483, 
highway through, 323 



INDEX 



77X 



'Bukhari, al-, Muhammad ibn-Isma'il, 

131, 395, 4*2 
Bulaq, 619, 745 

Mtifat al; of imvol-Faqih, 385 
Balden, «A, of a!-Wqubi, 3S5 
Bulbars, 203, 212, 3S4, 569 
'Dnlghur, 570 
bmduq 653 n. 1 
Bunduqiyah, 653 n. I 
jSf, ^76, 601 
Btir&n, 302, 333 

Btmlq, ab, 114, 114 a. 4» 3S^> 420 

Buravdah, iS 

Burckhardt, 7, 102 

burdah) 1S6 

Burdah % <:/-, 690 

Burgundian princedoms, 643 
x Hrk&n> 106 
*Burid dynasty, 641 n. I 

^,672 

Burjh MamlGVs, 672*4, 677; dynasty, 

- 6$2; period, 691; sultans, 694; age, 

- 

Burjis, 6724, 677, 692, 694, 697 
<.Barsa, see Brusa 
Furton/JtCicnanf FI, 7, 119, 405 
J Bu*dr, 2S5. afro Abusir 
BusTr al-Malaq, x« BusTr 
'BQ§jrl, ah, Sharaf-al-DIn Muhammad, 

.Bdsms, rff Buslr 

Bu*r 3bn»abi-Arfab, 200 

; Bosta,7S,i47, *49, J 50 
,'Bustan, a]., 200 n. 4 
Bfctani, al-, Buirus, 748 
^Buth&ynah, 251 
^Bu&te, ibn-, 369 x 
Bawayb, al-, 155 
' Bmrayh, ibh-, Afcmad, 47G-71 
"Butvaybid? 250 n. 3> 329, 366 n, 2, -567, 

3?6, 393 t 404, 4^0, 413, 417, 471 3; 

regime, 466"; capital, 471; house, 474? 

p<wer, 475 " » 
;B«waybids,3i9, 333, 355, 464, 465, 471* 

- , 473 - « ^ r * 

c]- ay art, 237 * » 
i Buzjan, 315 xu 2 < 

^Bdsiani al^asab, al*, See \Yafa*, abu-ab 
A Byblos, 70. Ste a/ftf Jubayl 
1 Byngesla, see Jazlah, ibn- 

Byzatrtine: emperor, 02, 426, 524, 577, 
k ? ;6o4, 67S; -empire 662, 702; 

interests, -79; territory,- So, 619; side, 
v architect, S2; centres, jo?; chron- 
: xtk*iA\2i powfr. *42; , capital, 147; 
^•L^SW H7n*5^* army, 149, 161, 164; 



garrisons, 150; provu^ I54> 
navy, too, 164, 167, 6o 2 . administra- 
tion, 166; naval base, ^k, I7o; 
provincial government, j 73; armour, 
173; shipyards, 1935 pcr j 0 d, iq S; 
possessions, 199; vess^ 2 oi; forces, 
201; 212, 213, 217, 224 > 22 6, 229, 237, 
269, 275, 294, 29$, 299, 300, 306, 310, 
3-9, 33°, 400, 4^o; Mission to em- 
peror, 243; art, 246; m lls i Cj 24 6 ; .hips, 
256; ongin, 264, 691; pamters, 420; 
province, 475; city, 475. envoys, 531; 
monk, 577; craftsmen. 5g ^ ; govemorof 
Sicily, 602; interference m Sicily, 606; 
plan of £ate$ of Cairo, 6 30; sources, 685 

Byzantine Sicily, 451, 603 

Byzantine-Syrian art, 419 

Byzantines: 80, S3, S4, 142, 143, 14$, 
152, 166, 167, 193, 201.3, 213, 214, 
226, 291, 299, 329* 355, 427, 457t 460, 
493»5J3» 633, 715; f^ith of, 84 

Byscntir.tus Saraceria/u^ i ODO , 

Byzantium: 62, 66, 76, 1O0j 20 i # 

29S, 299, 301, 362, 45 « t 459> 400) 

4/9» 590. /05» 7-0, As lanc suburb of, 

201 

Cadiz, 540, 613 
Oesaraugusta, sec Sara^o^ 
C&sarea: 140, 153, 640, fc 4l} 665-6,667; 

of the Arabs, 163 n 3 
Ctesarea Augusta, see Sitragossa 
Cccsanon, 163 
Caetani, 144 
Cnirene, 654 

Cairo: 7, 90, 139, 1<>I» 165, 184, 185, 
264 n 5, 311, 335 n ( }j 34lf 343 , 3S3, 
388, 398, 405. 414, 4H, 453« 47 1 » 474i 
475i 4^9, 530* 532, 5 6,r ), 507, 575, S73> 
5S4, 59^ 620, 622, 624 6, 630, 631, 
652, 654, 656, 061, 06* 671, 675, 677, 
675, 6S1, 6S5, 6S6, 6S§ } 6S9, 690, 692, 
699, 701, 704, 705, 715; cafes of, 65, 
5rst hospital in, 365; finding of, 619; 
shops of, 720 

Calabna, 604, 605, 619 

Calatayud, 592 

Calicut^ 697 

Cahphal Palace, 295 

Calhnicus, 202 

Cambyses, 39, 161 

Canaamtes, o, n, 40 

Canaries, 3S4 

C$r*o*z, see Qdtiitn, etl- 

Ccfttar de mo Ctd, 545 

Ctmhgos de Santa Mcri a ^ ^oo 



772 



INDEX 



Canton, 344 

Cape of Oood Hope, 33, 696, 705, 727~8 f 
7SO 

Cape Town, 131 

Cappadocia, 212 

Capuchm, 7 2 9 

Carcbemish, 37 

Cansbrooke, vicar of, izS n. 1 

Carraathians, 15S 

Carmona, 496 

Carrhae, fee HarrJft 

Carthage, 16$, 2x3, 214, 451, 452, 493, 

$25* 579, 595 
Carthaginian civilization, 551 
Caspian Sea; 20, 202, 344, 390, 470; 

shores, 446 
Castile, kingdom of, 521, 533, 537, 539, 

540, 542, 549, 55*» 55 6 . 55Q- 599, 600, 

678 

CastiHan: 540, 544. 550, 553, 554; 

popular verse, 56^; students, 563; 

court, 567; vernacular, 5S9 
Castilians, 534. 549> 555 
Catabanei. 44 
Catalan, 663 
Catalonia, 533 
Categories \ 313 
Cathedral of Gerona, 591 
Cathedral of St, John, 221, 261, 262 
Cathedral of St. Paul, 604 
Cathodal of St. Peter, 004 
Catholic, 749 
Catholicism, 498 
Catholics, 498, 542, 736 
Caucasus, 210, 720 
Ccdrei, 42 

Central Africa, 134, 235 

Central Arabia- 17, 30, 65, 72, S4-5, 

9o> 2=4> 33°> 740; tnbes of, 141 
Central Asia: 20S n, 6, 210, 281, 305,316, 

3*S, $29, 346, 3S9, 39$, 4jS, 463, 475t 

485, 529» 633, 66$, 702, 715; Islam in, 

209, 210 

Centra] Asian: khanates, 209; abode, 

654; nomadism, 715 
Central Europe, 589, 605 
Central Park, New York, 164 
Cervantes, 559 [609 
Ceuta, 494. $05* 521, 535, 54&, $69, 5%7* 
Ceylon, 570, 678 
Chalcedon, 76, 201 
Chalets, 153 
Chaldaean, 260 
Chaldaeans, 6, 9, 10, S3 
Chaldlran, 703 
Chanson de Poland, 508, 562 



Chaplin, Charlie, 691 
Charibael, $6 

Charlemagne, 29S, 315, 330, 507, 636' 

Charles I, of Anjou, 306, 613, 076 

Charles Martcl, 233, 500 

Chatrarnotitac, 44 

Chaucer, 379 n. 4, 601, 631, 663 

ChesKho, 107 

Cherkes, see Circassian 

China: 3, 44, 7c, 206, 210, 212, 215* 260, 
305> 3i3 4, 35c 355, 375, 37^, 
3$3> 393, 4S3» $oi, 570, 57$, 60S n.6, 
702, silk from, 49, highway connection 
to, 323, silk trade, 343; paper of, 347; 
apricot from, 350 n. 7; gunpowder 
from, 667 

Chinese 90, 136, 210, 305, 664, 669; Ian- 
gunge, 126, monuments, 344; origin 
of paper money, 347 n. X; first refer- 
ence to tea other than, 377 n, 3; finger- 
pnnts of the, 3S3; paper, 414; origin, 
414, court, 420; sen-culture, 52$; 
potterw 592. 631* compass, 669 

Chinese Turkestan: 210, 212, 23$; silk 
route through, 343 

Chmgte Khan 414, 482 3, 4$6\ 6&> 
697, son of, 099 

Chosroes, 45- 2 7* 

Chosroes H, 264, 265 

Chosroism, 294 

Christ: n , 20, 22, 60, 6$, 73, 79, 87, 104, 
U7. 153, 222, 259 n. 3, 401; wor- 
shippers of, Sj; maid of, 83; dis- 
ciples of, 106 n. 2; divinity of, 246 

Christendom; deliverer of, 147, 204: the 
cathedral of, t47; 267, 393, 432, 5S6, 
610,633 

Christian* missionaries, 6, 6t2, 730; be- 
lief, 1 1; tribes, 2$; embassy, 61 j power, 
62, 06; population, Si; families, $J; 
subjects, $2, 654; 96, loS, 141, 142, 
153, 196, 212, 213, 214, 220, 221 sea., 
360, 361, 365, 369, 371, 3S5, 3SS, 395, 
407, 434, $03, 500, 5*0, 5*2, 515, 516 
seg , 607* 641, 643, 645, 646, 651, 670, 
678, 680; dogma, 102; physicians, 105; 
colony, J06; terms, 107; monk, ill; 
miniatures or mosaics, 126; scholars, 
j 26 n I; church. 143. 264, 4*7, 542, 
665; forces, 150, medieval waters, 178; 
pouers, 1S6; lore, 245; saint, 246; 
tribe, 251; physician, 254; priest, 255; 
churches, 25S, 259 n. 2, 420, 438, 620; 
architecture, 2*k>, 597; altar, 261; 
faith, 309; monasteries, 338; artists, 
420; representatives in calligraphy, 



^ ^ IN 

'4*4r icbolasttcism, 432; monks, 433; 

* ^eas, mi influence, 437, 474- n. 2; 
practice, 438; festivals, 440; names, 
449; doctrines, 479; fcealots of Cor- 
dova, 516; Ungs of Leon, 520; 
■royaftv, 5?4r^nff?om?, 52?, 532,- 
hymns, 563; mathematicians, 574; 
median* tradition, 579; scholastics, 
.580, 583; clergy, 583; heraldic devices, 

592; I ells, $94; population of Spain, 
599, kingdom with Moslem ofiJciafs, 
6o?; **oracn of Palermo in Moslem 

» costumes, 609, rule in Sicily. 613; 
booU, 014; territory, 643, pong, 64S; 
•religion k 656; prisoners. 66 i; relics, 

' £6$; holy places, 697; sects, 743 

Chnstfnn Abyssinians, 62, 65 

Christian Arabians, 66 

Christian Armenia, 479 

Om<\l in Armenians, 637 

Chilian Byzantines, 66 

Christian Church, poets of, 246 

Christian Copt, 120 

Christian Europe, 347* 3?o» 37t> 378, 
J1S2. 635 

Christian European music, 600 

Christhn Europeans, 11S 

Christian Greek influence, 24s 
1 ftiristian Greeks, 202 

Chnstian-Islamic, culture of Sicily, 
'6oS 

Christian Spain, 600 
Christian Syrians* 191 1 309 
Chrisnanhy: 3, 4, 60, 7S, 82, 84, 107, 1 18, 
- <>2, 128, 145, -32, 252, 420, 432, 433, 

* '439/452, 460, 488; S03, 523, 550, 55*. 

* 556, 558, 662, 663, 676; apology for, 
«4*» 3S4 

Christians; native, 62, 119, 130; pro- 
, tartar <if, ^2; 54, ^4, 133, ^ s S 6 t 
I * 170 ji. 3, *74» 203, 214, 233, 310, 338, 
* '353-7, 359/450, 441/480, 501^ 509, 
1 Vo, Sn> $ri> 5*9, SSi> 524, 53o, 533, 
; 534* 338. 54?i 549, SSh 555, $5<>. 57$, 
, fS* 637, 03S, $59, <fc 3l 

^ 676, 696, 703 n< i; manual for, 246? 
J as merchants, 343: secret, $tl; under 
, al«'A*b,6fto * 
Clulsriaas^on-, 607 
Christians of St. John, 233, 357 
Christians of St» Thomas, 356 
Christmas; 449; carols, 562 
Christology, 51$ 
Chjysopolis, 204, 290 
Chry*onhoas/r« John of Damascus 
Clirjsostom, 245 " 



EX < > 773 

Church of the Holy Sepulchre* 264, 298, 

636, 639, 665; destroyed, 620*21, 63$; 

rebuilt, 621 
Church of St, John, 665 
Church of St. Mary, 265 
CkJ, the, 540, 544-5 
Cilicia, 291, 637, 641 
Cihcian, 212, 648 
Cihcian Gates, 200 
Circassian* soldiers, 620; slaves, 672; 

682, 73S; sfave deafer, 695 
Circassian Burjis, 694 
Circassians, 71& 
Citadel of Aleppo, 660 
Citadel of Cairo, 652, 661, 665 r 672, 

681,724 
Clain River, 500 
Cleopatra, 163-4, 672 
Clermont, 63b 

Cluny; abbot of, 126 n« 1; 589 
Coele-Syria, 1 1, 68 
Coleridge, 487 n. 4 
Cologne, 589 

Columbus, Christopher, 553 n, 2, 570, 
;n 

Companion of the Prophet, 161 , 207, 238 
Companions* 140, 152, 155, 179, 242, 

243, 388» 392, 393, 401; Stories about, 

244 

Conrad III, German, 644 

Conrad of Monlferrat, 646 

Constans II, By ran tine, 164, 1 66, 167 
199,200 

Constantino, city of, 204 

Constantine IV, Byzantine, 201 

Constantine V, 299- 

Constantme VI, 299 

Constantine VII, Porphyrogemtus, 302, 
329,577 

Cdnsfancme VIII, 6zt 

Constantine the African, 5^9 

Constantinople: 62, 66, 79^ So, 85, 139, 
153, 160, 163-4, 167, I$4, I06 t 2J2, 
243» 265, 293, 299» 300, 301, 310, 356 
n, 3, 4*4, 476*. 4$9» 499, $24, 5*5. 5*$> 
529r 570, 595, 621, 636, 637, 676, 677, 
691, 693f 705, 709, 7t4, 7i5» 7i9, 737, 
749, attack on, 201-4 

Constantius, Byzantine, 61 

Contixtns t 366 

Copernicus, 572 

Coptic; form of worship, 165; church 
165, 654; bootet, Z5$; 353; 

grammar 

561; bookbinding, 631 
Copts; 165, 234, 240, 260, : H 6, 356, 625, 
692; minority of, 360 



774 



INDEX 



Cordoba la Vieja, 595 

Cordova: 387, 39& 4* 45°, 45*, 47h 
494. 5° 2 , S°3t 5<*>, 503, 5°9, 5", 5*4, 
5*5* 5*6, 5*7, 519, 5 2 o, 624 8, 532, 
533. 535, 536, 537, 53», 539, 5<M, 
543. 549, 551, 557, 558, 559, 5&>. 5^, 
5$3, 565, 5°^, 569, 57o, 57i, 574, 582, 
584, 590, 592, 593. 594, 595* 597, 598, 
599, 627; zealots of, 516; bishop of, 516 

Cordovan* pnest, 516, 521; scientists, 
526, oligarchy, 560; disciple, 57 1; 
Moslems, 597, caliph, 620 

Cordovans, 534, 53 6 

Corsica, 451, 602, 6x8 

Council of Vienne, 663 

Court of Lions, 597 

Covadonga, battle of, 551 

Crac de Montreal, 641 2 

Crac des Moabites, 641 xu 2 

Crete, 202, 451, 513 

Cnmca, 713 

Crimean War, 738, 749 

Cross, the, 147 

Crown, palace, 417 

Crusade, 476, 610, 644, 648, 654, 655, 
663, 678 

Crusader, 488, 644, 656 

Crusaders, 202, 265, 351, 423, 448, 480, 
488, 548, 549, 5 6 9, 624, 637, 639, 648, 
650, 652, 653, 655, 657, 662, 663, 665, 
667, 668, 669, 671, 675, 676, 678, 699 

Crusades, 21, 229 n. 6, 300, 339, 340, 
346, 392, 438, 448, 480, 614, 621, 631, 
635 58, 659, 662, 663, 664, 665, 667, 
669, 686, 691 

Crusading: castle, 648 n. 3; leaders, 655; 
period, 728; days, 751 

Ctesiphon, 66, 75, 156, 157-8, 174, 293, 
305, 597. See also Mada'in, al- 

Cush, 56 

Cypriotes, 699 

Cyprus* 167-8, 459, 648, 658, 697-9, 733; 

invasion of, 194 
Cjrenaica, 718 
Cyrus, of Egypt, 161-5 
C>2icus, 202 

$abb t cU t 20 
dabbabahi 226 

p*ibbi, &1-, see Mufatf dal, v\* 
Dabbi, al-, Spanish Arab scholar, 566 
Dabiq, 286, 626, 631, 726, 729 
Dablq, 346 

Dahbal al-Juroahi, abu-, 228 
DahbaX ibn'Muzahim, al«, 254 
paMak ibn-Qays al-Iihri, al*, 192 



DSbis, 90 
Dahn£', al- t 1$ 
dahr t al- 9 99 
tf&'if 443, 6l7 
dat af~du'a/r t 446 

Ddhrat alMddrif, 748 
dakkll, 27 

Daldlat al-gatrjn, 585 
Dalim, 541 n, 5 

Damascene: soldiery, 191; 229, 650, 
653; mctal'V/ork, 692; scholars earned 
to Samarqand, 70 1 

Damascene Ayyubids, 655 

Damascenes, 610 

Damascenus, Joannes, see John of 
Damascus 

Damascus' 37, 42, 43, 68, 75, 78, 80, 90, 
106 n, 1, 123, 148 54, 173, 174 seq. t 
202, 206, 213, 215, 217, 220, 221, 225, 
227, 229 seq , 329, 335. 351. 37i» 375* 
392, 393, 405, 407, 4oS seq.> 501, 502, 
503, 505, 528, 529, 531, 550, 567, S75> 
578, 586, 597, 610, 619, 620, 626, 635, 
640, 641, 643, 644, 645, 6sr, 652 se$.> 
680, 685, 686, 687, 688,^689, 691, 692, 
693, 701, 704, 7*5» 727, capture of, 79; 
surrender of, 195; postal service of, 
2x8; financial administrator of, 246; 
taxes of, 321 n. i; road to Baghdad 
from, 325; mosaic industry of, 346, 
347; orchards of, 350; walayah of, 726, 
732; wall in, 729; army from, 731 
palaces in, 731; walis of, 733; Chris 
tians in, 734; Moslems of, 746 

Damascus Mosque, 180, 262, See also 
Umayyad Mosque 

Darmetta, see DimyaJ 

DamTn, al-, 382 

dammak, 219 

Danes, 521 n. 2 

Daniel, the Prophet, 154 

Danishmands, 640 n. 4 

Damyal al-Knuza'j, ibn-, 690 

Dante, 114, 128, 459, 586, 613 

Danube, the, 489, 702 

ddr al-fcarb, 138 

Dar al*Hijrah, 444 

Dar al-Hikmah, 628 

Dar al-*Hm, 628 

ddr al'tmdrah t 260 

ddrahlsldm, 137-8, 185, 475 

ddr ahkfaldfak, 295 

ddr ahmamlakah, 47 1 

Dar al-Rum, 355, 356 n. 3 

ddr al-shajarah % 303, 417 



INDEX 



775 



dor afyirJ'ah, 193 

ddr at'futfrt 170 

ddrak, l$ 

Dor'ah, t$in. 3 

Darani, al-, abu-SulaymSn, 434 

Darayya, 434 

Dftrazi, al-, 621 

Darb nl-tfadath, 200 

Dardanelles, the, 212 

garth) 426 

Darimi, al-, Miskln, 251 
Darius, 40 
donvish, 43 8 »• I 
Dathin, 148 
David, 106, 125, 357 
D&wlyah, 644 n. 3 
daw/ah t 2S6, 452 
Daws dhu-Thi'Jaban, 62 

oriwad, 106 

Dawfid, brother of Tughrii, 474 n. 2 

Dawud, abu-, 395, 396 

Dawud, ibn-, nbu-Zakariya* Yaliya, 

see IJayyQj 
Dawfid, last Mamluk, 738 
Dawad Pasha, 736 
Davrudis, 448 s 
Day of Bu'ath, 89 
Day of Da^s and al-Ghabra', 90 
Daybul, al- f 210 
Daydan, 42, 54, 72 
Daylami, 252 

Daylamfte highlanders, 470, 474, 475 
Dayr al-Kum, 355 
Dayr al-Zur, 340 
Days of the Arabians, 93 
Days of al-Fijar, 89 
Dayman, 618 
JDe animo, 427 
De ommatibtts, 611 
De aspectibus, 370 
De coelo et mundo, 588 
De numero indico, 573 
De rtgimine ?olitorii % 581 
Be revsluHonibus erbium ccelesttum, 
$7* 

De setentits, 428 

De spiritibtis et eorporihus^ 366 

De voce, 427 

Dead Sea, 143, 147-8, 209, 283, 641 

Decameron, 663 

Dedan, 42, 54 

Dcdanite inscriptions, 71 

Delhi, 

Delta, the, 163, 415, 6x8, 696 
Deluge, the, 100 
Dcneb, 572 



Denmark, 6, 712 
Detroit, 23 

Dhahab, abu-al*, 720-21 

Dhahabi, al-, 390 

dhakhd % ir Nabawiyoh, 186 n. 2 

dkanab, 572 

dhikr, 433 

Dhiramah, 168 

Dhimmis, 170, 352-3, 484. See also rfhl 

Dhubyan: tribe of, 90; shaykh of, 90 

Dhubyanites, 90 

Dhufar, see £afar 

dhurah, X9 

didmah, 597 n, 2 

dibdj, 345 

Dijlah, 155, 349. See also Tigris 

Dilmun, see Bahrayn, al- 

Dimashq, 149, 154 

Dimyat, 346, 631, 653, 654, 655 

dimydft, 346 

Din, ah, 128, 365 

Din w*ahDawloJt, <*/-, 354 

dinar, 171 n. x 

Dinawar, 389 

Dinawari, al-, abu-rjanlfah, 389 

Diocletian, 163 n, 3 

Diodorus Siculin, 46, 47*8, 68, 70 

Dionysus-Bacchus, 73 

Dioscorides, 3x3, 575*577 

Dlr, al-, 384 

dirkc.ni> 172 n. 4 

Dir'iyah, al-, 74 X 

Divine Comedy, 1x4, X28, 459 

diwdn, anthology, 81 , 107 

diwdn, bureau: institution of, X72; 217 

diwdn (council), 743 

diwdn, divan, 335 

diwdn, register, 95 

diwdn al-bartd, 322 n. 5, 822-5 

Diwdn cl-flamdsak, 94, 144» W 

diwdn al>khardj\ 294, 3X9 

diwdn al-nopar/i al*tnafdHm % 321 

diwdn ahshurfah, 322 

diwdn al-towc?, 321 

diwdn ai-nividm, 32! 

diwdns, 94 

giydjah, 25 

diyah, 26 

Diyar Bakr, 325, 677 
Diyar Mu^ar, 280 
Diyar Rabi'ah, 280 
Djcmal Pasha, i6x 
Dnieper, 384 

Dome of the Rock, 206, 220-21, 264-5, 
416, 648, 665 



776 



INDEX 



Dominicans, 585 

Don Quixote, 559 

Dongola, 168 

Dorylfcum, 203, 636 

Douai, de, 670 

Doughty, Charles M., 7 

Do2> t sio, 531 

Drcux, de, 670 

Dnizc religion, St; 670 

Dxuzes, 249, 448, 449, 633, 680, 

690, 729, 731, 733, 735 
Druzism, 446 
du A d\ 13 m. 3 

Du*ali, al-, abu«al-Aswad, 241-2 
duff % 273 
duhdi y 161, 196 
Dujayl, 349 
Dulaf, abu-, 417 
Dumat al-Jandal, 38, 149 
dumyah, 107 n. 2 
Duns Scotus. 585, 587 
Duqaq, Saljuq, 635, 641 
Durayd, ibn-, 92, 402, 403 
Durrak aU Yatxmah, al-, 401 
Dushara, 72 
Dussaud, R., 448 
Dutch, 737 
Duwad, ibn-abi-, 429 
Duwayhi, 670 
Duwa>hi, al 4 , Isfifan, 743 
Dynasty: Twelfth, 32, 34; First, 33; 
Third, 33; Eighteenth, 34; Fifth, 34 

East: 6, 58, 75, 76, 294, 298, 307, 3*5; 

geography of the, 387 
East Africa, 58, 235, 467 
East India Company, 737, 739 
East Indies, 39S 
East Syrian: creed, S3; S4 
East Syrian Church, 8x 
Easter, 150, 449 
Eastern, 72S 
Eastern Arabia, 740 
Eastern Empire, I47i *S 2 
Eastern Islam, 704 
Ebro River, 524 
Ecbatana, S57, 330 
Erija, 494i 49 s * 5*° 
Eden, garden of, 349 
Edessa, 79, 148, *74, 196,309, 3", $35. 

See also Ruha\ al- 
Edessene architects, 630 
Edirne, see Adrianople 
Edom, 52 
Edotnites, 67 
Egilons, 503 



Egypt* 6, 20, 22, 32-4, 38, 50, 58-60, 65, 
76, 112, 127, H5r 136, 142, J43> 14K 
154, 158, 160-69, 171, 176. 177, x8g f 
192, 193, 196, 206, 213, 224, 225, 232. 
234, 240 seq , 305, 307, 316, 326, 330 

346, 353, 354, 356, 360, 391, 392 n. 6. 
395, 400, 404, 412, 417, 422, 426 seq , 
5o5* 529, 54S, 569* 578* 5$4> 607, 6to 
61 S, 619, 620, 621, 623, 625, 627-9 
631 , 633. 637, 641 > 6 45> 646, 652 seq 
690, 691, 692, 693, 696, 703, 704, 718, 
719 seq., 756, 757. ^ngs 38, 39, 4<>, 
46, strategic position of, 1 60; conquest 
of, 160, 161 n 3, 165, 388, land of t 
174, land tax of, 321; paper-factory of, 

347, water-courses of, 349, 350, pasha 
hk of, 724; emigration to, 736, in 
vasion of, 74Q, tribute of, 750 

Egyptian expeditions, 6; records, at; 
Twelfth Dynasty, 32; early annals, 
33; empire, 34, shore, 46; alphabet, 52; 
desert, 58, hieroglyphic, 71; language, 
71; caravan, 136; products, 165; 
papyri, 1 66, 414; ships, 203; glass, 
346, 380, 382, 388, 436, 452, 453, 455, 
622, 653, 668, 674, 675, 676, 686, 689; 
schools, 401; type of minaret, 613; 
fleet, 167, 200, 619, 639, 640; cali- 
phate, 620; cahphs, 626; school of 
bookbinding, 631; heresy, 635; garri- 
son of Jerusalem, 639, vizir, 639, 
academies, 661; army, 679, 701, 724; 
medicine, 685; ports, 697; expedition 
to C>prus, 697; sultans, 702; amirs, 
703; students, 724; viceroy, 725; artil- 
lery, 713; troops, 733; chroniclers, 
743, affair:, 749; government, 751 

Egyptian Aramitc, 76 

Egyptian-Asiatic, 726 

Egyptian Ayyubids, 653* 655 

Egyptian- Fertile Crescent, 738 

Eg>ptian Mamluks, 637 

Egyptians 11,12,34,174,232,240,631, 
6^9, 678, 692, 716, andent. 36 

El Ultimo Suspiro del Moro, 555 

Elam, 157 

Elamites, 347 

Elath, 41 

Elements, 311, 314, 588 
Eleutheropolis, 150 n. 2 
Fhas, 125 
Elijah, 125 

Elvira, 494, 502, 505, 519, 520 
Emesa, see Hims 

Emigrants, 116, lif, 140, 172, 179 
Emmaus, 169 n. 4 



Empedoclcan, pseudo-, 52!, 586 
Etnpedoclcs, 580 

England, 9, 27, 527, 589, 648, 665, 71?, 
749 

English: 15, 564, 690; horre, 21 j naval 
omccr, 51; translation into, 364, 368, 
405, 459; science, 58S; m.nstrels, 652; 
heraldry, 664; merchants, 72S; fleet, 
733 

English Arabists, 5S8 
English Channel, 5S9 
Epiphania, 150, See also IJamiih 
Eratosthenes, 45 
*Ereb, 41 

* Esarhaddon, 38, 39 
Esau, 40, 67 
Escurial. 564, 565 
Esdraelon, 154 
Eski-Shahr, 203, 637 
EsU-Sham, 150 
Esther, 405 
Ethiopia, 42, 49, 55 
Ethiopians, 41 

Ethiopia 9, 13, 72, 30S; tongue, 30, 52, 

56 1; origin, 106 n. 1 
Euclid, 310, 3 u, 314, 370, 427, 4*S, 5S8, 

629, 683 
Eudes, duke, 409, 500 
Eugene of Palermo, 612 
Eulopius, 516-17 
Euphratean civilization, it 
Euphrates. 14, 54, 6S, 75, Si, 84, 85, 

155, 1S0, 199, 2oo, 219, 224, 233, 280, 
290 n. 1, 292, 300. 350, 375, 460, 505, 
677, 72S; canals from the, 349; valley 
of, 736; lower, 738 

Europe, 3, 4, 6, S, 21, 44, 5*. 5 S > *54* 

156, 203, 214, 215, *35> 305 405, 
422, 45 465. 478, 493, 49$. 409, 5*5, 
524, 526. 527, 529, 530, 531 seq , 579, 
580 83. 58$, 589. 591, 592. 509, 600- 
$02, 605, 607, 610, 6t2, 613, 635, 637, 
644, 548, 652, 653, 663, 664, 668, 660, 
68t, 691, 745, 753 

European: 7, 12, 39, 51, 214, 220, 267 
n. 3, 27*> 3<>S> 3i6. 346, 363, 379, 3*7, 
392, 497, 526, 52S, 678- authors, 45; 
languages, 04, 572, 6oo, legend, uS 
n. 6; clu\aJiy, 1S3; powers, 1S6, 676, 
725; country, 206; universities, 410, 
6t2; guilds, 445; literature, 562; num- 
erals, 574; thought, 584; v, ea\ers, 593; 
royalty, 613; missionary interest, 663; 
pHgrims, 66S; fleets, 697; blood, 7x7; 
intrigue, 722; businessmen, 728; col- 
onies, 728; missionaries, 728; ideas, 



)EX 777 

73*> 753* officers, 745? civilization, 749; 

intervention, 750; renaissance, 757 
European Christians, 12S 
Europeans, 6, 48, 55, 220, 229 n. 6, 580, 

635, 667, 746, 753 
Ezekiel, 42 
Ezion-geber, 41 
Ezra, ben-, Abraham, 5SS-9 

Fadak, 17 

Fadalah ibn-*Ubayd, 20I 
faddan> 1 07 n. 2 
FadI, al-, 296 
Fmfl aUKhayt) 6S5 
Fa$l ibn-Yahya, al-, BarmaUd, 414 
Fadlan, ibn-, Ahmad ibn-Hammad, 
3*4 

fakd y 20, 2 28 
Falil, 150 

Fa'iz, al-, Fatimtd, 623 
Fakhr-al-Din I. 729 
Fakhr-al-Din II, 729 seq^ 737, 736 
fafdst/afi, 370 
fa/Jdjtw, 696 
f*!*> 529 

faisafah, 311 n. I, 369 
fdludhaj, 335 
fcnd\ 435 

Fanna Khusraw, see *Adud-aM>awlah 

Fano, 747 

Faqar, dhu-al-, 1S3 

Jaqth % 225, 326, 409, 5"* 5U, 564» 
628 

Faqlhi ibn-al-, 264, 265, 330, 360, 385 
faqxhs^iz, 512, 542 
Far East: 305, 3831 geography of, 3S7; 

trade with, 749 
Far Eastern waters, 669 
Farab, 371 n. 2, 402 
Farabi, al-, 370. 371-2, 392, 428, 436, 

45S, 5S2, 58S, 599, too 
Faradi, ibn-al-, 565*6 
Faraj, Mamluk, see Na^ir Faraj, at- 
Faraj, abu-al-, great-grandson of ibn* 

Qurrah, 314 
Faraj aMsfahani, abu-al-, sec Isfahani, 

al- 

Faraj ben-Salim, 366, 579, 613 

Farama*, al-, 161 

Faranjlyah, 670 

Faranus, see Faraj ben-Sahm 

Farazdaq, al-, 220, 237, 252 

7^,400 

Farghanah: 200, 235, 32$, 330, 375, 
452, 456; mercury, pitch and tar of, 
349 



7?8 



INDEX 



FarsHaiii, al , abu-til-' Abbas Ahmad, 

370, 3^7, 5bt>, 5^9 
Tari'l. ihn-al , 43*>> 654 
fans, 690 

Faris, province: 157, 170 n. 1,208,325,330, 
342, 345. 3$o> 359 n 2, 412, 445 tu 2, 
471, 672 n 1, 699, sugar cane of, 351 

Fansi, al*, abu-*Ali, 472 

Farmer, Henry G., 273, 427 

farqai, S72 

Faruq, king, 726 n t, 751 

fas, 450, 513, 546, 555, 567, 581, 599 

Fasa, 345 

Fast fi ol-Milal, a/-, 558 

Fata, 1S3 

aI*Arcb 3 201, 481 

fat/aA r 219 

Jati\iah, 131 

Fctthat a/-* Ufut t t 432 

Fatik, ibn* t 5S9 n 3 

Fa\imah, daughter of Muhammad, 120, 
139, i/9» 1S4 n. 2, 189, 237 n. 5, 248, 
283, 290, 2or, 440 n. 8, 521, 618 

Fattmah, mother of Muhammad XI, 553 

Fafimid dynasty in Cairo, 15^, 444, 
532, 625; caliphate, 184, 60$, 617, 
652, cahphs, 1S4 n 2, 521, 620, 627; 
311, 452, 469, 474, 635, cahph, 354. 
606, 646; missionary, 446, dynasty m 
Tunis, 520, party in Spam, 521; navy, 
521; domain, 605, 625; fleet, 605; 
ongin, 61S; descent, 6jS; army 
reaches the Atlantic, 619, empire, 619, 
620, sovereign, 620, regime, 621, 622, 
dominions shrink, 62 1 ; possessions 
m Syrii, lost, 621; African provinces, 
62I; sovereignty in Sicily acknow- 
ledged, 622, rival of al Qa*im, 622; 
court, 623; last cahph dethroned, 624; 
period, 625, 631; administration in 
Egypt, 627; art, 630; architects 630, 
grandeur of buildings of, 630, bronzes, 
631: fabrics, 631; treasures, 631 

Fatnnid Eg>pt, 625, 627, 630 

Falimids, 165, 3S6 n 1, 446, 45 45 2 » 
457, 460, 473, 4S0, 485, 520, 605, 619, 
625 8, 631, 633, 635, 675 

foirah, 112 

festive 544 

Fawaris Ahmad, abu-al-, Ikhshldid, 457 
fay\ 170, 172 
Faymiyun, 61 

*ay?al 1, 293, 440 n b, 752-3 
Fay^al II, 752 n. 3> 753 
Fay} urn, 285 n 3 
Fayvumi, al-, Sa'id, 354 



Fazari, al-, Ibrahim, 175? 37$ 
Fazan, al-, Muhammad ibn-Ibrahlm, 

307. 373 s ^ f 

Ferdinand I, of Leon and Castile, 539 
Ferdinand III, 509 

Ferdinand of Aragon, 55 *» 553* 554, 555 
Ferdinand of Tuscany", 7 2 9 
Ferrara, 613 

Fertile Crescent, n-ij, 24, 28, 33, 58, 

7S, 144.5, i74-5> 3<>9> 360 
Fez, see Fas 
fi c?*A r afs, 427 
Fibonacci, see Leonardo 
Fida\ abu-al-, 7S f 3S4. 39°, 646, 653, 

657,668, 680 n i,0S7,683 
/cfcw,447 
fida*rS, 446, 647 
Fihl, 150 

Fihn, al-, see I fa bib ibn-Maslamah 
Fihn, al-, Yuswf jbn-'Abd-al-Rahman, 

504, 505 7 
Fthnst, al-, 244 n. 1, 246, 255, 306, 310, 

315, 35*. 354, 35S, 3 66 > 3Sb, 414, 425. 

468 

Fihi{tah t al , 575 

Ftlahah aUNebcilyah, «A, 35 3 

Filasjin, 154, 169 

Finikc, 200 

FinhnJ, 305 

/f^M32, 242,393, 396 

Tiras al Ilamdam, abu*» 45$ 

ftrdaxtSi 106 n 3 

Firduws al'IItkmah, 365 

Firdavsi, 463, 465 

firzttei, 106 n. 3 

Tirnas, ibn-, 50^ 

firsik, 52S n. 7 

First Maccabees, 43 

FiruEabad, 351 

nruzabadi, al-, 742 

fifyan, 481 

Iitvln fraternities, 1S3 
1 Ion, 516 17 
Florence, 379 
Flonnda, 494 n. I 
Flugel, 356 n 3 
Fori tttae, 5S1 

France. 281, 34*;, 451, 499, 524, 527, 
562, 564, 580, 503, 6io t 036, 640, 650, 
654, 665, 678, 7i7» 749. 750, 757; 
coasts of, 712, imperial, 717; professors 
from, 723; interest of, 751 

Francis 1,714, 728, 75* 

Franciscan, school, 5$* 

Franco of Cologne, 6<X> 

Fran co man notation, 600 



INDEX * 779 



Frank, 229 n, 6 
" FranUsh; author, 298; Ung, 301; 481, 

500, 507, 653, 654, 675, 683;army, 647; 
* cause, 64s, colonies, 652; art, 665; 

ancestry, 670 
Frankish Syria, 656 
Frankiih Syria-Palestine, 648 
Franks 90, 488, 500, 525, 636, 

638, 643 54, 659, 662, 663, 667, 668, 

66o, 6>8, 679, 686, 699 
Frederick IT, 574, 5^7, $88, 6oS, 609- 

611 6S4» 66 3 
Frederick Barbarossa, 648, 650 
Freemasonry, 443, 445 
French: officers, 6, 745; Jew. 7; 366, 689; 

Arabian Nights translated into, 405; 

mandate, 449. 75 *, 75 2 » 755? literature, 

50S, 52S; coinage, 529; knights, 644; 

army, 654; naval operations of, 712; 

troops, 722, 75 1; language, 724; schools, 

724; capitulations, 727; colony, 728; 

merchants, 72S; protection, 72S; settle- 
- mcnts, 72S, institutions, 748; officials, 

752 

French Crusaders, 549 

Friday: service, 131; sermons, 249, 267 

n.3;prayei, 2bb, 4&» 4^9 
Fu'ad, Ung, 725, 750 
fulart) 644 n. 1 
fnnduq, 651 n. I 
{ Fuqaym, tribe, 64 

Furat, ibn-al-, Asad, 602 3 
fursan, 327 

Furlsiyak w al*Afandpb xtt-ftarbfyah, 
al- t 665 

Furitsiyah tt'C-Shydi a AAV ayl, al- t 369 
Fusfat, al-, 165, 169, 260, 261, 262, 375, 

39i, 4t3,423> 4S3» 4$6\ 619, 626, 627, 

*3* 

Ftisvffi a^ftbb, ah y 58$ 
Fusus al-ftikart) 586 

i Fu(ru«, abu-, 285 

^ Futut. at-Butdan } 3S8 
Fatah Mtsr wa'Akhbarttha, 3SS 
Fuiuh Ytisuf ibn-'AbduIlah, ahu-al-, 606 
Futuhat a!*Afaktoj ah, al- t 5S6 
futHti&h, 183,479,481 

Gibirdl, Len-, 580 81, 589 
Gabriel, jco, 129, 24S, 352, 449 
Qxhy\ 60$ 

\ i Galen, 306, 311, 313, 363, 368, 369, 427, 
578, 5$S 
Gnlenism, 5^4 
/ GaW 496, 533, 535,539 
t vnihcian, 51S 
Gahcians, 525 



Galilee, 154 
Galland, 405 
Gallienus emperor, 75 
Gallus, sec Aelius Gallus 
Garcia, king of Galicia, 538 
Garonne, the, 500 

Garrett Collection in Princeton Univer- 
sity, 367 n. 2, 372 n. x, 376 ru 2 
Gaul, 2i4 f 500, 501 
Gaulamtis, 78 
Gaza, see Ghaxzah 
Gcbal, 70 

Geber, see Hny\an, ibn~, Jabir 
Gcbcr films Anise, see Aflah, ibn- 
Generalife, $29 
Genesis, 40, 2S0 

Genghis Khan, see Chinglz Khan 
Genoa, 605, 619, 636, 669, 678 
Genoese fleet, 641 ; 653, 667 
Gentiles, 585 

Geography, of Ptolemy, 384 

Geography, of Strabo, 46 

George of Antioch, 609 

Georgia- 154; bitumen and naphtha of, 

34>> 

Georgian, 246 
Georgians, 67S, 679 

Gerard of Cremona, 366, 368, 371, 376, 
379, 57*> 572, 577. 578-9, 5S8, 629 

Gerbcrt, see Silvester II 

German: language, 366, 689, kings, 590; 
knights, 644 

Germanic, 498, 499 

Germanicia, see Mnr'ash 

Germans: 525, king of the, 590 

Germanus, Julius, 1 19 

Germany, 305, 524, 527, 564, 5$9, 648, 
665, 667 

Gcsenius, 51 

Ghabghab, 97 

Ghabra*, al-, 90 

g/iatfa, 19 

Gh-ulir al-Khumm, 471 
Ghatiqi, al-, pip Mcian, 574 
Ghafiqi, al-, 'Abd-al Rahman ibn- 

' Abdullah, 500 501 
Ghalib, al-, see Na$r, ibn-, Muhammad 

ibn-Yusuf 
ghanttr.ah, 1 72 
Glur Hira*, ill 
ghanb, 739 
Gkartb ah#adtth % 347 
Gharid, al*, 'Abd-al-Malik, 275 
Gharnatah, see Granada 
Ghassan: 28, 65; house of, So; princess 

of, S3, courts of, 95 
Ghassan, banu-, G5, 7S, Si, 233 



INDEX 



Gtassanid* kingdom, ?8; champions, 
79, phylarchs, 81; orig* n » 81; channels, 
107; pnnee, 147; capitals, 150; king, 
201; 256, 267, 273, 30P n 2 

Ghassanids, 32. 78 80, 8* 8, 150 

Ghassanland, 80. 84, 106, 119 

Ghatafiin, 27, 90, 141 

Ghwri, al-, 726. See also Qon^aNvh 

pAaj&aA, 441 

Ghaylan al-Dimashqi, 4$0 

Ghiytasah, see Witiza 
gh<2zal t 250, 406 
Ghazah, a)-, jun-Birdi, 726 
GhfiAin Mabmud, 488, 679-80 
ghdzi, a A, 464 
Ghazi, king, 752 n. 3 
Ghaznah, 212, 376, 464-5, 47i, 481 
n. 4, 48* 

Glmznawid: 4&>5> 474; pnnces, 473 
Ghaznnwids, 463 5 
gkazw, 21, 25, <>q 
Ghazwan, ibn-, 'Utbah, 260 
GhazWat Badr, 117 

Ghazzah, 50, 54, 104, 148, 39S, 656, 68r, 
726, 734 

Ghazzah. al-, 3/0, 373> 4«, 4", 412, 

428, 431-2, 436, 478, 542* 5$3, 5Sfc 743 
ghilman, 341, 485, 695 
£Ai*r£'» 427 

ghno* al mutqan, <*/-, 274 
GhXtishah, see VV^a 
Ghulah, 1S3, 449 
GhumdZn, 57, 66 

Ghuri, al-, 694 n. 4. Sec also Ghawrf t al- 
Ghurids, 465 

Ghufah, al-, of Damascus, 231, 350, 550 
Ghuzz: Turkoman, 473; tnbe, 478 
Gibbon, 45, 501 
Gibraltar, 489, 493, 524 
Gihon, 209 n. 4 
GUcad, 50 
Gindibu*, 37 
Giralda, 548, 595 

Glaser, Eduard: 8, iS, 5 r > 55» °*4; dis- 
coveries of, 50 
Gnostic, 357 n. 5 
Gnosticism, 249, 433 
Gobi Desert, 14 

God: 11, 25, 113, 125; Christian, 105; 
true, 114, 128, 130; pleasing to, 124; 
word of, 127; conception of, 128; 
divine attributes of, 245; judgment of, 
247; incarnation of. 248; 2 90, 292, 
300, 31S, 319; wrath ot, 255, pre- 
rogative or, 269, caliph ot, 317 



Godfrey of Bouillon, 639, 640 

Golden Gate, 293, 410 

Golden Horde, 676, 678 

Golden Horn, 203, 212 

GoMen Odes, see Mu'allaqat. al- 

Goliath'* spring, see *Avn Hid 

Gorze, 5S9 

Gospel, 676 

Gospel of Luke 54 } 

Gospels, Arabic translation of, 543 

Gothic: 217, 235, 497, 49S, S 1 ^; traccrj 
50,5; architecture, 597 

Goths, 497, 498, $09, 5*S, 595 

Granada, 361, 494, 504, 509, 537, 540, 
543. 5*9 56, 55». 559, 5&*» 5&3> 5^7, 
5^9, 576, 5S1. 5*2, 592, 595. 593 

Granadan domain, 553 

Granadans, 544 

Grand Seraglio, 186 n. 2 

Great Britain, 739 

Great Khan, the, 487 

Great Powers, 749 

Grext $ir"ih, the, 349 

Great baljuqs, 465, 473-80 

Great War, see World War 

Greater Zab, 285 

Greco-Roman- 4, 49, 260, 3965 writings, 
50, nines, 174, traditions, 749, 757 

Greco-S3Tians, 194 

Greece, 9, 20, 21, 307, 3°9i 3*3» 45 1 * 
562, 599, 606 

Greek, 7, 46, 59. 9°> 125, 154, 203, 217, 
222, 226, 240, 307, 309, 3to, 311, 
312* 313, 314 seg.j 612, 665 n. 4, 
685, 6S6, 694; literature, 44, 49; 
records, 48, 1 52 n. 2; elements, 76, 
80; sources, 79, 241, 254, 404, 575; 
singers, 81, 273; mythology, 130; 
fleet, 167; navy, 200, fire, 202, 203; 
accounts, 202; language, 217, 245, 
306, 583, 585, 589, 607; eunuchs, 229, 
342; logic, 242; thought, 245, 431; 
influence, 435; artisans, 265; names, 
271; maidens, 342; medical lore, 369; 
philosophy, 369-72, 382, 580; philo- 
sophers, 371, 561; ethics, 401; works, 
401, 427; centaurs, 420; school, 427, 
dialectic, 432; schools of thought, 
433 3; botanical data, 576; lore, 
580, invention, 591 ; theory of music, 
5QS, sources of popular mu«ne, 
599; treatises on music, 60O; books. 
613 

Greek Church, 153, 246, 636 

Greeks, 6, II, 44, 4S, 144, 157 n 2, 
t74.s2oo 200,307,310,315,341,380, 
3&7- 459, 5*3. 5 So » 6 37, 716, 724* 7*5 



INDEX 



78i 



« Green Borne, 293, 416 
Gregorian calendar, 377 
Gregory XIII, 743 

^Guadalquivir, 503, 506, 509, 524, 539 
Guadelcte, 494 u- 3 
GuadUbeca, 494 n. 3 
Gudca, 36 
Guinea, 437 
Gujarat, 448 n.5 
Gulf of al-'Aqabih, 41 
Gumishtigin, 640 
Guy de Lusignan, 647, 650 

Hababah, 227, 275, 278 
Habash al-^Tasib, 379 
Habashah, 60 
Jiabfb, banu-, 460 

r,!ablb ibn-MasIamah al-Fihri, 158, 213 
Habib, ibn-abx«, Yazld, 254 
IJablbah, wife of abu-Bakr, 175 
Hadad-czcr, 37 
fSdi, 92 

Hadi, al-, Musa, 'Abbasid, 295, 297, 

299, 317, 3«, 326, 337, 359i 43o 
gadiqat at-Akkbar, 748 
fadiifr 203, rise of, 242; sn lnstono* 

graphy, 243, 271, 274, 276, S93 5 
Ha<Jramawt, 18, 30, 32, 36, 42, 44 > 48, 50, 

S2. 55, 60, 85, 86, 119, 142, 567, 740 
Hadrim, 75 
Had nana Palmyra, 75 
Ha?fir al Shayfch, 18 
ysfif, al-, Fa^imid, 623 
Han?, Persian poet, 436 
^ Hafiriyab, 627 

^f af<ah, daughter of * Umar» 1 23, 1 84 n. 2 
Haf^n, ibn-, v Umav518-19, 520, 521, 

61S - 
Hagar, 43, 97, 133 n. 3 
Haifa, see IJayfa 
Hull, 741 
IJaM, a l-,i7 
hfytk t c/v59i ru I 
Hajam, 40 

^Hajar jd^Asqalani, ibn- } 6S9 

&43*S»*»* T595 
ftajib aVMansur, al-, 509, 526, 532-1, 
fajjy loo, 133 ~ - 
rJnjjU bami-, 518 

Hojjai ibn-Ywsuf, aV, 135, 193, 207-8, 

v 200, 210, 212, 213, 2T7, 218, 219, 249, 
^252,255,267,281,332 

Jlajjoj Ibn-Yusuf ibn-Matar, 314-15, 
- 373 
WfBvKhalfeh 575,74a 
£ a***, 181 



Ha&atn, al«i lather of Marwan T, 189, 
* 193 1 

Jlakam, al*, I, Umayyad of Cordova, * 

S", $i3> 5M »♦ if 594 
Hakam,al-, 1 1, 404, 45 1, 526,530-31,532, 

534 ». 5, 543, 557, 5<>3, 576, 591, 593 
Hakam, ibn-nbi-, abu-al-Majd, 427 
fiattrt, 250, 255, 364 
Hakim, al-, 'Abtasid caliph of Egypt, 

677 

Hakim, al-, Fatfmid, 165, 311, 354, 460, 

61S, 620 21, 623, 628, 629, 630, 635 
Halab, 231, 457. See also Aleppo 
fra!al t 138 

Halevy, Joseph: S, 51,55; discoveries of, 
5o, 55 

#a!lmah' Day of, 79, bittle of, 81 

Hall of Justice, 597 

Hall of the Tree, 303, 417 

Hallah, 101 

Hailaj, id-, 435-6 

Halle, 51 

balqah, 340, 412 

Haly Abbas, see MajQsi, al- 

Hamad, al-, 15 

Hamadhan: highway through, 323; 330, 

367, 474 m 
Hamadhani, al*, Badf al-Zainan, 403 
tfamfih, 37, 150, 3S6, 4S7, 643, 653, 

659, 675, 680 n* i, 668, 686, 688, 

7<», 731 

Ha man, favourite of Ahasuerus, 125 
ftamcsah) 25 
Hamasak, 407 
Hamawi, al-, see Yaq&t 
Hamdan, 119 

Hamdan ibn Hamdun, 457 
Hamdan Qarm.it, 444 5 
Haindaiu, al-, 18, 48, 50, 54, 57, 386 
#amdamd: 30T; court, 402, dynasty, 

4 5 6,45T-60 
Hamdamds, 457-60 
Hamdis, ibn-, *Abd-al-Jabbar, 607 
Hamites' 10, 13; of Egypt, 143 
Hamitic, 12, 13, 214, 485 
I^ammad, ibn-, historian, 628 
Hammad, ibn-, Ahmad, see Fadlun, 

lbn- 

Hamroad al-Rawiynh, 94, 252 
Hammah, al-, 553 
hammdnty 338 

Hammiid, ibn-, *AH, 335* 53<5 n. I 
Hammudid: regime, 535, 537, pre- 
tenders, 535 
Hammurabi, 28. 737 
y amxa% al-, set Alhambra 



782 



INDEX 



Hamzah al-Isfahani, see Isfahan!, al- 
Hamzah ibn-'Abd-al-Muttahb, 189 
#anafite- 337, 397 n. 5; population, 398 
Hanbal, ibn-, Ahmad, 236 n. I, 399, 

412,430,689,740 
panbilite rite, 399 
Hanbahtcs, 39S 

Ham', ibn-, Mubammad, 560 61 

Hantf, 10S, 113, 125 n. 1 

Hanlfah, abu-, 243, 247 » 397, 398, 399 

IJanifah, banu-, 141 

Hannibal, 142 

larah % 23 1 

liar am, 99, 100, r 18 

ficram, 138, 274, 400 

3$araro, al-, of al-MadTnah, 221 

Haram, al-, of Makkah, 192, 22 T 

Hararo al-Sharif, al-, 221 

fioramayn, ah, 186 

Harat, 330, 482 

Harb aKBasus, 89 

#&rb Sbn-Umayyah, 189, 193 n. 1 

korbahi 173 

frarblyah, 327 

Harira, 487 

Hariri, al-, 403, 420 

Harith, al-, 81, 85 

Harith, al-, II, Ghassanid, 79, 83 

#anth, al-, III, Nabataean, see 

Hanthath III 
Hanth al-A'raj, al-, see Harith, al-, II 
Harith ibn-'Abd al-Mu$tahb, al-, 189 
Uaritb ibn-*Amr, al-, 85 
ijarith ibn-Hillizah, al-, 83 
Harith lbn-Kaladah, al-, 254 
Harithah, ibn-, see Zayd 
Hanthath I, 68 
Hanthath III, 68 
tfanthath IV, 68 
Harrah, al-, 17, 191 
Harrahs, 17 

tfarran, 88, 233, 255, 284, 28s, 309, 3r4» 

353, 376, 644, 6S9 
Harraman- 314; astronomers, 358 
Hlrun, son of Khumarawayh, 455 n. 4 
Harun al-Rashld: 29, 182 n. 5, 204, 232, 
296, 297-300, 302 seg t 321, 322, 326, 
328, 334, 337, 339, 340, 341, 342, 347, 
348, 353, 354, 359, 3<>o, 3^4. 3&5, 404, 
405, 406, 409, 4i4, 4*S, 416, 42s, 426, 
45i» 45S, 466, 479 n. 3, 514, 515, 652, 
676; espionage system of, 325; mother 
of, 332, 3331 *n Chinese records, 344; 
ruby of, 348 
Harun, ibn-, Yazld, 395 



Hasa, al-, 19, 22 
frasan t 394 

Hasan, al-, see Basri, al- 

Hasan, al-, Mamluk, 661, 673, 691 

Hasan, al-, son of *AU, 179, 1S4 n. 2, 

189, 190, 197, 236, 289, 290, 291, 440, 

442, 450 
Hasan, al-, son of al Hasan, 291 
Hasan *AH, abu-al-, IJamdamd* 457 n 3 
Hasaii al-'Askari, al-, 442, 448 
Hasanah, ibn-, see Shurahbfl 
Hasday ben-Sharput, see Sharps ben- 
Hashinr XII, 184 n 2, 189, 283 n. 1, 

289, house of, 282 
Hashimite: 283, 341; tnbe, 304 
Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan, 6, 756 
Hashimiyah, al-, 289, 292 
fcashisk, 446 n. 2, 447 
ftashshashurt, 446 n. I 
£dn6,$l5n a, 571 
IJasib, al-, 'Utand ibn-Mubammad, 

383 

Hassan ibn-al-Nu'man, see Ghassoni, al* 

liassan ibn-Thabit, 81 

Hassan ibn-Tubba', 85 

Hatira al-Ta*i, 95 

Hatshepsnt, 34 

llnuin, see Hittfn 

hawdrlyun t 106 n. a 

Hawazm, S9 

fldwt, a/-, 366, 367. <J79 

Hauqal, ibn , 330 385, 413, 606, 607 

Hawran, 17, 19, 65, 70, 71, 7S, Si 

}iay*ah t ah, 572, ^88 

ffayawdn* at , 3S2 

Haydar al-Shihabi, 743 

yaydarabad, 210 

Hayfa, 640, 655 

Haytham, ibn-al-, abu-'Alt al-IJasan, 
370, 628, 629 

b*yy* 26 

ftayy tbn* Yaqpdrt, 582 

Hayvan, ibn-, Jabir, 255, 358, 364, 366, 

380 81, 434, 579 
Hayyan, ami-, Muhammad ibn-Yfisuf, 

56i 

Hayyan, ibn-, abu -Ma roan, 565 
HayyGj Judah ben-David, 557 
tfazael, 38 
J/azdr A/sdtta, 404 

jftazm, ibn*, *Ah, 398, n. 4, 535, 558, 559, 
586, 688, $90 [ibn- 
Hazm ibn -J ah war, abu-al-, see Jahwar, 
Ha?m, al-, 55 

Hebrew. 8, 9, 12, 30, 40, 41 t 67i 9°i 
125, 126, 308, 367, 368, 369, 376, 581, 



INDEX 



7&3 



585; kingdom, 40; biblical poetry, 

d3; grammar, 43, 557; records, 50? 

religion, 61; words, 107 m 3; prophets, 

U3, 580; history, MS; sources, 404; 

translations, 5S3 
Hebrews, 8, 9, IO..H, 40, 68, 175 
Heliopolis, 161 n« 5 
Hellenic: 4, 306, 307; ideas, 106 
Hellenism, 106, 307, 309, 3*o 
Hellenistic: workmanship, 57; period, 

72; civilization, 146; culture, 153; 310; 

ideas, 434; influence, 435 
Hellespont, 199 
Helsinki, 305 n. 4 
Henry of Champagne, 647 
Heraciea, 44, 300 
Heraclean, 203 

Heraclius: 80, 143, H7t »A 152* ^53* 

161, 163, 165, 200, 203; death of, 164 
Herat, see Harat 

Hermann the Dalmatian, 588, 589 
/termen&uftca t $iz 
Herod, 68 

Herodotus, 6, 27, 34, 38, 40, 44, 4^, 99 
Hezckiah, 41 

hij&\ 94 

^ijaz, al*: 6, 14, 17, *8-20, 30, 36, 42, 44, 
58, 64, 66, 68, 71, 86, 87-108, 136, 140, 
141, 144, *48, 160, 179, 191, 192, 
307, 217, 224, 236, 237, 241, 25*> 256, 
262, 273, 274, 276, 278, 330, 395, 456. 
49S,64f, 646, 647, 661, 677, 73S, 739, 
740; sanctuary, 64; defection of, 193; 
schools of, 243 

ftijaz, a]-, Railway, 74 

IJijazis, 32, 273 

ftijjah, dhu-al-, 94, 102, 133, 134 

Sijr, a!-, 68, fx, ?** 99, 256 

Hijrah, the: 20, 32, 88, 92, 99, 105, 114, 

u6, 134, 192, 201, 390; fixed, 176 
gtkmat el-Mrd$ t 586 
Hilal, banu-, 622 
tylHzah, ibn-, see #arith, al- 
hilm, 197 
£t ma, 98, 99 
Himalaya, 592 

Him$: 75, 76, 148, 150, 152, 153, 154, 
169, 173, 231, 244, 261, 265 m 3, 284, 
4*2, 457, S<>2, SS7» 6 43. 653. ^59» 678, 
679, 701, 733; province of, 196; in- 
come from, 321; Arabs of, in Seville, 
506; regiment, 538 

ftimyar: 60; obscure tribe, 62; royal line, 
65 

X-Iimyari, al-, Nasbwan ibn-Sa Id, 50 



Himyaritc: $ t 217, 44°; tongue, 30; 
capital, 36; language* S 2 r kingdom, 
55, 6r; dynasty, 56, 62; period, 56, 57, 
58; stations, 58; commercial activity, 
59; kings, 60; last kin£, 61; monarch, 

Himyaritc-Sabacan dialect, 88 * 
ijiimyarites: 44, 55, 56, $T> country of, 61 
Hind umm-'Amr, 83 
Hindi, 173 

Hindi numerals, 308, 378, 573-4 
Hindu: 260, 365, 367, 377> 378, 379; 

prince, 246; origin, 438; temples, 464; 

idea of world cupola, 57o; numerals. 

574 
£ innd\ 335 
Hippalus, 59 

Hippocrates, 311, 313, 588 f 
Hippodrome, 204 
Hira*, 112, 133 

rjimh, ai-: 28, 32, 66, 70, 79, 80, St, 

824, 90, zo6, 14$, HQ* iSS> *S$> r 57» 

196, 241, 273. 276, 27f 292, 312, 538; 

region, 65; bishops of, 83; kings, 84; 

submission of, 84; master of, 85; 

worn xK, y$ 
ftrahs, S2 
Hiram, 41 
Hiraqlah, 300 
JHlri, aK Hunayn, 276, 278 
gis&b cl'Jebr, 379 
jtisdb cl-jummal t 379 
Hisham, ibn-, 61, 98, io<>, 122, 133, 388 
Hisham, Umayyad, 206, 210, 220, 222, 

224, 227, 22S, 234, 276, 279, 286, 430, 

502,505*503 
Hisham I, Umayyad of Cordova, 512, 

514 n. i, 558 
Hisham If, Umayyad of Cordova, 531, 

534, 535, 538, 544, 557>59* 
Hisham III, Umayyad of Cordova, 534 

5, 536, 558 
Hisn al-Akrftd, 638, 657. 66s 
Hispano-Arab: writer, $6$; geographer, 

$69; astronomers, 571; physician, 578, 

582; mystic, 585; parents of al-Idrisi, 

609 

Hispano-Arabs, 509 
Hispano-Moresque, school, 591 
Historia plantarum y 49 
History, 271 
tfitfm, 48i,647, 648 
Hittite: 30; records, 660 
Hittite-Hurrians, S 
Hittiteland, 479 
Hittites, 6, 20, 479 



784 



INDEX 



Hizam, ibn-akhi-, Ya*qGb, 369 
HLH, loi 

Hodeida, see ^udaydah, al- 

Holland. 592, 712 

Hollow-Syna, see Code Syna 

Holly wood, 28 

Holy Cities, 11S, 237, 704 

Holy Cit>. 294, guardianship of, 619 

Holv Family, 161 

Holy Grail, 663 

Hol> Land, 643, 669 

Holy Places, 135 

Holy Roman Empire, 184, 609 

Holy Spirit, 1 05 

Homer, 31 1 

Homeric poems, 562 

Homentae, 44 n r, 55 

Hontcs 4 67 

Hospitalers, 644, 646, 651, 656, 657. See 

also K nights of St John 
Hubal, loo 
fcubdra, 20 

I^ubiysh ibn al -Hasan, 312 
Huber, Charles, 15, 40 
HQd, binu-, 537 8, 540, 544 
buda\ 92, 273 
Hudi\bi}ah, a]-, 218 
Hud-ud »h, al-, 18 
hndhud t 20 
Hud id, see HGd, banu 
tufas, 123 
Hufuf. al-, 7 

MM* 443 

^jalal-hldm, 412 

Hujr Ala! at-Murar, see Akil al-Mumr 

tfujr of Kind ah, see Akil al-Murar 

&vkama> 370 

Hulagu, 377, 37S> 4". 4*7> 447. 486-8, 

$53, 67i» 674,678 697 
Hulaguid II KrTm*, 656 
Hulaguids, 48S 
ffullak al-Sij ctrd\ <?/-, 566 
Humaymah, al-, 2S3 
Hunayn, ibn-, see Ishaq 
Hunayn ibn-Ishaq, see Isfcaq, ibn- 
Hungary, 712 
Huns, 210 

Hurayrah, abu-, 394, 396 

Hurgronje, Snouck, 7 

Hurr ibn-*Abd al-Rahman, al-, set 

Thaqifi, al- 
Hums, 67 

huruf cl-gkubar, 573-4 

Husayn, al-, son of \Ali f t?9, x ^4 
n 2, 190-91, 236, 237, 275. 2S2, 2E9, 
291, 440, 441, 442, 449, 47*» 

J3usa>n, dey, 717 



Husayn, sharif of Maklcah, 741, 752 
tfusayn ibn-Numayr al-Sakuru, al-, 192 
Jusayn Kamil, 726 n 1, 750 
Husaym, al-, secretary of al-Na$ir, 

680 n 6 
ffusn ahAfuhagarahi 688 
Htiwann, 80 
yuwaylat, Bedouins, 70 
Hyksos, 20 

UbSd, 81 

Iba<J, ibn , 247 

*ib8dat> 12S, 130, 13S, 396 

*Ibadi, 312 

Ibadid, 37 

Ibadite, 247 

*Jbar xia-bhvan al Afubfado\ a/-, 568 
Iberian Peninsula, 214, 493, 532 
Ibrahim, see Ad ham, ibn- 
Ibrahim, see Mansili, al- 
Ibrahlm, great-grandson of al-Hasan, 
290 91 

Ibrahim, son of Muhammad, 120 
Ibrahim II, Aghlabid, 452, 604 
Ibrahim, grandson of Thabit ibn- 

Qurrah, 314 
Ibrahim, &$tirabit t n. 2 
Ibrahim, sultan, 713 n . 1 
Ibrahim, Umavyad, 27 9, 284 
Ibrahim al-Halabi, 713 
Ibrahim ibn -'Abdullah, see tturclchardt 
Ibrahim ibn al Mahtb, 303 4 426 
Ibrahim Pasha, 725, 726 n 1, 733 4 746, 

749 

*Ibri, ibn-al-, abu-al-Faraj, 313, 566, 
683 

ibriZy 311 n. 1 
Tee Age, the, 14 
Icelandic, 308 
Icomum, 437, 476, 478 
'Id al-Adha, 133 
fddh , al , 472 
'Idhiin, ibn-, 523, 61 8 
Idrls ibn-' Abdullah, 450 
Idrfe II, 513 

Idrisi, al-, geographer, 387, 529, 542, 

5 6S, 569, 609 
Idrlsids, 450-51, 618 
Idumaea, 74 
Idumaeans, 67 
Ifranp, 229 

Ifriqiyah, 168, 2x3, 224, 235, 451-2, 

496, 617 
Ihdm, 670 
tfrldl, 134 
x^rdm, 134 
ffad* el<?(/liim,428 



ifaSn, 128, 138 

Ifoa* x U!m~. al-Din> 4H, 43 2 , 743 

rjss t 129 

ijStah, 364, 409 
*>-^» 397, 398, 399 
titthad, 399 
tkhharorUlam&\ 687 
ikkshld, 456 

Ikhshid,al-, Muhammad, Tughj, ibn~ 
Ikhshtdid. dynasty, 455, 456-7; rulers, 

619; period, 6z$ 
Ikhshidids, 452, 619, 627 
Ikhrv&Hi 741 

Ikhwan al«$afa\ 372-3, 386, 445, 459, 
472, 571. See also Brethren of 
Sincerity 

/*/*/, ah 54, 386 

flSrfr, c!- t 31 1 n. 1 , 3S1 n. 4 

Il-Khan, 378, 488 

Il-Klumate, 679 

Tl-Khanid observatory, 6S3 

lUChans, 48S, 676, 678 

Ilahah, al«, 99 

'i/dj na/sdm, 686 

Ilaq, see lick 

Ilasarus, 56 

IlbTrah, see Elvira 

lick Khans, 463, 474 

IK shariha, $7 

Ili-shari^a Yafedub, 56 

Iliad, the, 93,311 

Iliya*, 189 

V«, 393 

V//* al*adab % 410 

V/wx al'ahk!ag y 40 1 

V« at-awfil, 244 

Ilmuqah, jg; Almaqah 

Ilyus, 125 

'lmad-al-DawIah, as an honorific title, 
471 

*Imad-aUDm, «tf Zangi 

imam, 121, 131, 132, lS$, S42> 571 

iwa>i al'bVaJt ahMasifriyak, 542 

Mrd*naA f 139 

f I2S, 129 

ipt&rah *5mt*iaJt, 331 

Impcrator, 75 

Impnmerie Catholiquc, 747 
'Imran, 125 

Imru v «al-Qays I, Lakhmid: 70, §2; in- 
scription of, SS 

Iuirt^al-Qays, poet, S5, 03, 94, $6, 107, 
251 

Inul, Mamluk, 677, 694, 695, 696 
tnilo, ah, 579 n. 4 

India: 6, 9, 32,33, 44, 4 3, 58, 59, 72, 73, 



EX . 785 

173, 2:2, 224, 281, 298, 305, 307-8, 
356, 359, 3^2, 377, 383, 384, 386, 395» 
39S, 43S, 448, 462, 464, 465, 574» 6&7i 
672 iu x, 677, 689, 690, 696, 697, 72S; 
route, 49, 722, 727; cotton from, 723; 
borders of, 157; trade with, 343, 749 

Indian- 212, 260,292, 307, 30S, 339, 373* 
375* 379, 384; craftsmen, 265; origin, 
404, 428, 459, influence, 4x7; ideas, 
430; sadhtis, 435; frontier, 461 ; origin 
of Arabic numcrate t 573; waters, £97 

Indian Buddhism, 212 

Indian Ocean, 60, 654 

Indians, 228, 30S 

Indo China, Arabic figures in, 378 n. 3 
Indo-European: herdsmen, 20; civiliza- 
tion, 339; 382 
Indo-Iranian: traditions, 422; influences, 
435 

Indonesia, 344 

IndoOPersiam sources, 24 1; 306, 308, 391, 
559 

Indus valley, 210, 330, 377 

Indus River, 206, 215, 281, 202 

Tnjtl a?~J % uf$ffya& i 126 

Inquisition, 555 

tns at; al~%dtrtii t oA, 587 

insha*) 250 

ins Add 273 

Ioasaph, see Jos*\phat 

tod 4 , 274, 370, 428,600 

7qa\ at-, 427 

*tgdl> 24, 229 

•IqdaLFartd, a/-, 298, 308, 340, 425,668 
Iqrip'sh, 202 

Jgtisad fi ahVtiqad) ah, 432 
Iram, 74 n 1 

Iran- 157 n, 2, 209, 249 n. 2, 35S; conquest 
of, 176; sons of, 4S5 

Iranian* elements, 76; m&sters t 136; 
times, 174; civilization, 174, 20S n, 6, 
30S, 353, 359, 361, 389* 465, 4<& 
peasants, 2S4; despotism, 294; title, 
456; dynasties, 463; influence in ibn- 
Tulvm's mosque, 630; % models in 
F&tiraid art, 631; patterns in FStfmid 
ceramics, 631 ; tribes, 702 

Iranian Persians, 485 , 

Iraniamsm, 283, 2S7 

Iranians, 209, 463 

'Iraq, al- 5, 9, 32, 57, 6l, 65, 82, 86, 123, 
-27, 135- HO* 142, 143, *49> 155- 
157, 165, 168 n. 1, 169, 279, 1S0, 180, 
192, 206, 207, 20S, 217, 2r8, 223, 224, 
232 sea., 306, 316, 321, 340, 345,353, 
355 404. 412, 414, 440 n. S, 445, 



786 



INDEX 



464, 465, 471 , 473. 47%, 557. 5&5> 5&9. 
57S, 630, 633, 644, 671, raid on, 14$, 
728, 73S-8 740; schools of tradition* 
243, *Ahd docnincs in, 249 singers 
276, crops of, 350, water-courses of, 
350; school, 397; invaded, 741, British 
in, 751, independent, 753, sovereignty 
of, 753 
Iraq al-'Ajami, ai«, 330 
'Iraq aKArabi, a!-, 330 n. 2, 48S, 531 
'Iraq Petroleum Company, 737 
'Iraqi? 127, 220, 203, 414, 444, 662; 
school, 1S1; oppressors, 286; national- 
ism, 756 

'Iraqis, 155, 180, 190, 207, 286, 716, 
749 

'Iraqs, the two, 704 
Irbil, 6S7 
Vrtf, 95 

Irene, Byzantine empress, 204, 290, 300 
tryd\ 247 

Irshdd It-Afasahh al-Anf&s t cf~, 6S6 

'Isa, 106, 125, 2SQ, 443 

*Isa, ibn-, * AU, oculist, 368 9, 629 

'Isa, ibn-, 'Ali, vizir, 123, 364 

*Isa ibn-Nastur, 620 

Isaac, 264 

Isaac, Cordovan monk, 516 
Isaak Vatasquez, see Valasquez 
Isabella of Castile, 551, 553, 555 
Isabellc of Bnenne, 610 
Isagogt, 315 
Isaiah, 67 
Isaurian, 300 n. 2 

Isbohan- 290 n. 5, 330, 389, 464* 47°, 

474, 476, 477 n 4; antimony of, 348 
I$hahani, abu-al-Faraj, 92, 94, 404, 458, 

Isbatariyah, 644 n. 4 
Isfahan, see Isbahan 
Isfahani, al-, abu-al*Faraj, see Isbahani, 
al- 

I$fahani, al-, tfamzah, 55, 64, 78, 389- 

390, 402, 425 n. 6 
IsfahSni, al-, *Imad-al-Dm al-Katib, 652 
Ishaq, Murabit, 545 n. 2, 546 
Ishaq ibn-I;Iunayn, 312-13, 401 
Isbaq, ibn-, ftunayn, 306, 312-14, 363, 

364,369. 373»40l,427 
Ishaq al-Mawsili, see Mawsili, al- 
Ishaq, ibn-, Murmmmad, 112,388, 390 
Isliaqi, al-, 720 
IshbSHyah, see Seville 
Mimael. 24, 32, 43, 92, 97, 100, 125, 280, 

443 

Ishmaelite, line, too 



Ishmaelitcs, 43, 50 

ishraqt, 5S6 

Jshtar, 61 

Iskttqaq, ai- t 92 

hkandar dhn-al Qarn&yn, 124 

Iskandarlyah, al-, 163 

Isldk <tl-Akktdq, 581 n I 

Islam- 3,4, 8, 17, iS, 26, 29,61, 64, 66, 
So, S3, 9S, tot , 117, uS, 12 J, 128-9, 
209, 2io, 214 seq , 255, 258, 262 seq.j 
328, 334, 34S seq, 410, 311, 412 seq, t 
488, 489, 403 scq*% cradle of, oS; birth 
of, 100, establishment of, 106; beliefs 
of, 126 n. 1; basis of, 127, arkan 
of, 130, pillaT of, 133; fundamentals 
of, 138; latest champions of, 147; 
patriarchal epoch of, 177; earliest 
sect of, 182; pilgrimage in, 1S2; List 
caliphate of, 184; civil war of, 192; 
religious movements within, 242, 245; 
prayer in, 243; predestinariamsm of, 
245; philosophy in, 245, 246; sect in, 
246; schools of jurisprudence in, 247; 
sanctuaries in, 261, theologians of, 
269, singers of, 275; slavery in, 235; 
in China, 344; compired with Chris- 
tianity, 354, first hospital in, 364; arch 
heretics in, 373; first map of heavens 
in, 384; traditions of, 753 

Islamic: conquests, 25, 38; states, 28; 
theology, 105; state, 214, 132, 145; 
community, 119; legislation, 124? 
empire, 150; 206, 2S6, 291 ; coinage, 
217, annals, 228; law, 235, civilization, 
256, writings, 264 1 government, 204; 
361 seq. t 5SS; theology, 359, 370, 438; 
geographv, 387; painters, 420,* feat- 
ures in Sicilian art, 593; influence in 
Spanish law, 600, bookbindings, 63 1; 
culture, 662 

Islamic art, 261, 423, 454 

Islamic literature, 8, 64, 96 

Islamic Spiin, 509 

Islamic, pan-, congresses, 139 

Islamic, pre- poets, 25, 81, 107, 274; 
days, 26, 132; uoman, 28; period, 
67; civilization, 72; religious ideas, 
87; oracles, 92; poetry, 94, 252, 405; 
life, 95; heathenism, 96; inscriptions, 
105; fetish, 11S; 217, 22S, 236, 250, 
271, 316; legends, 387; music, 425 n. 6 

Islamic, pre-, Arabia, 133, 134, 3S6 

Islamic, pre-, Arabians, 92, 106 

Islamic, pre-, Arabic inscriptions, 88, 101 

Istarmsm, pan-, 1S6 

Islamized Iranians, 159 



*ismoh 1 24S/440 

Isma'fl, r Alid imam, 442-3, 448, 618 
Isma% brother of Na$r ibn» Ahmad, 462 
Ism&'fl, khedue, 726 n. J, 728, 746 
Isma'tt, Mamluk, 673 
Isma'il, Shah, founder of $afa\rid <iyn- 

asty, 703, 737 
I«?m5 il t son of Nur-al-Pln, 646 
IsmVdi 367; propagandist, 478, mis- 
sionary, 625 
Isma'ihsm, 448 [doctrine, 621 

JarmYilitc; 372* 446, 448, 449, sect, 6*7 
IsimVditcs, 249, 442-3 t 448, 485 
Isma'iilyah, 442-3 
isndd, 389, 390, 394. 395» 413 
Ispahan, 330 See also Italian 
Isra*, al-, 1 14 

Jsrd* tla Mcqdm al-Asra t al- y 586 

Israel King of, 42; state of, 62, 755 

Israeli, 751 

Israelites, 104, 441 

Istakhr, 157, 385 

Istakhn, aK, 18, 330, 345, 335 

tstihsfin, 397 

i.r/*//c£, 397 n 5 

Italian- 402, fyo, eariy talcs, 404; 
coasts, 605, poetry, 61 15 textile 
workers, 613; workshops, 613; ships, 
640, cities, 667; city republics, 669 

Italian Renaissance, 611 

Italians, 716 

Ttalyi <>, 345, 347, 45-, 5*4, 564, 574i 
592, $93, 604-5, 611, 612, 613, 629, 
6 36> 653, 665; coasts of, 712; archi* 
tects from, 730 

It*amara, 38. See cho Yatha'-amar 

tthmtd % 579 n 5 

Jthrta 'stshcrfych^ 441 

1'timad al-UumayUyah, 539, 541 

Jtgan, al , 106 n. 2, 688 

ItLdn Kisr^ 156, 26 1 
*Iya$ ibn-&banm, i$7 
lyas, ibn*, 6S1 
Ijas ibn Qablsah, 84 

Jabal nl-Akh<Jar t al-, 15 
Jabal al-Purui, 752 
Jabal al-Sha\kh f a!-, 215 
Jabal Lubniin, 736 
Jabal Tanq, see Gibraltar 
Jabalah, town, 648 
Jabalah ibn»al-Ayham, So, Si, 201, 

300 tu 2 
Jabarti, al-, 743 
jahb#r> 107 n, 3 



605" 

Jabir, see rjayyan, ibn* 
J&biynh f al-, 7$, *54, *6*5» 169 
jabr, 245 
Jabntes, 245 

Jacob Baradacus, see Ya*qfib al-Barda'i 
Jacobite 79>3-5»355 6 4 2 0*4 2 2^ ini ^gc, 

153; physician. 3* J n. 7 
Jacobite Christian, 195 
Jacobites, 196, 424 
JaM, al*, lbn-Dirham, 430 
Jadhimah al-Abrash, $2 
JadAr asamm, 573 
jadt, tf/-, 572 
Jadis, 30 

Jaen, 502, 505, $20, 528, 529 

Ja'far, Barmakid, 295, 304, 414 

JaTar, abu-, see Man$Gr, al-, 'Abbasid 

Ja'far, see §^diq, al- 

Ja'far ibn-abi-fahb, 121 

Ja'fan, al-, palace, 295, 304 

JafTa, 285,640, 656,733 

Jafnah, son of r Amr, 78 

Jafmd: historv, 7S, annals, 79, dynasty, 

So, monarchs, 83 
Jaghbub, 437 
jakannam, 106 n 2 

Jahilrvah* period, 87-8, 91* age, 88; 

Bedouin of, 96, people, 121; dajs, 

133, 160, 240, 252, 274 
Jafaz, al-, 330, 354 332 402, 430, 435 
Jahsmyari, al-, 40A 
Jab war, banu-, 538 
Jahwar, ibn-, abu«al-Hazm, 536, 560 
Jalmands, 537-8, 560 
jd f tz y 400 
Jakch, 43 

Ja)5l lUDIn aba-a2-Fath, see Mnidshah 

Jalal al Din al-Sujutfj see Suyuti, al- 

Jal'ih calendar, 477 

Jdlfnits fi al*Stn&*ek> 3x3 n, 6 

JalQU', 157 

jama'a/f, 267 

James of Aragon, 676 

Jdim\ of ilm-Rushd^ 5S3 

Jamt", of al-Tirmidhi, 395 

J&mi', ibn-, 303, 425 

J & mi ft al*AdiLi}ttk % a/-, 575 

JdmCah cl Isldrtlyah, a?' t 186 

Jamil al-'Udim, 25 1 

Jamllah, 275 

Jam rat al-'Aqabah, 133 

Jandn, al-, 74S 

Janda, 404 

Janissaries, 437, 467, 703, 710, 719, 726 
Janissary; corps, 724; rebel, 737 



788 I 

Jannab, 445 n. 2 

Jannab* tayn, 150 n. 2 

Jannabi, al«, abu-Sa*Id al-ljasan, 445 

tcntid cl-arlfy 529 

Janus, king of Cyprus, 699 

Jaqmaq, Maxnluk, 692, 694, 695, 696 

Jarajimah, al-, 204, 205, 21 2 

Jarba\ ftl-, 119 

jcrib, 150 

jarid y 21, 339, 664 

Jarir, poet, 220, 252 

Jarmutb, 152 n. 3 

Jarr&b, ibn-ol-, see 'Ubaydah, abu 

Jassas, ibn-al-, 344 

Jassas ibn-Murrah, 90 

jSthaJtfr 355 

Jathrippa, 104 

Jativa, see Shatibah 

Java, 437 

Javanese, 126 

Jaw ad, a!-, see Muhammad 

Ja-jiami aU&tkayZt, 669 

jaxL&rt, 341 

Jawf, al-, 52, 55, 149 

Tawhar al Rumi sre Tawhar al Siqflb 

Jawhar al-$iqilli, 457, 619 

Jawbari, al-, 402 

Jaw lan, 78 

Jawzi, ibn-al-, 392 n, 2, 6S8 

m** 573 
Jayfcun, 209, n. 4 

Jaysh, son of Khumarawayh, 455 n. 4 

Jaxnrtes provinces, 209 

Jaxartes Rher, 323, 330 

Jaza'ir, al-, 710. See also Algeria 

Jazlrah, al-, 224, 330 

Jattrat al-Arai, S 

Jazlrat ibn-'Umar, 391 n. 8 

Jazirat T^rif, 493 

Jazlah, ibn-, 369, 570 

Jazzar, al-, 733-3 

Jazzin, 731 

Jedda, see Juddah 

Jchoshaphat, 41 

Jehovah, 40 

Jehu, 2S6 n. 1 

Jem, 702 

Jeremiah, 41 

Jericho, 169, 639 

Jerusalem* 8; destruction of, 61; attack 
on, 6S; capture of, 60, 114? "8, *47» 
153, 160, 174, i89, 206, 220. 221, 246, 
259, 264, 267, 386, 416, 443, 452, 46o, 
476, 4So, 497, 5^S, 609, 620, 624, 627, 
635i &3&f 6 39* 640, 641, 643, 644, 64S. 
646, 64S, 651. 653, 654. 661 , 665, 726 



fall of, 154; patriarch of, 154; occu- 
pied. 733 „ 

Jesu Haly, see *Isa, ibn-, *Ab, oculist 

Jesuit: order, 7; activity, 729 

Jesuits, 746 

Jesus* 106, 125, 164* 289, 309 2,4431 

the child, 126 
Jew, 7, 42, 62, 153, 375, 395, 537, 61S, 

621, 627 
Jewess, 103, 169 

Jewish: 8, 213 n. 3, 240, 264, 310, 365, 
366, 391, 393, 6S0; faith, 60, monarch, 
62; leanings, 66, inhabitants, 104, 
physicians, J 05; colonies, 107, poets, 
107; tribe, 117; tnbes, 119; non- 
canonical works, 125; synagogue 
worship, 132, cases, 147; converts, 
244; physienn, 255, 524, 662; scholasti- 
cism, 432; aty, 542; astronomers, 57 1; 
medical tradition, 579, world, 583; 
community, 5S4; theology, 5S5; 
thought, 5S5; physicians, 6S6; origin, 
690 

Jewish Arabians, 66 

Jewish Christian tradition, 3S9 

Jewish-Moslem traditions, 244 

Jewish, non-, tnbes, 104 

Jews* S, l8, 19, 40 41, 61, 62, 104, 114, 
116, U7, 130, 133, 143* 170 n 3, 174, 
233, 234, 310, 33S, 353 7, 49S, 510, 
542, 543, 550, 584, 5$5» SS8, 6to, 
612, 620, 62 r, 644, 66S, 676, 696; 
native, 119; as merchants, 343; of 
Baghdad, 357 n. 4 

Jibal, al-, 323, 330, 3S5 

Jihril % !07 n. 3, 13, 129 

Jibrii ibn-Bakhtishu ibn-Jurjis, 309, 312 

jtghrcfiyah, 311 n. 1 

jtkSJ, 124, 136, 13S, 1S6, 7x2 

Jflam, al-, \Abd-al-Qadir, 436 

JUi, al-, see Jllani, al- 

Jilliq, 78 

J21iqi t al-, 'Abd-al-Ra^man ibn-Mar- 

wSn, 518 
Jirnal, umm-al-, SS, xoi 
jtnn, 426 
Jmni, ibn-, 402 
jnvir t 253 
Jlzah, al t 435 

jttyakx 119, 171, 320; on Christians in 

Spain, 510 
Joannes Hispalensis, see John of Seville 
Joannitius, see Ishaq, ibn-, Hunayn 
Job, 42-3, 125 

John, bishop of Senile, 516 
John, em ay of Otto, 590 



INDEX 



789 



John, King, 549 n. 1 
John, monk of St. Saba, 246 
John VIII, pope, 604 
John the Baptist, 1 25 
John of Damascus, 150, 195, 196, 245 
246 

John of Garland, 600 

John of Nilriu, 164 

John of Seville, 376, 37^, 5$9 

Joktan, 32, 280 

Jonah, 125, 415 n 1 

Jordan: district, 1 54. 169, 173, taxes of, 

321 n. 1 ; division of, m Archidona, 506 
Jordan River, 72, 147, 150, 1 60, 269, 

640, 641,648 n. 3, 656 
Josaphat, 246 
Joscehn II, 644, 645 
Joseph, 125 
Joscphus, 68 
Jubayl, 70, 635, 641 
Jubayr, ibn-, 260, 408, 4x1, 412, 669, 

607, 608-9, 660, 661 
jnbbak, 334 
Jubba'i, a!-, 430 
Judaea, 307 

Judaeo-Chnstfan: influence, 248; sect, 

357; traditions, 749 
Judaco-Egyptian oculist, 686 
Judah, 41 
Judaic, 400 

Judaism, 3,4,60, 107,118. 122, 128,145, 

232, $6i f qS4, 5S9 
Jttdaked Aramaeans, 61 
Judatt vi-al-Hasbahy al- t 366 
Juddah, x8, 256, 292, 741 
pUdn, 339 
juldb, 579 

Julian, count of Ceuta, 494, 499 
Julius Cnrsar, 68, 164* 166 
Jumahi, al-, 107 
jumatrija, 311 n. I 
Jumay* (Jami*)> *bn-, 686 
Junayd, al*, 436, 438 
jund> 154, 231, 327 
JundaysSbur, 309 n. I, 373 
Jundi-ShapOr, 309. See else Junday 

BabQr 
Jundub, 37 
Jupiter, 265* 415 
Jar* 35* 

Juxajimah, al*, see Jarajimah, al- 
Jurhum, banu-, 100 
Jurjan, 330, 462, 474 
Jfcrjls ibn-Bakhtishu\ S09 
Tustin J, 62 

Justinian 1, 79, 85, 265 



Justinian II, 205, 212 
Justinian Code, the, 400 
Juwayni, al-, 4S8 
Juyushiyah, 627 

Ka'b al-Ahbar, 244 

Ka'bah, al-; 17, 52, 72, 80, 93. 100-102, 
105, 114, 118, 128, 130, l M> l82 > 1 9 2 ' 
238, 256, 273, 307, 3S3, 445> S08, 702, 
cult of, 64; circumambalation of, 104, 
133, custodians of, 104. "3J territory 
around, 118, founder od 125 n. I 

kabirah, 245 

kabsh, 226 

Kabul Turkish king of, 2oS. valley ot, 

464 
Kab>ls, 361 
kadddn t 597 n. 2 
K&fifi al'fftsab^ah, 379 
KafifiaUKuhl^l*, 686 
Kafur aMkhshfdi, 456-7, 45«i 627 
kdghad, 414 
Kahf, al-, 448, 657 

k*bb&h 3°9 
kahirtt IOO 
hdhinoh, 213 

Kaiser Friedrich Museuni» 269 
kaULm % 129, 370, 431 
Kalb, banu-, 192 n 3, 19$* 2 8o 
Kalbi, al-, al-Hasan ibn-'Ali, 606 
Kalbi, al-, Htsham, 96, 99, 387, 390 
Kalbite opponents, 192, 281; dynasty, 
606 

Kalbites, 192, 281, 606 
Kalcb Ela Asbe^a, 62 
Kalllah wa~£imnah t 308, 372, 420, 559, 

612, 663 
kah—.ah, 587 
hahmahy al~ f 408 
kdmtl, aJ , 253 
Kamil, abu-, 392 

Kamil, al-, Ayyubid, 575/ 610, 651, 653 
654, 655 

Kamil Sha'ban, al*, Mar£luk, 673 
Kdmtl al~$tnd*cJi t 367 
K&mtl al-Sinfatayn, 6$$ 
Kdmtl fi aUTa'rikh, al % 391 
kanUaht 107 n. 2 
Kant, 585 
karddis, 284 

Karaji, al-, abu-Bakr Muhammad, 379 
Karak, al-, 641 n. 2, 647, 648, 652. 656, 

674 
Karam, 670 
har&rttdtt 438 

Karbalil\ 1S3, ISO 91, 440, 737* 740, 752 



790 



INDEX 



Karbuqa, of al-Mavr?il, 638 
Karib As'ad Kami], abu-, 60 
Knriba-il, of inscriptions, 38 
Kariba-il Water, 53, 54, 56 
Kanba-il, of Saba*, 3b, 52 
Karkar, see Qarqar 
Karkh, 379 n, T, 641 n. 2 
Karmam 208, 224, 330, 462, 47°; min- 
erals of, 348 
Karrnani, al», 571 
Kl hin, 346 

K<xshf al-ZunUn 'an ahAsami uf~<U- 

Run tin, J 42 
Ka*hghar, 2x0, 212, 476 
Kashmir, 292 
kasrah, 219 
Kassites, 20 
Katb, 330 

Kattb, al-, see |lasib, al«, *Ut5rid 
Kcu ahb ahThahitah, ah, 376 
Kawkab, 648 
Katan, 570 

Ka7irnayn, al-, 19 1, 737 
Kedar, 42 
Kapler, 629 
KFR, 105 

Khadijah. 10S, 112, 113, 120 

Khitfra , al-, 215* 267 

Khafajah, ibn-, abu-Ish^q, 560 

Kha'ir Bey, 703, 7 19, 720 

Khal, dhat-al- t 341 

Khalasah, dhu-al-, 96 

Khaldun, ibn-, 185, 254, 3 2 °> 337. 3-?S 

391 , 404, 549, 507*8, 575, 61S. 6S7, 701 
Kbahd, Umayyad pnncc, 255 
Khalid ibn-*AbduUab, see al-Qasri, 
Khalid ibn-Barmak, see Barrnak, ibn 
Khalid, ibn-, Musa, 312 
Khalid ibn-al-Walid S4, ifS, 141, 147- 

155, 160, 213, 3SS; campaigns of, J42 
Khalid ibn-Yazid ibn-Mu'Swiyah, 3S0 
khaUfah, 139, 178, 3 2S 
Khaltjah ahNasir, ah, 523 
khalifat Allah, 3J7 
khalifat RasQl Alldk, 178 
Khnttj al-tfakimi, al-, 165 
Khalij Amir al-Mu'mtnin. 165 
KhalH ibn-Abmad, al-, 242 
kkalkhdl, 334 

Khallikan, ibn-, 241, 250, 306, 372, 392, 

411,468, 477. 55S, 575, 687 
khalq, 429 
kkamfs % 173 
khamlah, 66S 
kkomr, 19, 121, 337 
khamrlydl, 337i 406 



khdnaqdk, 660 n. 3 
khamlaq, 1x7 n. 3 
Kruns, 465 
Khansa', al-, 274 

khcrdjx 170, 171, 320; in Spain, 510 
Khars], ah, of Qudamah. 385 
Kharaj, ah, of abu-Yusuf, 397 
Kimibah, 54 

KhSnjlte: 182, 232, 262, 284, 502; sub 

sects. 247. doctnne, 46S 
Kharijites, 136, 1S2, 207, 20S, 246-7, 

284, 4oz > 440 
kharrub, 665 
khdssah, 326, 331 
khatib, 249 

Khatib al-Ba^hdadi, al-, 305, 338, 413 
Khatib, ibn-al«, Lisan-al-Din, 550, 559, 

563,557,576 
Khatt, al % 173 
IvhatJab, ibn*al-, see 'Umax 
Khawabi, al-, 657 
Khawarnaq, al-, 82 

Kha^Iani, al-, al-Samb ibn- Malik, 499, 

500, 503 
khajdl ahpill, 690 
Kbaybar, 117, 169 
khavr, 134 n, 3 
Khayr-al-Dln Barbarossa, 710 
klayturdn, 334 
Khayzuran, al-, 304. 332. 333 
Khayzunin, ibn-, \ Valid, 530 
Khazar, al- t 210 

Khazm, al-, abu-Ja*far, 376 [549 

Khazraj, al-, 89, 99, 104, 1 16; tribe, 1 16, 

k^asc % 346 

khlafah, l«5 

kktldfai ahnubitak, 197 

khisydn, 341 

Khiwa, 379 n. 3. See *?so Khwarizm 
khtzdnah, ah, 597 n. 2 
khttdnct ahhutub, 413 
Khojas, 44 S 
Khtedka}'"tt6mak, 3S9 
fChulatydt, 313 

Khumirawayh, Tutumd, 454-5 
Khurasan: veiled prophet of, 86; pro- 
vince of, 157; conquest of, 194: 209, 
210, 2 1 S, 224 » 241, 2 So, 2S3, 2S4, 285, 
289, 200, 31S, 330, 346, 350, 378, 379, 
385, 412, 414, 426, 431, 445. 46r, 462, 
463. 464, 465, 466, 474, 4S6. 633, 635; 
land tax of, 321; highway of, 323, 325; 
minerals of, 348 
Khurasani: troops, 285; 290, 328 
KhurMni, al-, see Muslim, abu- 
Khurasaniam forces. 2S3; bodyguard, 293 



- INDEX 



Khuraslnians, 286 

Khurdadhbih t ibn-,320,32I,323,S84,427 
KhOri, al-, KhalH, 748 
Khurrami, 323 

Khushqadam, MamlCik, 694, 696 

Khusraw Panuz, So 

khuibah, 131, 185, 1S6, 198, 2S8, 470, 

4S0, 508 
hhtivsah % 25 
Khuza*ah, barm-, 100 
Khuzislan, 157, 170 n. 1, 309 n. r, 32$, 

33o. 345* 470 
Jthwanzm, 209, 210 n. 3, 330, 350, 376 

n. 7, 379 « 3» 3S6, 4x4, 474t 481, 482, 
569 

Khwanzm Shah, 674 

Khwanzm Shahs, 481, 486 

Khwamra Turks, 654 

Khwanzmi, al-, mathematician, 307, 

375, 379 80, 384, 392 n. 6, 571, 573, 

58S, 589, 600 
Khwanzmi, al-, abu-Bakr, 333 
hbrU ahahmary <jA, 381 n, 3 
Kidri, 38, 42 
Kill is, ibn-, Ya'qub, 627 
kfmtfa*, 380 n. 2 
Kmfmah, S9 

Kindah 28, 65, 83, 119, rojal line, 85, 
2oS, tribe, $6} nse of, 86; tribes, 93 

Kindi, al-, 'Abd-al-Masih, 354 

Kuwli, al-, Muhammad ibn Yusuf, 627 

Kmdi, a!*, Ya'qub ibn-Isbaq, 86, 370 
371, 428, 589. 600 

Kindite Kings, 84 

Kindrtes, 86 

Kirghiz, 473 

Kisra Anusharv\an f 66 See alto Chosroes 
Kisrawan, 6 So 

Xitab, see following word of title 
Kit&b % aU, 242 
Khamah tnbe, 617, 6j8 
Kitbugha, MamlGk, 673 
Kitbugha, Mongolian, 656, 674 
Klysma, 165 n. 4 

Knights of St John, 657, 699, 711. See 

clso Hospitalers 
Konieh, 437, 476. See ctsa Quniyah, 733 
Koran 22, 26, 30, 37, 41, 61, 64, 87, 
103, 105, 106, 119, 123-7, US, 129, 
130, 132, 143> I7i, X78, 22r, 225, 227, 
233* 236, 247, *53> 279, 34*, 35<S» 357» 
358, 359, 370, 390, 393, 395» 39&» 397, 
399, 400, 403, 408,410, 4:2, 423, 430, 
431 » 433* 435 U 438» 443. 445» 454, 
455, Soi, 5^2, 6SS, 6S9, 695, 740, 747; 
language of, 88; readers, 141, 253; 



kno^edgo of, 172, copy of, i77; copies 
of, l8ij decision of, iSl; study of, 
241-2, God's alrnightmess in, 245; 
monotheism of, 271; Illumination of, 
424; creation of. 429, Latin translation 
of, 588, 589 

Korans. illuminated, 629; 681, 692 

Korea, 344 n. 4 

Kremer, \on, 328, 39S 

Kubla Khan, see QublUy 

Kuchuk Kaynarji 705 

Kufah, al- : 70, 8t, 123, 140, 149, 157, 
*5 8 > 1^5, 170, 180, 182, 190, 196, 197, 
207, 208, 209, 217, 224, 225, 226, 234, 
241 seq. y 330, 338, 345, 362, 370, 380, 
387, 394, 397, 444, 45^, governor of, 
177, treasury of, 190 

Kufuv tradiMonists, 243, 394 

Kufans, 20S, 243 

Ktifit 7o. See clso Kufic 

Kufic: 70, 220, 264. 45 i t 454- 660, 691; 
script, 123; inscriptions in Palermo, 
609; inscriptions in ibn-Ruzzik's 
mosque, 630 

kUffyah, 24, 229, 345 

Kufra, oasis, 437 

kuhayldn % 21 

kukhatt) 92 

KuMn al-\Attar> al , 6S5 
kuhi t «/., 334, 318 n, 15, S79 n. 3 
Kulayb ibn-Rabfah 00, 228 
KulHyat, */-, 577, 578, 582 
KulthGm, ibn-, see *Amr ihn-KuIthum 
Kurdish* \izir of al-Zafir, 623; parent 

age, 645 
Kurdistan, 699 
Kurds, 736 
tardus, 226, 328 
Kutahiah, 733 
Kutahijah, see Kutahiah 
Kutamih, see Kitamah 
htttfb, 254, 4oS, 527 
Ku^ayt, al., 14, 739, 740 741 

757 

La Fontaine, 559 

la %!dh<t tlla l-JUh t 128, 130, 408 

LahM, St 

Ladhiqlyah, al-, 648 
La gash, patcst of, 36 
Labab, abu-, 189 
Lahaj, 740 
Lahore, 464, 46$ 
Laja, al-, 88 
Lajin, MamlGk, 673 
Lake Urnuyah, 377, 703 



792 



INDEX 



Lake Van, 475 
Lakhm, banu- ,65 

Lakhmid: king ,70; rival, 79; foes, 80; 

81-4; 213 »• 4> 241; channels, 107 
Lakhmid?, 32, 79, 80 84, 85* 87, 88, 273, 

538 

LdmXyat al*Ajam, 381 n. I 

Lam mens, 181 

Lamtunah, tribe, 541 

Lane, Edward W. t 405 

Langucdoc, 339 n. 4 

Laodicea, see Ladhiqiyah, ol 

Larissa, 152 

Larnaca, 699 

Las Navas dc Toloso, 549 

Lit, al- t 6i f 76, 98, 99 

Latakia, see Ladhiqiyah, al« 

Latin. 4, 7» ^3* 214 tu I, 3" n. % 314, 
316, 366, 367, 368 seqt of the Vulgate, 
9; records, 48; version of the Koran, 
127; literature, 402; translations from 
Arabic, 428, 432, 572, 573> 57^, 579. 
$8% 583, 589» 600, 611; language, 543, 
559, 5^5/ 589i 612, 613, 629, 644 n. 3; 
astronomical tables, 57 1* settlement 
in al-Ruha*, 637; possessions in 
Palestine, 639; state of Jerusalem, 
639, quarter, 641; states, 643, 644; 
leaders, 647; kingdom, 648; chron- 
icles, 648 n. 2, 652; chroniclers, 650 

Latin Averroism, 588 

Latin Church, 246 

Latin Fathers, 515 

Latin Occident, 387, 396 

Latin Orient, 658 

Latins in Jerusalem, 639, 640, 64 1 n. 2, 
<M4, 650, 651, 669 

Laval, 717 

Lawarah, 16S 

Lawrence, T. E, f 7, 20 

Layla, of banu-'Udhrah, 251 

ttxylak, 668 

lay lot al-qadr y 112 

laymun, 351 n. 2, 665 

Lararist, 729, 748 

laztxward) 348 n. 9, 664 

League of Arab States, 756 

League of Nations, 751 

Lebanese; feudal lords, 729; fiefs, 729, 
outraged, 734; peasants, 735; chron 
iclers, 743; rebels, 743; soil, 747; 
shore, 751; Christian, 755 

Lebanon: 6, 7, 19, 81, 102, 147, 205, 212, 
231* 233, 249 ru 2, 281, 448, 562, 633, 
638, 639, 670, 6S0, 757; greater, 729, 
731; Ottoman, 729; autonomy of, 734 



736; warfare in, 735; autonomous, 
736; council of, 736; occupied, 736; 
govemors of, 743 

Lechieni, 72 

Leclcrc, L., 314 

Legitimists, 140 

Lemuel, 43 

Leningrad, 420 

Leo the Armenian, 310 

Leo the Isaurian, 203, 300 n, 2 

Leo the Wise, 329 

Leon, 496\ 5*8, 520, 521, 523, 524, 527, 
533* 537. 539, 542, 551, 556, 559, 600 
Leonardo Fibonacci, 379, 574, 662 
Leonardo da Vina, 629 
Leontcs River, 648 n, 2 
Lessens, de, 344 
Lesser Armenia, 291 
Lessing, 652 n. 7 
Levant, 669 
Liber A/mansoris, 366 
Liber regius, 367 

Liber ysagogamm Alchorimi, 600 

Liberia, 134 

Libia Italiana, 7x8 

iibn t 260 

Libya, 6, 757 

Libyan Desert, 330 

Libyans, 168 

Liege, 589 

Lifoan, lOl 

Lihyanifc: inscriptions, 71, 100; script, 

71, 72; culture, 72 
Liriyanites, 54, 72 
Limassol, 699 

Lisan-al-Din ibn-aJ.Khap _ b, set Khatfb, 

ibn-al- 
Lisbon, 521 n. 2, 529 
Lisharh ibn-Yahsub, 57 
Lfjani, al-, see Leontes River 
li warty 661 

Logos, 127, 587 

Lombard's, 525, 604 

London, 164, 448, 458 n. 3, 501, 526 

Lord's Prayer, 131, 396 

Lorraine, 589, 590, 636, 639 

Lot, 125 

Lotinringia, see Lorraine 
Lothanngian: cities, 589; monk, 590 
Louis VII, of Fiance, 644 
Louts IX, 654 5, 672, 676 
Louis XV, 728 
Louvre, 40, 423 
Lower Egypt, 224, 398 
Lower Mesopotamia, 330 
iub&tt, 36 



INDEX 



793 . - 



Lucena, 542, 553 
Ludd, al-, 160 
Ludhriq, see Roderick 
Ludovico di Varthema, 118 
Luhiyy, ibn-, xw *Amr 
Lukkam, a!- f 204, 2x2 
Ltd!, Raymond, 587 663 
Luqraan, 401 

Luqmon ibn-* Ad, see 'Ad, ibn- 
Lusignan, 699 
Luz&mtyatt 459 
L>cnn coast, 167, 200 
Lydda, see Ludd, al- 
Lydians, 20 

rnd ward* al tia/ir, 210 
Ma* al-Sama\ 83 

Ma*-al-Sama\ ibn-, see Mundhir, al- f III 
Ma'add, 502 n* 1 
Ma'adchtc, 2S1 
Ma'additcs 280 

Ma'afir, tribe, 532 [n 3 

Ma'ali Sharif ahu al-, tfamdanid, 457 
Ma'an, 36, 41 * 54, 55, 18 ! > modern, 52 
Ma* fin Mjsriyah, 54 
Ma'an Musron, 52, 54 
Madrtf, c?/-, 389 
Ma'arrat al Nu'man, 458, 638 
Ma'arri, al , abu-al-'Ala*, 373, 406, 412, 

458-9, 472, 638 
Ma'bad, 275, 278 
natfiith, 222 
Macedonia, 722 
Macoraba, 103 

Mada m, al-, 66, 75, 156 n. I, 157, 261, 

349 See a/so Ctcsiphon 
Mada'm $"ihb, 68, 72, 256 
tnaddat al Afushmm t 170 
sncdkkab) 397 
mcdih, 407 

Madmah, al-* 7, 17, iS, 20, 89, 99, 102, 
104, 106, 107, 114, 116, 117, 119, 120 
*33» Mo, 141, M7, 148, 159* 160, 164, 
i73» *75» 177, 178, 179. i&>> 181, 1S5, 
186, 189, 190, 191, 193, 201, 236 9, 
241 seq , 397. 441, 45t>, 452. 456, 47i 
n i f 476, 549> 566* 704, 7I5> 74°. 
al*Muna\vwarah, 134; school, 358 
Madmah-Ghazzah route, 143 
Madinah Mosque, the, 2259, 261, 262 
Madman al-Zalurab, al-, 532, 535 
Madlnat al SaUm, 292 
Madinat SShm, see Medinaccli 
Madmat al-Zahra*, 595 
Madtnese; 32, 116, 117, 202, 275, 394, 
396, poets, 8t; surahs, 113, 124, t2$ 



n. 1, 130, 132; period, 116, n8, 119, 
t2i n 3, 131; Moslems, 116, Sup- 
porters, 140; theocracy, 152; con- 
nections, 1 55j caliphs, 168 

madrasah, 410, 412, 659, 660, 661 

Madrid, 564 

Magan, 36, 52 

Magellan, 555 n. 5 

maghd&i, 244 

MagAdtt, al , 388 

maghnatis, 311 n. 1 

Maghrib, aK 213 n. 2, 35T, 391 h. 4, 
393, 450* S03i 54S, 567, 5<^ MS 

Maghrib al-Aqsa, al-, 711. See also 
Morocco 

Maghribi, 260 

Maghnbis, 732 

Magi, 43 

Magma, 291, 367, 379 n. 3, 435 

Magna Moralta, 313 

Marinsm, ibn-abi-al-, KhalTfah, 686 

Mahdi, the, 24S, 441 3, 617 

Mahdi, al*, 'Abbasid, 86, 204, 293, 295, 

297, 299, 302, 306, 311, 317, 3*<> 322, 

326, 332, 333, 349, 354, 359. 3&>» 405, 

417,424*430 
Mahdi, al-, set Tumart, ibn- 
Mahdi, al-, Umayyad of Cordova, see 

Muhammad II 
Mahdi, al-, Muhammad, see Muhammad 

al-M untazar 
Mahdiyah, id-, 609, 618 
Mafcmd, 135, 136 n, I, 676 
Ma^mud, 713 n. 1 
Malimud II, 713 n. 1, 724, 727 
Mahraud of Ghaznah, 212, 376, 464-5 
M ab mud, Ghazan, see Ghazan Mahmud 
Mnhmud ibn-Malikshah, 578 
Mahrah, 19, 36, 740 
mtftdah* 106 n 2, 497 
Maimomdes, see Maymun, ibn-, Musa 
Ma'm, 41, 42, 52,55 
Maiah, ibn-, 395 
majalts al-adab, 413 
M&jid, ibn-, Ahmad, 6S9 
JifajTSft, ah t see Almagest 
majlts t 412 
majlts al-skircb, 338 
tnajnun, 98. 251 
Majnun Layla, 251 
Majnji, ai-, 375, 571, 588, 589 
AtajSs, 233, 358 

Majus, term applied to Banes, 521 n. 2 
Majusi, al«, *A!i ibn ah'Abbns, 365, 867, 

368, 579, 663 
MalhxGm, 560 



794 



INDEX 



Makkah: 7, 17, 18, 27, $0, $*> 5$, 96, 
09, 101, 102. 103 4 toq, 106. in, 
112, 114, 116, n8, 119, 130, 133, 136, 
139, 144, 185, 186, 189, 192, 193, 220. 
236-9, 241 , 25 1 , 259 sec., 424, 440 n, 8, 
445, 452, 45 6 > 47* n. I, 476, $07, 5 2 9, 
569, 57°» 5S7. 59*, 617, 620, 677, 
68r, 702, 704; pagan, 64; conquest of, 
100, 118; the name, 103; gates of, 105; 
al-Mukarrcimah, 134; fall of, 140, 
attack on, 147; capture of, 1 76; 
Haram of, 192; pilgrim route to, 325 

Makkan. singors, 8t; 98, 228, 235, 275; 
aristocracy, 102; surahs, 113, 124, 126, 
1 33; families, 1 14; period, 1 1 6; 
caravan, 116; revelations, 131; con- 
nections, 155; party, 179; sanctuary. 258 

Makkans- 99, X04, u6, 117, 118; pre- 
Islamic, 101 

mckruky 274, 4 00 

Makuraba, 103 

Malabar, 356 

Malaga- 496, 528, 529, 535. 537, 553, 
554> 57S> 5So, 592; university of, 563 
rtaJa£ t 100, n . 
Malasjird, 475 
Malatynh, 199, 291 

Malay • Archipelago. 305 ; language, 3ob\ 

351; origin, 665 
Malayan, 4 
Malaysia, 131 
Malazkird, 475 
Malchus I, 68 
Malchus II, 68 
Maldive Islands, 570 
mate, 28, 79, 85, 197, 47*. 6«i 75° 
Malik, ibn-, see Anas 
MaKk al-«AdiI, al-, see Salter, ibn-al 
Mahk al-Afdal, al-, 622-3, 628, 639 
Malik al-Ashraf, al-, 726 See clso 

Ghazali, al- 
Malik al-Ashtar, 180 
MaKk al-Mansur, al-, see Qalawun 
mttiik ol-muluk, 472 n. 2 
Malik ibn-Anas, 397-8, 399, 514 
Malik ibn-Fahm al-Asdi, 82 
Mfihld, see Malikite 
Malth, ei-, 3^7, 579 
Malikite: 397 n, 39^? rite, 514; school, 

542; q54i, 567 

Mahkshab, JaJal-al-Din, 377, 410, 447. 

475-7, 478, 480, 638, 644 
Maliku, see Malchus I 
MalkSaba,55 175 1 

Malta, 45*» 605, 606, 618, 711, 734. 747 
Ma'Iula, 361 



MalwTyah, 417 n. 9, 418 

ptamSftk* 235 n. X, 341 

Mamtakok aUUrdunnlyah aUBashU 
miyah t al-, 756 

tnamluk, 235 n r, 655 

MamlQk: period, 404, 424, 625, 660, 606; 
489, 655, 656, 671-94; army, 489, 704; 
destruction, 659; rulers, 664; amirs, 
695; buildings, 697; kingdom, 699, 
702; sultan, 702, 703; power, 705, 710, 
720; oligarchy, 738; era, 749 

Mamlfiks; 220, 286 n. 1, 487, 630, 637, 
644, 653, 655, 661, 664, 671-703; 721, 
724; under Turks, 719 $eq.\ slaugh- 
tered, 724; government of, 7 38, local, 
733 

Ma'mun.al-^Abbasid: 220,234,^45, 264, 

295, 297, 299, $01, 304, 3°5. 310-18, 
320, 321, 322, 326,327, 328 ^.,364, 
409, 410, 414, 417, 424, 425, 426, 429, 
430, 439, 452, 458, 461,472, 5 r 3,737; 
espionage system of, 325; mother of, 
312; wife of, 333 

Ma'muni observatory, 376 
Man, 729 
Man^ih, 98, 99 
ftfemar, a/-, 755 
Mand;tr % aA, 629 
Manchu, 356 
Mandaeans, 233, 357 
Mandaic, 357 
Mani, 359 

Manichaean: 406; influence, 420 
Manichacan-Zoroastnan influence on 

Sufism, 586 
Manichaeans- 353, 359, 443 n. 3; crypto- 

Matuchaeans, 359 
Manichaeism, 359 
Manises, 592 
Manium, 36 
manly ah, 99 
manjaniq t 226 

Manjanlqi, al-, ibn-$abir, 327 
Ma'ns, 731 

Mansur, al-, 'Abbasid: 158, 265, 289 95, 

296, 297, 307, 309* 3io, 311, 317, 32I1 
327, 334, 337, 33S r 343, 349 378, 
385 n. 2, 416, 419, 466, 507; espionage 
system of, 325; mother of* 332 

Mansur, al-, Fatimid, 445, 606, 623 

Mansur I, Samanid, 463 

Mansur 'Abd-al-*Axix, al-, Maroluk, 

694 n-3 

Mansur 'AH, aK 074 

Mansur bi-Allah, al-, set I^ajib al- 
Mansur, al- 



Mansftr, ibn-, see Nub II, Sarn&nid 
Man§ur ibn^Sarjun, 195 
Man§ur 'Uthmon, al*, Mamluk, 694 n. 3 
Man$Gr. al-, nbu-YQsuf Ya'qiib, 54^, 

549, 578, 5 82 > $99 
MansQr, imvabi-, Yahya, 375 
Mansvri, 366, 462, 579 
Man$Qriyah, al*, 685 
Manuel, Armenian, 166 
Manrikart, 475 
Ma'on, 54 
maqamahi 403, 559 
Maq&maU 403, 420 

Maqdisi, al-, geographer, 48, 204, 264, 

265, 346, 356, 385-6,412,415 
Maqna, 119 

Maqqari, al-, 531, 550, 555, 560, 562, 

567 tu 1, 578 
Maqrizi, ju\ 618, 626, 631, 6S7, 688-9 
Maqs, 619 

mag fur ah s 198, 261, 262 
MaqMat t 3x3 

Maraghah: 330, 488, 683; observatory 
at, 378 

Mar ash, 200, 203, 459, 640 
Mjuathi, 126 
Marc the Greek, 665 
Martian of Hcraclea, 44 
Marco Polo, 344, 447 » 487 4 
oiurdattes, 204-5 
Marc Tenebarara, 529 
Manaba, 46 
Manama, 46, 56 

Ma* rib: 46, 50, 51, 54, 55, 56, 58, 64, 104, 

739; dam of, 54, 64-5, 78, 105 
Maridim, ah Masawayh 
nufrifak) 434 
Marin, barm-, 549 
Maristan al-Mansuri, al-, 67S 
Mariyah, S3 

Mariyah, aV, see Aimeria 
m«Vi 550 

Marj 'Adhra*, 192 n. 3 
Marj ibn* Amir, 154 
Mar] Dabiq, 703 
Marj Rahit, 150, I9*> 2Sr 
Marj alǤuflfar, 150, 6S0 
Marjaba, 734 
Mark Antony, 74 
markab t 136 n. t 

Maronitc: origin, 154 n. I; commumfy^ 
205; 311; students 743; scholars, 747 
Maronite Christians, 639 
Maronites, 196, 205, 633, 6So, 7 2 9, 734 
Marqab, al*, 657, 665 
Marracci, tz6 n. 1 
2d 



SX 795 

Marrakcsh, see Marrakush 
Marrakush, 541, 546* 548-9, 569, 57S, 
582 

MarrKkushi, nl-, 548, 565 
Mars, 415 

Marseille, 565, 571, 5S9, 669 
Marshushi, rhn-al-, 'Ali, 695 
Martel, see Charles 
Ma'ruf al-Karkhi, 434 
Marv, see Marw 

Marw: 158, 209, 210, 224, 2S4, 2S5, 318, 
330, 4^4. 46i> 474, 476; highway 
through, 323 

Marwah, 133 

Manvan, abu*, see tlayyan, ibn- 
Manvan I, see Manvan ibn-aUIakam 
Manvan II, Umayyad, 226, 279, 284, 

285, 404. 504 
Manvan ibn-al-Hakam, 177, 189, 192, 

193 n. 1, 206, 231, 253, 261 n. 8, 2:9, 

281,282 

Manvanid, 193 n. t, 206, 279, 281, 282 
Manvanids, 237, 235 
Mary, friend of Flora, 517 
Mary, mother of Jesus, 125 
Mary, wife of Muhammad, 120 
Mas'ai, 37 
Mcsai/y 427 
Masahk al Mam$ltk s 385 
Masahk Uf-af-Afamdhk, a/-, of al-Bakri, 
569 

Mcsalik to-al-MamSlik, <$/-, of ibn- 

awqal, 386 
Masahk tv-al-Afamdltk, <tl~, of :bn« 

Khurdadhbrti, 323 385 
Mnsarjawayh, 255 
Masarrah, ibn-, 521, 580, 586 
Masawayh al-Maridlni, 31 { n, 7 
Masawavh, ibn*, YQJiianna, 311, 312, 

363, 360 

Ma'shar, abu*, 37$, 387* 57o, 589 
Afasharif af*Sha y m, 147 n. 3 
maskhad, 472 
Mashhad'Ali, 182-3 
Mashraftyah swords, 147 
m&sjid, 256 

Masjtd al-Aqsa, al-, 221, 265. See also 

Aqsa Mosque, al- 
Maslamah, ibn-, see ilablb 
Maslam.th ibn**Abd-aI-MaKk, 203 204, 

212, 290 
Ma$mudah, tribe, 514, 546 
Masqat: 14, 18, 711; capita], 739; sultan* 

ate, 739 
Massa, kings of, 43 



INDEX 



Massignon, 445 

Masslsah, il« f 200, 291 

Master Jacob, 379 

Mas'ud, sultan of Ghaznah, 376 

Mas'ud, ibn-, 'Abdullah, 243, 3QI n. 3 

Mas'udi, a!-, historian, 54 > 78, 244, 273, 

285, 304, 3", 340, 34S, 384, 386, 300, 

391-2, 435, 530, 609 
Masyad, 447 n- 44$, 646 657 
Ma^yaf, see Masyad 
Matawilah, 249 n. 2 
Materia medica, 577 
fifailn, 0?*, 565 
mate, 394,412 
Matn, al-, 734 
matrak, 335 
Matta, 449 
Matthew t26 

Mauritania, 6, 555 n. 5, 711 
Mausoleum of Barq&q, 697 
Afaw&'ip xv-al'I Utbar, a/: 6S9 
Mffwah, 172 n. 6, 173, 218, 232 
Mawardi, al-, 1S5, 319, 322, 326. 331, 401 
Mawiyah, 83 

mow/a, 27, 86, 172 n. 4, 219 
Mawlas, 448 
Mawlawi, 372 
Ma* lawites, 437 

Mawsil.al-: 157, 3°5. 33°. 387. 39* " 8» 
412, 413, 457, 480 n. 4, 502, 610, 614, 
620, 635, 636, 63S, 644, 691 , 737; high- 
way throagh, 325; metropolitan of, 

355 , 
Mawsih, al-, 'Ammar ibn-*Ali, 629 
Mawsil), al*, Ibrahim, 303, 424-5 
Mait<Ui, al-, Tsriaq 5-5* $9$, 426 
may dan, 204 

Maymfin, ibn-, 'Abdullah, 617 
Mavmun, ibn-, Musa, 576, 584-5, 662, 
6S5 

Maymun al-Qaddab, 443 

may sir, 21 

Maysun, 281 

maytah, 121 

Mardakian, 291 

Mazdakites, 359 

Mazdean Persians, 66, 84 

Mazini, al-,abu-r^amid Muhammad, 569 

Mecca, see Makkah 

Media, 323, 330, 346, 385 

Medina, see Madinah, al- 

Medina Sidonia, 496, 502 

Medinaccli, 533 

Mediterranean: 4, 44, 67, 351, 45-» 5«-» 
"554 n. 3, 571, 609, 620, 638, 641, 644, 
665> 6°7, 728; race, 30, 37; ports, 42, 



72; outlet, 50; civilization, 175; coast, 
200, 640; influence, 253; trade, 344; 
lands of, 485; island, 699; eastern 
realms of, 705 

Melitene, see Malatyah 

Melkite: church, 165; patriarch of 
Alexandria, 620; patriarch of Jeru- 
salem, 620; patriarch of Constantin* 
ople, 676 

Melukh, 52 

Melukhkba, 36, 52 

Memphis, 58, 453 

Mercury, 415, 572 

Merida, 406, 514, 518 

Merovingian, 499, 500 

Mesopotamia: 10, l8, 20, 32, 36, 50, 60, 
100, I43» *45i 154, 260, 2S4, 292, 309, 
457, 473, 486, 644, 646, 652, 653, 655, 
699, 703; conquest of. 74. See also 
'Iraq, al- 

Mesopotamian desert, 15 

Messenger of Allah, 397 

Messiah, 105, ll6, 183, 2S6, 2S9, 467 

Messianic, 248 

Messina, 604, 606 

Mesue, 311 n. 7 

Mesue Major, see Masawayh, ibn- 

Mesue the Younger, see Mas<ivvayh al- 
Maridmi 

Mezqirita, La, 509 

Michael II, 299 

Michaet Palaeologus, 676 

Michael Scot . see Scot 

Middle Ages: 4, 43. 142, 346, 366, 402, 
423, 428, 453, 6 57, *>62. 663: religious 
romance of, 246, 293; Christian, 378 

Middle Egypt, 50 

Middle Persian, see Pahlawi 

mCdhanah, 261 

Midhat Pasha, 738 

Midian, 14, 40, 48, 52 

Midianites, 22, 39 

mid rash, 125 

mihnak* 399, 429-30 

miftrab, 106 n. 2, 259, 260, 261, 262, 

267,417, 715 
Mihran, 155 

Mika*fl, father of Tughril, 474 n. 3 

Milan, 366 

millet, 716 

millets, 727 

rtina\ 358 

Minn, valley of, 133 

Minaca. 58 

Minaean: colony, 36, 54, 72; inscriptions, 
43» 55; Ungdom, 52, 54, 55; capital, 



INDEX 



797 



55; kings, 54; cmttzatfon* 72; pan- 
theon, 98; inscription, 10a 

Minaeans, 41, 44, 55, 56, 60,71 

Minaei, 44 

Minaeo-Sabacan: language, 52; king- 
doms, 54; culture, 56 
minbar, 106 n. 2, 258 
Minh&j al-Dukkan, 685 
ntCrSj, 114, 352 
Miramar, 663 
MiramoUn, 1 78 
Mir at al-Zoman, 392 
mishaf, 106 n. 2 
Misjafc, ibn-, Sa'id, 275, 278 
Miskawayh, 390, 391, 401, 472 
Miskin, see Darimi, al- 
Misr al-'Atfqah, 165 
mtthqdl, 348 
rtitlaq, 190 
mftafah, 276 
mizhar, 273 
mi smart 273, 276 
MKRB, 54 

Moab, 100, 143, 269 n. 2 
Mocha, 49 

Mohammedan art, 259 

Mongol. 356, 378, 414, 486, 488, 677, 

6S0, 691; onslaught, 484; hordes, 671; 

powers, 676 
Mongolia, 482 n. 1, 486, 702 
Mongolian: 210, 697; leader, 656 
Mongoloid peoples, 209 
Mongoloid Turks, 204 
Mongols, 297, 358, 448, 475, 482-3, 

487-9, 656, 664, 672, 675, 677, 678, 

679. <&3» 697 

Monoph)site: communion, 61; bishop, 
79, 315; church, 107, 153, com- 
munities, 143 

Monophysite Christianity, 61 1 78 

Monophysite Syrian church, 79 

Monophysites, 106, 16$ 

Monophysitism, 79 

Monothehte, 153 

Mons Pclcgrinus, 641 

Mons Regalis, 641 n. 2 
*Mont Royal, 641 n. 2 

Montct, 70 

Montpelher, 577, 589 

Montreal, 641 n. 2 

Moorish* 260, 338; problem, 556; arch, 

597; dancers, 599 
Moors: Andalusian, -^5i; 516, 544, 555 

» S, 55*. 598 
Mopsuestia, see MassTsah, al- 
Morca, 725 



Moriah hill, 264 
Moriscos, 555 

Moroccanr 127, 565; mercenaries, 532; 
corsairs, 556 

Moroccan Atlas, 546 

Moroccan Berber dynasties, 537 

Moroccan Murabits, 637 

Morocco, city, see Marrakush 

Morocco- 6, 127, 316, 344, 757; paper of, 
347, 437, 440 n, 8, 45°» SO 2 , 5*3* 521, 
527, 540, 54i» 544, 545* 546, 548, 549, 
564, 618, 711; Sharifs of, 617 n. 1; 
conquest of, 718 

Moros, 555 n. 5 

Moscow, 701 

Moses: 28, 40, 125, 443, 584; valley of, 67 
Moslem: 3, 4, 43, 94, 120, 125 n, I, 126 
seq., 209, 212 seq. f 264, 265 seq. t 326, 
337 seq , 361, 367, 392, 401, 406 scq. % 
510 seg. t 672, 678, 690, 695, 705, 713; 
literature, 20, 50, 463; conquests, 22, 
I43» 359* 388; invasion, 22, 57, 49S; 
supremacy, 57; army, 84, 170, 174, 
204; poets, 92; system of taxation, 
97, calendar, 102; community, 106, 
170, 172, 182, 248, 259, 480; world, 
114, 130, I33» 138* 179, 286, 308, 583, 
671,745; era, 116, 145, 176, emigrants, 
131; theologians, 128, 274; theology, 
128, 368; lands, 129, 133, 334, 338, 
363, 386, 40S, 460. 591, 612; generals, 
141; military enterprises, 148, fleet, 
167, 604, 640; state, 167, 470, 58 X, 
620, religion, 169, 337; law, 170, 326, 
39S; governors, 170, 453; troops, 171 j 
converts, 174; empire, 175, 1S9; 
tradition, 175, 243 4; cahph, 186, 196; 
society, 195, 419, dynasties, 196, 465, 
5 68; conquest, 206, 463; architects, 
256; art, 259, 271, 423; architecture, 
260, 597, 681, 691, 697; minarets, 262, 
legists, 274; singers, 275; merchants, 
305; astronomers, 315, 57 x; mysticism, 
3l6, 433; traders, 343, 344, 384; civil- 
ization, 362, 404, 429; communities, 
326, 399, 716, hospitals, 365; works, 
378; moral philosophies, 401; reJigious 
painting, 420; handlooms,422; gilder, 
424; philosophies, 428; intellectual life, 
431; thinkers, 432,580; asceticism, 434; 
guilds, 445; s^ts, 449, pirates, 451; 
fall, 509; geographers, 569, ph>sicians, 
576, 685; domination m Spain, 578; 
medical tradition, 579; biographers, 
581; religious life, 586; metal-workers, 
591; pottery, 59 1 ; fit yle, S95» musicians, 



79S 



INDEX 



500, conquest of Sicily, 002, war en 
604; menace to Italy, 605; populatior 
of Sicily, 606; craftsmen in SicBv, 613, 
fashions, 613; culture in Southern 
Italy, 6t3 r culture in Sicily, 614; 
histonms, 61S, knights, 664; heraldry , 
664, ships, Gqj 

Moslem, non-, 320, 326, 341* 400» 7-6 

Moslem Aristoteliamsm, 584, 5S5 

Moslem Asia, 635 

Moslem Asia Minor, 6^6 

Moslem Arabian, genealogical relation- 
ship of, 244 

Moslem Arabian caliphate, 175 

Moslem Arabians, 174, 273 

Moslem Arabs, 256, 716 

Moslem Orient, 333 

Moslem Persia, 703 

Moslem Sicily, 606 

Moslem Spain, 503, 506, 533, 525, 529, 
540, 542, 549* 55<>> 557, 562, S$h 
6n, 667, 712 

Moslem Syria, 644, 646 

Moslems rt4, 116, itS seq., 200, 212, 
219 seq., ^46, 259 n 3, 26T seq., 347. 
354, 355 **9 * 4 02 » 422 seq , 484. 4$$, 
494. seq > 64^ 644* 650 scq>\ in Asia, 
1S6, in Africa, 1S6; argument of 
Christians with, 246, nominal, 247; 
as merchants, 543; in China, 344; 
crypto , 556 

Moslems, non-, nS, 13S, 225, 232, 2S3, 
320, 499, 621, 696 

Mosque of *Amr, 262, 413, 417 

Mosque of Barquq, 697 

Mosque of Cordova, 50S, 504 

Mosque of al Ghawri, 697 

Mosque of al-Hakira, 630 

Mosque of al-Ha*an, 6S1 

Mosque of Makkah, 264 

Mosque of al-Nasir, 665, 692 

Mosque of Qa it-bay, 692, 607 

Mosque of al-Qayrawan, 452 

Mosque of 'Uraar, 220, 264 

Mosul, 330, 737. See else Mavrsil, al- 

Mt. Babastro, 519, 520 

Mt Etna, 604 

Mt. Hennon, 215 

Mt Hira\ 133 

jMt Lebanon* 14; iron of, 34S; Christian 

majority of, 360 
Mt Qasiyun, 375, 436 
Mt Shamraar, 15, 17 
Mt Vesuvius, 604 
Mozarab revolutions, 517 
Mozarabs, 515, 543, 544, 559, 597 



Mshatta, 269 n, 5. See else Mushatta, al* 
tnttoddtb, 253, 409 
Mu*adh ibn-Jabal, 397 
Muolajok al JBuqradjah, 578 
MuVllaqat, al-, Si. 83, 93-4, 252 
TTiu'ctitri, 409 

mu'alhrt al tkdm, a/-, 367 n. 3, 371 
icu'drra/df, 396 

Mu'uwivah, son of Hisham, 222 

Mu'awiyah II, 192, 193, 245, 2S1 

Mu'awiyah ibn abi Sufyan: 148, 153, 
154, 161, 167, 16S, 177, 1 So, 183, 
189 9S, 200, 205, 206, 212, 213, 2*5 
seq , 244, 247, 253, 255 seq,, 354, 394; 
governor of Syria, 180; tomb of, 19$ 
n. 4; death of, 202; wife of, 234; 
postal service under, 322 

Mtfayyad, al-, TJmayyad of Cordova, 
see Hi<htm II 

Mu*ayyad Ahmad, al-, Mamliik, 694 jx 3 

Mu'ayjad, aK Shaykh, Mamluk, 677, 
694, 695, 696 

muHhy 400 

mub&m, 545 n. 1 

Mujfcr, tribe, 2S0, 502 n. 1 

Mudanbn Ma'add. 273 

Mudari, 2S1 

Mutfante, 281, 32S 

Mu^antes 502, 503, 504 

madams, 410 

vtttdawttarah % aU, 292 

Mudejars 551, 556, pottery of, 592; 
workmen, 503, 595, 597* 

mtidhchhib, 424. 

Mudkhtl tla <I!rt //a/at cl-Ajtek, at-, 
375 

Mudsfitl tla Swd'ct al-Afusfqx, al-, 

372 n t 
Mufiuhhl al-Dabbi, at*, 94 
Muft ^dsftyat, al-, 94 
MugMrali ibn Shu'bah, al , 196 

197 

Mughith al-Rumi, 494 

Jlfur^rt fi al'Adjxyak, al', 575 

Ttug^tasrlah, 35S 

muh&jtrun, 116, 140 

Muhalhil, al-, 90, 03 

Muhallab ibn abi-$ufrah, al*, 20S 

Muhammad* 3, 20 24, S6, 89, 99, 100, 
103, 105, 111-22, 124, 127-34 seq, 
215, 233, 240, 248, 256, 25S seq , 337, 
33 s , 352 seq., 401, 40S seq; poet 
laureate of, Si; death of, 123, 178; 
secretary of, 123; adopted son of, t47; 
successors of, 177; cousin of, 179 
Prophet of Islam, 182; succession to, 



followers of 186, religion of, 
204; worshipped as God, 643 ,5V* 
Prophet, the 
Muhammad, coriqucror of India, 281 
Muhammad, father of r Abd«al- Rahman 
III, 520 

Muhammad, son of abu-Bakr, 177 
Muhammad, son of Marwan 1> 279 
Muhammad J, Ottoman, joz, 709 n. I 
Muhammad H, Ottoman, 709, 712 

Muhammad III, Ottoman, Jizn 3 
713 n x 

Muhammad IV, Ottoman, 713 i 
Muhammad V, Ottoman, 7*3 n 1 
MiuHammad VI, Ottoman, 713 n 1 
Muhammad I, TJmayyad of Cordova 

514 n 1, 5161 517. 5*8, 519/ 521 n 2 

5*3 

Muhammad II, Umayyad, 534 
Muhammad III, Uma>yad, 534 n 5 

535, Soo 
Mujiammad V, Nasnd, 567, 595 
Muhammad VI, Ottoman, 184 
Muhammad VU1, Nasrid, $53, 679 
Muhammad XI, ttasrid, 553 5 
Muhammad XII, Na$nd, 553-4 
Muhammad abu-*Abdullah, Na$rid, 

see Muhammad XI 
Muhammad ibn-'AbduHah, see Nafs al- 

ZakTyah, al- 
Muhammad al Baqir, 442 
Muhammad T Ali- 286 n 1, 722 seg f 725, 

733, 741, 745. successor of, 724, famd> 

of t 726 

Muhimm^d al-JavSd 441, 442 
Mutnmmad al-Munta^ar, 441, 442 
Muhammad al-Tamm, 443 
Muhammad ibn-abi-*Amir, see *Anur» 

* Muhammad ibn-al-MuzaOar, Mamluk, 

*n 

Muhammad Rashad, Ottoman, 138 
Muhammad ibn-Sulayimin, 304 
Muhammad abn-Tumart, see Tumart, 
ibn- 

Muhammad ibn-Yusuf xbn-Nas,r, see 

Na$r, ibn- 
Muhammftdanism, 145 
Muhammadans in Chinese records, 344 
mvjtaqqaq, 424 * „ 
Muharram: 94, 102, 133, 183; tenth day 

of, 190^ tenth of, 19* 
"Muhiboi, al-, 744 
mUkrttrt, 133* 134 
Muhris, ibn-, 275 



EX 799 
Muhtadi, al-, 'Abbasid: 322, 337* mother 

°fi 33 2 ; 460 

rtufrtaszb, 322, 527, 627 
mu'tdf 410 

Mu'nts, al-, Fafcmid, $6%, 619, 623, 625, 
627 

Mu*izi al Dawlah, Buv^avrnd, 417, 

470 71 
Mu'izztyah, al , 417 
Mujahid, ibn-, 123 
Mu'jam ai-Butddn, 3S4, 88$ 7 
Mujam at-Udaba", 3S6 
Mujarrabdt, 6S6 
mujawir, 27 
mujtahdSy 400, 441 
mukcrnb, 38, 52, 54 
Mukha, 49, $6 
mukhunnathun, 274 
Mukhanq, 425 
Mukhtarah, al-, 468 
Mukhtasar TJrxhh al-Bashar, 688 
Mukran, 157, 210, 330 
Mulctafi,al«, "Abbasid- 3a r , 34&» 355*4*7* 

470 n 2, 473, mother of, 332 
Mulatkthstmun, al ^ 541 
Mulawwafc, ibn al , Qays, see Majnun 

Layla 

Muljam, ibn«, r Abd-al-Rahman, 182 

ntilk, 184, 197, 28S 

Miilicr, 54 

Multan, aro, 464 

tnultaqc al Abfrur, 714 

Muliik wa-AkJibdr al-Mddin, 244 

muluk al ?awa*tf, 537 

Munabbih, ibn , Wahb, 50, 244 

Mundhir, al-, Umayyad of Cordova, 

514 n X,5I7,5I9 
MundHr, al-, I, Lakhmid, 82-3 
Mundhir, al-, III, Lakhmid, 79, 83, 85, 

90 

Mundhir, al-, IV, Lakhmid, 84 
Mundhir al Bay tar, ibn al-, 6S5 
Mundhir ibn-al-Hanth, al-, Ghassanid, 

79-80, 256 
Mundhir ibn-Sa'id, set Sa'id, ibn- 
Mu'nis al Mutaffar, 469*70 
Munqidh, banu-, 633 
Muviokhab fi Via; aVAyn, al*, 629 
Muntasir, al-, \Abbastd' 328, 426, 466, 

mother of, 332 
rruntazar, 441 

Munta^ar, al-, see Muhammad 
Munyat al-Ru§afah, 508 
Mtiqaddamah, al , 254, 404, 568 
Muqaddasi, al-, see Maqdisi, al- 
Muqafla*, ibn-al-, 308, 359, 389, 390, 401 



goo 



INDEX 



Muqanna*, al-, 86 

tnuqamas s 630 

nuq<iffjt y 746, 756 

MuqatUm, al«, 39S, 621, 628, 630 

Muqawqis, al-, 161 

Muqlah, ibn-, 'Abbasid vizir, 123, 424, 

46$, 629 
Afuqiti* fi al-Htsab, al-, 379 
Muqtabis fi Tarikh Rij&l al~Ar.dalus, 
5 6 5 

Muqtadi, al-, \Abbasid, 476-7, 479 n. 3 
Muqtadir, al-, 'Abbasid- 302, 319, 329, 
338, 341 , 342, 344, 348, 364* 384, 417, 
419, 468 9, 470, 473, 605; mother of, 
332 

Muqtaft, al-, 'Abbasid, 479 n 3, 480 
Murabif power, 537, 543; empire, 541, 

548; sovereigns, 542; dinar, 542; 

dynasty in Spain, 645 6 
Murabits, 537, 540, 541-S, 548, 558 
Murad I, 709 n. I 
Murad II, 709 n. I 
Murad III, 712 n. 3, 713 n. I 
Murad IV, 713 n. I 
Murad V, 713 n. x 
Murcia, 281, 518, 566, 585 
murid, 433 

Mxtrp Yte sect, 317, S9S 

Mursiyah, see Murcia 

Murtatfa, al-, 'Abbasid, see Mu'taxz, 

ibn-al- 
murtatiqah, 327 
murifah, 25, 95, 253, 335 
AfurXj al*I)hahab, 391 
Musa (claimant), 709 n. I 
Musa al-Ash*ari, abu-, see Ash'ari, al- 
Musa al-Hadi, see Hadi, al- 
Musa al-Kazim, 441-2, 703 
Musa ibn-Nusayr, 207, 213-15, 235, 493, 

49S 8, 499 
Musa ibn-Shakir, sonsof, 312, 313, 375, 

376 

Mus'ab ibn*al-Zubayr, 192 

MusaGr, ibn-, see Qaysar 

Musajjafr, ibn-, see Misjah, ibn* 

musatvwirun, 271 

Musaylimah, 141 

Muscat, 18, 739. See also Masqat 

Museo Cristiano, 609 

Muses, the, 250, 276, 407 

Mushatta, al-, 269 

Musd, Alois, 7, 22, 269 

m&slqi, 311 n. 1, 427 

Afxstqi ahKablr^ ah t 372, 427, 428 

Muslim, ibn-, see Qutaybah 

Muslim ibn-al-rjajjaj, 395, 396 



Muslim al-Khurasani, abu-, 284,290*91 

323^5* 340 
Muslim lbn-'Uqbah, 191-2, 193 
musnad, al- t 52 
Musnad, 236 n. 1, 399 
Musran, 52, 54 

Mustacjr, al-, *Abba$rd. mother of, 332; 

479 n. 3,480 481,646 
Mustafa I, 713 n I 
Mustafa II, 713 n. 1 
Mustafa III, 713 n. l 
Mustafa IV, 713 n I 
mustahahb, 400 

Musta'In, al , 'Abbasid: 328, 466 7, 677; 

mother of, 332, 345 
Musta'm, al-, MamlUk, 694 n, 3 
Musta'in, al*, Nasnd, 1-53 
Mustakfi, al-, Wbbas-d, 469 70,471,473 
Mustakfi, al-, Umayyad of Cordova, see 

Muhammad III 
Musta'h, al-, Fa|imnl, 623 
Mustanjid, al-, 'AbMsid, 341, 479 n. 3 
Mustansir, al-, *Abbibtd, 411, 483, 

48b n 1 

Mustansir, al-, 'AbbaVid caliph of Egypt, 

489, 676-7 
Mustansir, al-, Tatimid, 474, 481 n. 2, 

£22, 6i2 % 0V3, 6*s 626,629 
Mustansir, al , Umayyad in Spain, 530 
Mustansiriyih, al , 4X1 
musta'nbah, 32 

Mustarshid, al-, f Abtusid, 479 n. 3 
Musta'sim, al-, 'Abbisid, 341, 345, 486, 
671 

musfatir, 441 

Mustazmr, al-, 'Abb^sid, 479 n. 3, 480 
Mustaihir, al-, see *Abd-al Rahman V 
Mu'tadd, al-, Umay> a d of Cordova, see 

Hisham III 
Mu'tadid, al-, 'Abbntfid, 538, 560 
Mu'tamid, al-, *Abbasid, 297, 314, 319, 

355. 35 6 . 360, 4*7, 454, 468, 470 n. 2, 

473.538 560 
mut'aJi, 449 
Mu'tah, 143, 147 
rtutakalhm, 370, 43 1 
Mutamassik, al-, see Muhammad VIII 
Mu'tamid, al-, 'Abbuli, 538 41, 559, 

560, 59S, 607 
Mu'tamid, al-, 'Abb3 S id, 323, 369, 426, 

453,462,466,468 
Mutanabbi*, al-, 412, 456, 458, 459, 472 
muiascrrtf, 736 

Mu f tasim, al , 'Abblisid, 297, 300, 301 
323i 328, 333 4-7, 420, 466 
mutatawnfah, 327 



INDEX 



801 



MutawaVkil; al-, •Abbasid, 232, 297, 
3*3> 3M> 317, 3*5. 327, 3^ .417. 
420, 426, 430, 440- 468 7 i 6 **» 
Mutawakkil, al-, 'Abbasid caliph in 

Egypt, 489, 677, 7<>3»705 
Mu*taritah, al-, 245, 423 
Mu'tarilite, 310, 373, 382, 399, 43<> 
Mu'taiilitcs, 242, 245» 39*> ^0 
MuW, al-, 'Abbasid, 34S, 426, 465-7 
Mu'taiz, ibn-al-, 'Abbasid, 337, 46$ 
Muthanna ibn-^orithah, al-, 148, 155 
Muff, al-, 'Abbasid, 35$, 47 *» 473 
Muttaqi, al-, 'Abbasid, 355, 469-70, 473 
MuwafFaq, af- r 46S 

Mu wali^id: governor, 595; period, 590 
Muwafchids, 545. SS*> 5&5> 577, 

57S, 5Si»584 
Muwahhidun, 740. Sec also Wahhabis 
MuwoUads. 511, 517 
Muivalfadicnt 5 10 
Muvraqqar, 269 
mutoashshafr* 581, 562* 578 
$fu7Paffa\aJ,39S t 5*4 
Mu*a, 49 See ulso Mukha 
Musaffar, al-, *Abd-al-Malik, 534 
Mu?affar Abmad, al-, Mamluk, 694 n. 3 
Muzaffar Hajp, al-, Mamluk, 673 
Mtiiayqiva', 65, 78 
MuzXahfah, al-, 133 
Muihir, oU 9 $$7, 688 

Nabaitai, 67 

Nabatacan* kingdom, 43, 44; 67-74, 

i civiUxation, 76; deities, 99; inscrip- 
tions, 99; script; 357; agriculture, 358; 
peasants, 444 

Nabataeans, n, 19, 32, 39, 43, 44, 46, 
,/ 54,67,74,84»87 
» Nabati, al- f J^assan, 223 

nabbSJA, 535 

naSi, 113 

n&ttdk t 19, 337 

/Nabigh^hal-Dhubyani, al-, Si, 84 

Nabonidus, 39 

Nabopolassar, 37 

Nabuius, 640 

N£bulu$i f al-, 744 
t*a&htr t 113 

Nadlm. al-, 306, 354, 35 6 » 414 

Naijir, banu-* 104, 117 
„ Na^r ibn-al-IJarith ibn-Kaladah, al-, 

najf&f&n* 327 
"Nafi*, ibn-, see 'Uqbali 
> NarV ibn«al-Azraq, 20$ ~ 



Wir, 0/-, 601 
Nafis, ibn-al*, 685 
443 

Nafs al ZaUyah, al-, 290, 291 
nafsaniy 686 
»lfl£#«m, 428 
Nagftairti ai- t 427 

Naghzalah (al-Naghrilah), ibn-, Isma'S, 

537 9 
Nahr Usaj 349 
Nahr KQtha, 349 
Nahr al-Malik, 349 
Nahr $arsar, 349 
Nahr ai-$ilah, 349 
Nahr Yazid, 231 
Nahrawan, lS2 
n& % tb % 225. 326 
nd y tb al-scltanah* 674 
Na'ilah, 1 80, 195 
Najaf, al-, 182, 183, 440, 737, 75 2 
Najashi, 62, 271 

Najd, 7, !2, J 5 , 17, 18, 20, 30, 87, 102, 

T44/224, 251,622, 739 
Najdis. 30, 32 

Najran: 46, $t, 52, 61, 84, 98, 107; 

Christians of, 61 . 62, 169 
Nakhlah, 93, 97, 98, 99 
Nam a rah, (5-, 70, 88 
nomir, 20 
Naples, 604, 605 

Napoleon, 142, 161, 675, 721-2, 745, 749 

Napoleon III, 7 

Naqab al-Haiar, 51 

Naqid, ibn al-, abu-al-Fa<Ja'd, 6S6 

naqts* 226 

ncqqarahf 664 a. 2 

ncquSf 259 n« 2 

Naqyus. 163 

NaranvSin. 36 

naranj, 351 n. 2 ' 
Narbonne, 499, 501, 589 * „ 

nerd, 3^9 
Nasa. 379 n, 2 
nasaB, 28 
Nasafi, al-. 185 

Nasa'i, a!-, 395 r * 

Nasawi, al-, Abroad, 379 j 
itestb, 250 

Nasibln: 174, 290, 460; metropolian of, 
355 

r.asxkh and mansukk. 99 

Nastr. al-, 'Abbasid, 318, 32S, 479, - - 

481-3, 486 n. l 
Nasir, al-, Umayyad in Spain, set Abd- 

a!- Rah man III * * 

Nasir, ibn^Abbas, 623 



802 



INDEX 



Nasir Faraj, nl- t Mamluk, 567, 677, 688, 

694 3» 695^96, 701 
Nasir-i-Khusraw, 478, 625, 626, 631 
Nasir Muhammad, al-, Muwahhid, 549 
Na?ir-al-Dln al-Tiisi, 378, 683 
Nasir ibn-QalawQn, al», Mamluk, 673, 

670 62, 6S5, 688,691,697 
Nasiriyah, al-, 681 
naskhi, 70, 660 
Nasorcans of St. John, 357 
Nasi, iox [5x4. S» 4 

Nasr, eunuch of *Abd-al- Rahman H 
Nasr ibn-Afcmad, 462 
Nasr ibn-HOrun, 355 n. 3, 472 
Nasr, ibu-, Muhammad ibn-Yusut 

549-50, 596, 597 
Nasr lbn-Sayyar, 2 10 
Nasnd, Granadan: monument, 529; dyn 

asty, 549-55, sultan, 567; palace, 595 
Nasnd, Lakhmid, dynasty, 82 
Nasrids, Granadan, 549, 550 

Nasser, see *Abd-al -Nasir 
Nathan der Weist, 652 n* 7 
National Library of Cairo, 68 1, 692 
ndltq , 443 

ndfiir, 10? 2, 262 
Natural History > 47 
na'urah, 667 
Navarino, 725, 734 

Navarre, 521, 523, 524, 527. 534, 539,549 
Nawaji, al-, 337 
ttawbakhty 307 n. 3 
Nawfal, ibn-, see Waraqah 
nay, 273 

Naysabur: 210, 330, 376, 377, 395, 403, 
412, 461, 474, 477 n. 4; highway 
through, 323; turquoise of, 348 

Nazarenes, 357 n. 7 

Nazareth, 487, 656, 729 

na?ir t 573 

Nazram, al-, 430 

Near East, 12, 74, 143, 226, 235, 307, 

659, 736, 749 
Near Eastern, 749 
Nearchus. 49 

Nebuchadnezzar, 357 n. 4, 737 
Negruna, 46 
Negus, 62, H4» I2r, 271 
Nehemiah, 41 
Nco-Babylonians, 39, 379 
Neo-Isma'iHtes, 446 
Neo-Moslenv, 219, 232, 241, 2S9, 484, 
510, 512 

Nco- Platonic: 306, 315, 368, 370; 
sources, 401; philosophy of ibn- 



Maymun, 585; school of ibn-Ma- 
sarrah, 586 
Neo-Platonism, 316, 433, 439, 443, 5 8o. 
584 

Neo-Platonists, 31 1 

Nco-Pythagorcan: mathematics, 370; 
sources, 401 

Nestorian: 81, 84, 260* 309, 314, 420; 
influences, 106; church. 107; con* 
gregations, 143; painters, 422; physi- 
cian, 427; influence, 474 a, 2 

Nestorian Christian, 310, 312, 656 

Nestorians, xo6, 355-6, 364, 420, 424 

New Testament; Arabic. 127; 396 

New World, 12, 335, 728 

New York, 164 

Nezib, see Nizzib 

Nicasa, 475, 637 

Niccphorus I, 300 

Nicephorus Phocas, 329, 459*60 

Nicholas, Byzantine monk, 577 

Nteemaehcan Ethies t 401 

Nicomachus, 427 

Niebuhr, Carsten, 6, 51 

Nigeria, 134, 741 

Nihawand, 157 

Nthdyat abArab, 42$, 689 

Nikiu, 163, 166 

Nile River: 4, 10, 14, 32, 58, 165, 215, 
453, 489, 624, 626, 652, 654, 672, 681 , 
683, 696, 704; valley, 159, 160. 166, 
627, 705, 722, 73<5, 745; overflow of, 
628; cataract of, 713 

Nile-Red Sea canal, 59 

Nuometer, 375, 4*7, 453 

Nineveh, 38, 39, 157, 293 

NiqfQr, 300 n. 2 

Niqiyah, 475, See also Nicaa 

ttir, 107 n. 2 

Nirun, al-, 210 

Nirvana, 435 

Nishapur, 210. See aUo Naysabur 
Nisibis, see Naslbrn 
Nizam-al-Mulk, 410, 447, 477-8, 660 
Nizumfyah, 410-11, 4*2, 431, 432, 47^, 

S30» 6S9 
Nizari, 32 
Niza rites, 280 
Nizzib, 734 
Noah, Q> 125, 443 
Nordic, 526 

Norman: king of Sicily, 322, 569; period 
in Sicily, 593; conquest of Sicily, 606, 
607; patron of al-Idrisi, 609; kings of 
Sicily, 613; 643 j castles, 661 

Norman England, 590 



INDEX 



803 



Nonnmdy, 665, 667 

Normans: of France, 521 ti. 2; of Sicily, 
606, 607, 622; 636 

North Africa: 143, 159* »• h 

193, 194, 206, 259, 260, 262, 265, 289, 
29*, 451, 460, 469, 473* 493. 5<>3> S°S> 
SSOj 56i, 5*S, 574, 575» 602, 605, 617, 
619, 662, 672, 710, 717, 75 2 # conquest 
of, 3S8 

North African: coast, 214, 233; type of 

minaret, 613; block, 738 
North Africans, 214, 360 
North Arabia: 15, 38, 39, 4*> 43. 55» 6i, 

65, 93, 101, 107, 134; population of, 87 
North Arabian: tribes, 27, 2$, 280; 

tribal deity, 40; states, 67; people, 88 
North Arabians, 30, 32, 43, 76, 85, 88, 

280, 328, 502, 606 
North Arabic language, 52, 105; tongue, 

70} script, 82 
North Lebanon, 747 
North-Eastern Africa, 360 
Northern Africa. 22, 316, 359, 308 
Northern Arabs, 273 
Northmen (Norsemen), 521 n. 2 
Nubah, al-, 168 

Nfibah, al-, 724* See tthe Sudan 
Nubatah, ibn-, 458 

Nubia: 34, 261, 363, 646, 675; Christian 

kingdom of, t68 
Nubian: 356, 435» kingdom, 360 
ttufiid, a!-, is, 20, 23, 37, 40 
Nuf)t, 125, See a/so Noah 
Nfih II, Samanid, 462 
JVujum al~Z£hirah % 688 
Nu'man, al-, I, Lakh mid, 82 
Nu'm^n, al*, HI, Lakh mid, 84 
Nu'man ibn-al-ftlundhir, al-, Ghassanid, 

So 

Numayr, ibn-, set ^lusayn ibn-Numayr, 
al- 

^umidia, 525, 710 

Humidians* 509 ' 

Nun, bmu-dhu-ai-, 518, S37i 566 

Nun al-Misri» dhu-al-, 435 

Nur-ai-Dln ibn-Zangi, 480, 643, 645 6, 

Nur-al-BXn 'AH, Mamluk, 673 
Nur af*tfyun } 686 
&uri hospital, 65^ 661, 678 
Nurid: models of architecture, 691; age, 
701 

JNurids, £59-60 
Kfiriyah, al^66o 
Nusayr, ibn-, see MQsa 
^«^yr, ibn-i Muhammad, 44& 



Nusayris, 249, 448-0 
Nusayriyah, al-, 633 
Nuwas, abu-, 303, 337. 34* » *06i 43& 
Nuwas, dhu-, 61 ? 62, 107 
Nuwayri, af-> Af?mad, 334, 689 
Nuzkat al'Mushiaq, 609 

'Obidath, 68 

Obodas III, see 'ObTdath 

Occident, 659, 667 

Occidental, 309, 392, 551, 648 

Odaynath, 75 

Odenathus, 75 

Odyssey, the, 93 

Oghu*, 473 

Ohsson, d', 186 

Olban, 494 n. X 

Old Cairo, 165, 260, 264 n 5 

Old Damascus, 150 

Old English, 43 

Old French, 564 

Old Man of the Mountain, the, 339, 646 
Old Testament 9, 10, 26, 32, 39, 40, 42, 

43$ 3i3« 12% *3S, *45> *** 5- 235> 
313; characters, 125; days, X34 

Omanitae, 44 

On, On, see Heliopolis 

Oph?r, 41 

Oppas,494, 499 

Optica, 612 

Qptrcs, 370 

Order of Preachers, 5S8 

Ordofio II, of Leon, 523 

Ordono the Wicked, 530 

Organon, 315 [676, 690 

Orient, 75, 231, 293, 302, 659, 663, 667, 

Oriental: romance, 304; 309, 310, 420, 

folk-tales, 404; studies, 58$, 663, 743; 

silk, 592; workmen, 593; music, 598; 

craftsmen, 613; fabrics, 613; artisans, 

614; houses, 644; legend, 648; tales, 

663; products, 66S 
Oriental Christians, 128 
Oriental Greek Church, 246 
Orontes River, 448, 638 
Orthodox dynasty, 288 
Osier, Dr., 368 
Osmanli, 716 
Ostia, 604 
Otto the Great, 500 

Ottoman: caliphate, 139, 317, 463* 
sultans, 1S6 n. 2; period, 233; 33 1 , 398, 
399, 654, 677, 693; conquest, 656, 703; 
army crushed by Timur. 70 1; pro- 
blem, 702; victory, 704; capital, 705; 

*e*. 749 



804 



INDEX 



Ottoman Turkey, 710 

Ottoman Turks, 184, 199, 475, 478 9, 

489, 671, 702, 745 
Ottomans, 320, 697, 715 
Ovid, 250 

Oxford, 501, 526, 577, 612 

Oxus River, 157, 175, I0 4r 209, 210 

n. 3. 33°, 379 2, 463* 476 
Ozene, see Uyayinl 

Pahlawi, 155 n. 2, 217, 246, 308, 309 n. 2, 

373 389 

Pakistan, 136, 212 

Palace of Eternity, 416 

Palatine Chapel, 613 

Palermo, 387, 603 7, 609, 612, 613 

Palestine 6,9,11,22,40,43,61, 104, 148, 
150, 154, 160, 169, 220, 233, 25r, 284, 
285, 316, 330, 357, 39S, 400, 412, 456, 
460, 502, 505, 506, 621 , 635, 639, 645-6, 
656, 661, 670, 674, 747, 749, taxes of, 
321 n r, population of, 72 S, dictators 
in, 731 

Palestinians* modem, 114 n 4; 669 
Palgrave, 7 
Palm Sunday, 342 

Palmer, translation of Koran, 126 a. I 
Palmyra, 29, 59, 60, 74 8, So, 84, 97, 

227, 256, 375, 741 
Palmyrena, 38, 42, 78, 195 
Palm>rene chief, 75; civilization, 76, 

langungc, 7S f script, 357 
Palmyrenes, 32, 75 6, 84, 87, 8S 
Pampcluna, 523 
Pan-Arab, 755 
Pan- Islam, 753 
Pctnchatantra, 308 
Panjab, 32, 212, 224, 464 
Paradise, 103, io6, 113, 126, 144, 155, 

293* 3*8, 352, 452 
Pans, 448, Sot, 526, 600, 724, 754 
Pars, 157 
Parsa, 157 n. 2 
Parsis, 359 
Parthenon, 21 
Parthia, 44, 72, 74 
Parthian: empire, 58; conquest, 74: 

state, 75; elements, 76 
Parthhns, 75 
Pascal, 432 
Patema, 528 
Paul, 43, 6S, 150 
Paul of Acgina, 311 

Paupcres Commilitones Christi, 644 n. 3 
Pax Islamica, 121 
Payne, John, 405 



Peace Conference, 75 1 
Peking, 4S7 n. 4 
Pelayo, 551 

Pclla, T50. See also Fijil 
Pelusium, 161 
Pentapolis, 168 
Pentateuch, 125 
Pepin of Henstal, 500 
Perfcctus, 516 
Pergamum, 212 
Penptus, 49, 50, 55, 56, 58 
Persepolis, 157, 385 

Persia 14, 40, 43, 60, 62. 66, 84, 85, 1 14, 
142, 143, 145* 157, 174. 190, 197, 206 
seq., 241, 249, 254 seq , 308 9, 318,328, 
340, 344* 345. 346 seq., 422, 423, 441, 
447, 44S seq. t 482, 487, 578, 633, 647, 
656, 66?> 676, 678, 690, 691, 699, 703, 
728, Zoroastrian, 66, 106; art of, 106; 
books of, 126, conquest of, 158, 
heathen, 204; postal relays of, 323; 
Mongol kingdom of, 488; Il-Khawd 
rule m, 488 

Persian records, 2x; empire, 39, 6i, 142; 
sovereign ,66; satrapy, 66, borderland, 
80, priests, 83; kings, 84; governors, 
84; provinces, 86; cultural influences, 
106, ideas, 106; border, 106, 14S, 
centres, 107; 126, 224, 233, 237, 23S, 
240, 244, 250, 252, 269 seq., 308 9, 
3»i 312, 3J5» 3i7» 327, 32S, 330, 332 
seq., 376, 405, 41 o, 4*4, 435 5U, 
586, 689, civilization, 146; capital, 
156; highlands, 157, 446, invasion of 
Egypt, i6t; domains, 170, rule, 17 J; 
system, 172; romances, 251 ; medicine, 
254; influence on Sbfah, 248; crafts- 
men, 265, postal system, 323; man- 
time communications, 343; medical 
authonties, 365; calendar, 377, 477; 
bards, 406, architecture, 4 1 9, dualism, 
430, poets, 436 7, literature, 463; 
grammar, 561; Sufi circles, 3S7; 
caTpets, 592, sources of music, 599, 
culture m Egypt, 625, administration 
in Egypt, 627, wars, 635; scholars, 
6S3, language, 715 

Persian Arabia, 81, ro6 

Persian Gulf, 7, 14, *7t 22, 37, 49, *57i 
208, 383, 445, 669, 7", 737* 739 41 

Persian 'Iraq, 330 n 2. 4S1 1749 

Persian Moslems, 2S3, 444 

Persian, non-, 210 n 3 

Persian, pro-, 66 

Persians, 136, 147, 148, 155, 157 n. 2, 
158, 174, 219, 228, 232, 240, 2S7, 359 



ii« 3. 401, 402, 422, 463, 47o, 488, 568, 
715 

Persist 157 n. 2 
PcshSwar, 464 
Peter, apostle, 247, 443 
Peter J, king of Aragon, 543 
Peter the Cruel, 595 
Peter the Venerable 126 n. 1, 58$, 589 
Pctra: 7. 29, 44. 50, 55* 59, 67-74, 97, 
9S, J8l, 256; ruins of, 72; heir of, 75 
Petrie, 33 

Pharaohs: 8, 33, X60; minister of, 125 
Pharaonic; canal, 165; times, 174; 346; 

days, 453, 691 
Pharaonic Egypt, 422 
Pharos, the, 164, 262 
Phemion, 61 
Pherkad, 572 
Phidias, 20 
Philby, 7 

Philip II, of Spain, 545, 556, 564 
Philip III, of Spain, 556, 565 
Philip the Arab, 29 
Philip Augustus, 648 
Philip of Tripoli, 663 
Philippines, 555 n. 5 
Philo, 372, 580 
Philosophy, 271 
Phoenicia, 307 

Phoenician: 13; alphabet, 52; inscription, 

70; coast, 71; gloss, 346; towns, 423 
Phoenician-Carthaginian colonics, 711 
fWnidans, 6, 9, xo, n, 44, 49, 71, 175, 
214 

Phoenix, 167, 200 
Phytic 313 

Pkkthall, translation of Koran, 127 tu 1 
Pirate Coast, 739 
Pirate states. 711 
Piri Re*is,7lO 

Pisa. 379, 574, 6*3, 631, 636, 669 

Pisan, 663 

Pisans, 640, 653 

Pison, 209 n. 4 

Plan isp h aeriu m , 5S9 

Plato, 311, 313, 316, 370, 371, 401, 580 

Plato of Tivoli, 571 

Platonic philosophy, 580 

Platonism, 3x6, 371 

Pleiades, palace of, 417 [39* 
Pliny, 45, 47,4s, 55, 56, 59. 72, 132, 383> 
Pococle, Edward, 5S2 
Pceiirs, 315 * 
Poetry, 271 

Poitiers, 215, 500-601, 591 
PftUiirt, 371 



EX 805 

Poor Knights of Christ, 644 a. 3 
Porphyry, 3x5 

Portugal, 518, 549, 562, 592, 599, 601 
Portuguese: 728, 737; navigator, 696; 

ships, 697; influence, 739 
Pripet, 384 
Prcblematc, 427 

Prophet, the: 18, 19,32, 99, 104, 112-14, 
117, 120, 139, 143, *77> 178, 179, 183, 
i^5, 2*5, 233, 236, 23S, 242, 243, 248 
n, I, 249, 254, 258, 259, 271 seq., 394, 
397, 39S, 399, 4or, 420, 433, 439, 471, 
474, 475, 48i, 501, 5*6, 521, 535, 5S6, 
688, 689; migration of, 89; muezzin 
of, 106; cousin of, 108, 140; leadership 
of, 116; tribe of, 140; father-in-law of, 
140; authority of, 141; death of, 142, 
154, 155; mosque of, 165, 167, 179; 
family of, X72; amanuensis of, 176; 
illness of, 178; father of, 179; suc- 
cessor of, 180; mantle of, 186, 622; city 
of, 192; standard bearer of, 201; stories 
about, 244. See also Muhammad 

Prophetic: treasures, 186 n, 2; tradition, 
33$, 352, 364: 393, 396 

Protestant' hymnaJs, 246; Revolt, 432; 
missionaries, 747 

Protestant Church of Syria, 747 

Provencal: poets, 562; singers, 600; in- 
fluence over Italian poetry, 6x1; 643 

Provence, 589 

Proverbs, Bool: of, 43 

Prussia, 479 

Psalms, 747 

Ptolemaic: sphere of influence, 68; 

library, 166; system, 415 n. 7, 57* ; 

days. 453, 691 
Ptolemies, 32, 59 

Ptolemy, geographer, 44, 48, 103, 104, 
311, 3x4, 363* 373, 376, 384, 387, 57*, 
572, 581, 588, 589, 609, 6i2, 629, 683 

Ptolemy II, 59 

Punic; 214; civilization, 551 

Punt, 34 

Pyrenees, 206, 499, 500, 507,521,524,589 
Pythagoras, 427 

Pythagorean: 372, 442; theory of music, 
593 

qcbaHU 36X 
qabitaht 26 

Qabus, abu-, see Nu man, al-, III, Lakh- 
mid 

QaMah, dhu»al- 4 94, 102 

qadar^ 245 [430 

Qadarite: school, 246; doctrine, 284; 393, 



806 in; 

Qadarites, 245 
qaddafr t 443 

gsdt* m* «5> 3*7, 326, 527 

Qadi ai-Fa<Jil, al«, 652 

gadt al gudah, 326, 527 

Qadir, al-, 'Abbasid, 440, 464, 473, 618 

Q&dmte, 436 

Qadisha River, 641, 678 

Qadislyah, al- (near al-tfirah), 155, 257 

Qadislyah, al- (near Samarrah), 349 

QadmOs, al-, 448, 657 

gafas, 701 

Qahir, al-, 'Abbasid, 358, 469 70, 473 
Qahirah, al«, see Cairo 
Qafaan, 32, 280 
Qabfani, 03 
gd'td, 328 

g&'im al'zaman y 441 

Qa'im, al-, *Abba$id, 473, 474-5, 479 n. 

3, 481 n. 2, 622 
Qa'im, al-, Fa^imid, 619, 623 
Qa*it-bay, Mamlfik, 691, 604, 695, 702, 

703 
qaldnts % 294 
QalamQn, al-, 755 
qalanswwak y 334 
Qal'at A,vyub. see Calatayud 
QaVat al-Jabal, 652 n. 1 
QaTat lbn-Salamah, 567 
Qal'at Tarabulus, 641 n. 4 
Qalawim, Mamluk, 657-8, 672, 673, 675, 

677-9, 6S2, 685, 686, 691 
Qali, al-, abu- 4 Ah, 531, 557 
Qalis, al-, 62 

Qalqashandi, al-, 627, 689 
Qdmus, ah t 742-3 
ganaht 35 1 n. 4 
qandah) 35 1 n. 4 
Qandahar, 292 

Qansawh al-Ghawri, 691, 694, 697, 703-4 
Qansawh, al-^ahir, 694 n, 3 
qanun % 60 I 

Qdnun, ah 367, 427. 579 
Qdnun aUMas x udi> aU 377 
Qaragoz, 691 

Qaramanli" house, 71 1 j dcy, 712 

Qaraqomm, 487 a. 4 

qardt{s t 4x5 

Qarroat, see Hnmdan 

Qarmatfan sect, 444-5 

Qarmatians, 158, 249, 445, 449, 485, 619 

Qarn.lw, 55, 56 

Qarnayri, 734 

Qarqar, 37 

Qarfajannah, z68 See also Cartilage 
Qaryatayn, al-, 227 
qasaiah, 273, 276 



qdskdni; 346; tile, 4*3 

Qashmlr, see Kashmir 

Qasi, banu-, 518 

qasfdah, 90, 93 

gap daks, 250, 252 

Qasim, al-, Hammudid* 536 n. J 

Qasim, of al-Yaman, 739 

Qasim al-*Iraqi, abu-al-, 381 

Qasim Amln, 754 

Qasim UnGjur, abu^al-, 457 n. I 

qasr, 107 n. 2 

Qa$r al-Ablaq, al*, 680 

Qasr al-'Abbasi, al-, 41 r 

Qa$r al-Khuld, 293, 416 

Qasn,al , Kh&lid ibn. , AbdulIah.223,234 

Qasjal, 269 

qata, al- f 20, 340 

Qataban, 42, 52, 55 

Qatabanian inscriptions, 55 

Qatabanmns, 60 

QatabanUes, 44 

QataY, al , 453 

Qatar, 14, 17, 739, 74° 

Qatan ibn-al Fuia'ah, 208 

Qatr-al-Nada, 454-5 

gaxvm, 26 

patvwdliin, 562 

qaynah, 426 

Qayrawan, al-, 170 n. J, 213, 224, 261, 
291, 361, 45i» SO* seq. f 566. 578, 602 
605, 618, 619 

Qayrawan Mosque, 267 

Qays, 192 n 3, 280.81 

Qays, ibn-, 250 

Qaytar, 271 

Qay?ar ibn-Musafir, 668 
Qaysarlyah, see Cassarea 
Qaysi, party, 192 n, 3 
Qaysites, 280-81, 2S4 
Qazhayya, 747 
Qazwin, 395, 446 
Qaznlni, al-, 97, 382, 562 
Qedar, 38, 42 
Qedem, 43 

qxblah, 118, 259, 262, 417 

Qifoal-, 3*3, 3-5, 368, 558, 566, 584, 687 

Qihj Arslan, 476, 637 

qtndtl % 107 n. 2 

Qmnasrm, 79, IS3> -54, -73, 286, 321 

n 1, 378 n 3, 502, 505 
Qipchaq, 676, 677, 701 
qtrmtsi, 668 
Qtfsat al Zir, 90 
qtssis, J 07 n. 2 
gttdr, 427 
qitarahj 6oi 
qiydmahy al; 130 



gtyfo, 397 
Qitil bush, 449 
QuednparUtum) 3X1 
Qubadh, 85 

cubbak, al-, 597 n. 2, 660, 678 n, 3 
Qubhah aJ-Khadra\ a!-, 267, 293, 416 
Qubbat til §akhrah, 220 
Qubfl5y, 487 n. 4 
Qubrus, 167, 194 
Qtida'i, al-, ibn-Salamah, 627 
Qudaraah, 320, 321, 385 
Qudayd, 99 
Queen of Sheba, 42 
quffdn, 334, 626 
Quhistan, 315 n 2, 330 
Qujuq, Mamluk, 673 
Qulays, al-» see Qalls, nl- 
Qulban Qartqir, 149 
QuUura, al- r 165 
Qumis, 330 

Qunduhar, al-, see Qmdahar 
Quaiyah, 437, 476, 637, 733* See also 

Konieh 
Qur*an, 127. See also Koran 
Quraqir, 149 

Quraysh. 32, 84, 89, 99, 100, IOI, 104, 
111, 113, ** 6 » I28 > *33> n 2, 
l8o, 247, 283, 398, 390, 507, 560, 
pagan, 106, branch of, 113, aristo- 
cracy of, 140 

Qurayshite, 112, i6o» 250, 425, 177 

Qurayzah, banu-, 104, 117 

Qurhub, ibn-, Ahmad, 6*0$ 

eurra\ 253 

Qurrabrabu-, 347 

Qurrab, ibn*, see Thabit 

Qurjubah, 184 See also Cordova 

Qurun Hamuh, 646 

Qusayr, al- t 32 

Qusa>r *x\mrah, 269, 271, 420, 597 
Qu?ayy, m 
Qusliayri, al-, Su6, 434 
Qushayri, al*, Balj llm-Bishr, 502 
Qusja jbn-Lflqa, 315 
Qustanttn, 164 Sec also Constans It 
Qutamij nl-> 2$ 

Qutaybah, ibn-, historian, 78, 389, 402 
Qutaybah ibn*Muslim, 209 10, 212, 235, 

sSt, 298,332 
Qutb-al-Dih, see $ab*In, ibn- 
Qvfi*> 435 

gatiyab, tbn-al-, 518, 531, 565 
Qujlumish, ibn*, Sulayrnan 475, 476, 
637 

otttn, al^ 528 n 11 
Qutui, Mamluk, 4^7, 655, 073, 674 



INDEX *>7 
Quzafc, 134 

Quzman, ibn-, abu-Bakr, 5°* 

Rnb* al-Khali, al-, 7, 14, f 5» »7 
rabab t 426 
rabaa*, cU t $12 
Rabbil II, 68 
Rabfah, 93, 280, 502 n I 
RabVah al-*Adawl3ah, 439 
Rabfah, ibn-, see Kulayb 
Rabrah^bn-abiVUmar^SS^SO 51,275 
Rachel, 40 

Raft, al-, 'Abbasid, 424, 456, 469-70, 473 
Raft' ibn- r Urmyr, 149 
rakbanyah, 433 
Rabun, al-, al-Mahk, 473 
rahj algkar, 579 n. 7 
Rabmah) 380 
Rahman t ah, 105 
Rajah, 102 
ra/aA, 443 
rajaz, 92 

Ramadan, 1x2, ix6, 118, 132 4, 295, 516 
Raimro II, of Leon, 524 
ratntyak) 327 

lUrmah, ai-, 150 n. 2, 169, 2*20, 639 
Ramma^, al-, Hasan, 66$ 
Raphael, 604 
RaqTm, al-, 67 
raqiq, al , 274 
Raqqadah* 618 

Raqqah, al-, 1S0, 220, 29?, 3°°* 32$» 

340, 376, 417 
Ra's al-Shamrab tablets, 7° 
RasaUl Jkhwan al $af&\ 373 
rasd, 373 

Rashid, al-, see Harun 
Rashid, ibn-> 741 
Rashid-al-Dm, historian, 4#8 
Rashid-al-Dm Sman, 373- 44% 646 7 
Rashid Ritja, Muhammad, 755 
rashidun, ah, 140, 183 See also Ortho- 
dox d> nasr\ 
Rasibi, al , 'Abdullah ibrtAVahb, 182 
rasul, 113, 129, 185 
Raw and, 290 n 5 
Rawandi, al-, 373 
Rawandiyah, 290 
Rawdah, al-, 161, 163, 453, 47* 

«>» 397 
rayahs, 727 
Raydin, 55, 60 
ray {tan , 350 
Raybani, al-, 423 
Raymond I, archbishop, 5^9 
Raymond II, 646 



8oS 



INDEX 



Raymond III, 645 
Raymond Lull, see Lull 
Raymond of Marseille, 571, 589 
Raymond of Saint-Gdlcs, see Raymond 

of Toulouse 
Raymond of Toulouse, 637, 638, 639, 64 1 
Raynah, al*, 670 

Rayy, ol • highway through, 323, 325, 
330, 36S» 37°, 377. 4i3» 446, 462, 464, 
474, 476, 477 n 4 

Run, al , SG5 7, 36S, 3Sa, 428, 462, 578, 
579. 5^5. 612, 6S6 

Re cared, 40S 

Red Sea, 14, 18, 32, 34, 46, $0, 58, 60, 
62, 65, 100, 103. 105, 134, 165, 620, 

654> 697, 74<>, 741 
Rejuiatio Alccrani, 1 26 n. I 
Reginald of Chatillon, 647 
Reginald of Sidon, 648 n. 2 
Rcrio,5I7, 52° 
Renaissance, 307, 613 
Reniud, 670 
Republic, 313, 371 
Resurrection, 130 
Rhazes, see Ran, al- 
JRheitrte, 315 
RHM, of ins cn prions, 105 
Rhodes, 167, 202, 699, 712 
rtbdt, 43S, 541 
Ribafc al Fatfc, 54 S 
Ribera, 544, 599; 600 
Richard I Cccur de Lion, 648, 650 51, 

654,^9 
Rida, al f *Ali t 318 See also 'All 
Riddab 140, 142; wars, 147, veterans, 

148 

Ridwan ibn-Tutush, 447, 635, 638 
Riffc'i, al-, Afcmad, 437 
Rifa'ite order, 437 
Rifat, Ibrahim, 134 
Riharu, Ameen, 7, 739 
Rtklak, of ibn Jubayr, 569 
Rtsalahfi Jrd\ 37* 
JRiScfat Fits*} al-tfthom, 371 
Rtsdlat al Grufrdn, 459 
Rtsdlat c!~St}dsoh t 409 
ntrrah, 564. 

Robert of Chester, 573, 588 

Robinson, Edward, 747 

ficbtrscrt Crusoe, 5S2 

Roderick 27 494, 5°3» widow of, 503 

Rodwell, translation of Koran, 126 n 1 

Rodngo Dfa* de Bivar, see Od, the 

Rodiger v Etml, 51 

Roger I, 606, 607, 60S 

Roger II 322,569,6079,612 



Roger II fleet of, 609 
Roger Bacon, see Bacon 
Roland, 507 

Romin 4, 45, 47, 214, 220, 222, 260, 
269, 300, 39i , 400, 497, S03, 594>667, 
669, 691; empire, 58, 6t, 74, 76, 142, 
citizens, 59, shipping, 60, 65, rule, 65, 
expedition, 68, state, 75; garrisons, 
76, proTinces, 154; monej, 217; law, 
242, culture, 518, origin of numerals 
574 

Roman Africa, 214 n 1 

Roman Byzantine, 328, 4C0 

Roman Catholic Church, 247 

Roman Catholic West, 43S 

Roman Empire, 484 

Romance. languages, 13, 127; patois, 
543. tongue, 551 ♦ dialect, 55$ 

Romnns 6, 30, 44, 46, 48, 68, 72, 75, 
104, 143, 158, 174, 204, 212, 214, 399, 
301. 3">, 32S» 355' 396, 475»497>5i8 
663* 770; territory of, 199, 202 

Romanus Diogenes, 475 

Rome: 4, 29, 46, 59, 6S, 76, 214, 21 5, 

45i , 467* 534. 542, 5^3, 595. 599, 604* 
6o6f 636, 702, 743, empire of, 74; 
\assals of, 75 

Ross, Alexander, 126 n i 

Round Cit>, the, 292, 302, 304 

Pubat^ai, 377 n $, 459 n 4 

Rudis 202 

RuhjL\ al-, 148, 635, 636, 637, 640, 641, 

643, 644 5 See also Edcssa 
JZujar, 600 

Rukn at Dawlah, Buwa>hid, 250 n. 3, 
376 

Rum, al , 633, 637 

Rum, king of the, 201 

RGm Saljuqs, 475, 47S 

Rumi, al-, Persian poet, 436, 437 

rum man, 52S n S 

Ruqayyah, daughter of Muhammad, 

184 n 2 
Ruqqad valley, 1 52 
Rusafah, al , pahcr, 293, 416 
Rus3fah, al , town, 220, 256 2S6 
Rushd, imv, 42S, 576. 577, 5/8, S^J, 

6824, 585, 588, 599 612 
Russia, 138, 305,383, 384, 387, 479»569» 

717, 720, 749 
Russian. 4, empire, 206, warships, 72 x 
Russo-Turkish treaty, 705 
Rustah ibn-, 84, 3S5 
Rusram, 144, 155 
Rutbll, see Zunbil 
Rultcr, Fldon, 7, 1x9 



Ruwalah: tribe, 22,136 iuX; fcedoums,97 
Ruzzik, ibn-, al-J?alih, 630 
Ryckmans, G., 54 

Saadia Gaon, see Fayyurni, al* 
Sab* Bryiir, 149 f 
Saba, 54 1357 n ; 6 

Saba*: 4*» $2, S4i 5S> 6 7f ^ng of, 60, 
saha, al; 17 

Saba% ibn-, 'Abdullah, 24S 

Sabiean: tongue, 30, chief, 38, posts, 42, 
metropolis, 46; capital, 50, colonies, 
50; inscriptions, 51, 1 00, 105; king- 
dom, 52,54, 55 

Sabacans, 37, 39> 4*> 42, 44, 49 68 

Sabaei, 44 » 48 

SabacO-Himyaritc community, 57; 

period, 85; leadership, 105 
§abbah, ibn af-, al-Hasnn, 446 
$abbah aI-Yah$ubi, abu-al-, 506, $07 
Sabbath, uS 

$abi*, al-, abu-Isbaq ibn-Hiial, 358 
SctCaA, 309, 357 n 6 
Sabian, 376, 380 n» 3, 434 
v §5bians, 170 n. 3, 233, 309, 314, 353. 
357-8 

§abians, pseudo-, 314 n. 2 
jtt^f/,265,6Si 

SaVin, ibn-, 574, 587, 599> 610 
SePi>e*, 442-3 
Sabota, 55 
scbr, 24* 253 
Sabtah, see Ccuta 
Sabur, province, 351 
Sabur ibn-Ardashir, 472 
Sachahtae, 44 n. 1 

SaM, ibn-, secretary of al-Waqidi, 388, 
390 

SaM al-Musta r in, Nasnd, 553 
SaM-nl-Dawlah abu al Ma'ali, Ham- 

darod, 457 n. 3, 460 
SaM xbn*abiAVaqqas, 1 55-7* *59« 168 

tu 1, 178, 190, 344 
fadaqah, 107 n. 2, 132 
Sada Ma'nb, 54 
Sa'di, Persian poet, 436 
$adrq, al-, Ja'far, 255, 380, 441 2 
Sadir, al-, 82 

$aFa,ol«; region, 71; graffiti, 7r; inscrip* 
lions, \o\% mound, 133 
1 $afad* 648, 653,656; district, 731; Moslem 
of, 746 
§afa?tic script, 72 

§afawid* dynasty, 422, 703; kingdom, 
737 



ZK 809 

$afawids, 44r, 702 

Safiarj, al-, 288 90, 297, 317 

$affar, al-, Wqub ibn-al-Laytb, 461-2 

$affarid, dynasty, 481-2, 465 

$anands, 461 2 

?an al-Dln, Shaykh, 703 

safihah t 572 

$aghara, al-, Ahmad, 376 
safrdbah, «/-, 140 
Sahara, 14, 281, 541, 7*8 
Sahara a hordes, 540 
$dhtb t 224 

$ahib, al-, see ibn-*Abbad 
sdhih al harid, 322, 323, 325 
sdhib al khardj t 22$ 
sdhib af-mapafint} S 2 7 
sahtb al shur/ah, 322. 5*7 
sdfrtb al Zanj, 467 
safth x 394 

$ahib, al-, of Muslim, 395 

Sdfrtf* a/-, 44 

SaM, ibn-, al Hasan, 302 

Sahl, ibn-, Ibrahim, 561 

sahn, 66 r 

Sahure, 34 

$a id al-Andaiusi, 526, 566 
Said, ibn-, *Abdun» 355 
Sa'fd, ibn-, Mundhir, 531 
Sa*id, khedivc, 726 n. I, 746 
Sa'id-al-Da^lah, Hamdantd, 457 
Sa'Id al-Hasan, abu-, see Jannabi, al- 
Sa'id ibn-Husayn, 617. See also *Ubay 

dullah al-Mahdi 
sd'i/ah, 203 

St. Augustine, 214, 432 n. I, 452 

St Cyprian, 214 

St. Francis of Assist, 654 

Samt Gilles, 670 

St. Jago de Compostela, 533 

St. John, the Baptist, 265 

St John the Damascene, see John of 

Damascus 
St, Louis, 339 See also Louis IX 
St Mark, 163 
St Martin, 500 
St. Paul, 637. See also Pau 
St Saba monastery, 246 
St Scrgius, 256 
St Simeon Stvlites, 82 
St Sophia, 147, 204 

*s/,92 
Sajah, 141 
$akhr, 274 

Saladin, see $alah-al-DZn 
salch, 131, 132 

Salab-al Din, 265, 411, 412, 427, 439» 



8io 



INDEX 



480, 481, 54S, 5S4, 6lO, 622, 624, 625, 

629, 636, 644, 645-53, 655, 656, 659, 
660, 661, 664, 676, 686, 6S8, 699, 
704 

§alah*al-Dln ibn-Yusuf, oculist, 6S6 
§al7im"yah, a\-, 661 

Salam, ibn*, Ahmad ibn-* Abdullah, 354 

Salamish, Mamluk, 673, 677 

Salamyah, 444, 445, 617 

Sale, translation of Koran, 126 n. I 

Salerno, 577, 579 

Salb, 60 

$alfbi, 670 

Sall^t 7$ 

$ah*b IJajji, al-, Mamluk, 673, 678, <5S2 
$alih Ismfi'jl, al-, of Damascus, 655 
$fdih Mansfir, nbu-, Samanid, 462 
Salih Muhammad, al-, Mamluk, 694 n. 3 
§a!ih Najm-aNDln, al- f Ayyubtd, 575, 

654-5, 671, 672, 673, 675. 677 
$alih ibn-al-N;Hr, al-, Mamluk, 673 
Salih ibn-Ruzzik, nl-, see Ruzzlk, ibn* 
Salhn, ben-, see Fa raj 
Sallm I t Ottoman, 1S6 n. 2, 489, 671, 

<>77» 693. 703-5, 712 n. 3» 7*9, 726, 

729. 737 
Salim II, 712 n. 3 
SaUm III, 713 n. 1, 733, 741 
SaJjuq, 473 4 

Satjuq: dynasty, 330, 377, 4-o, 4", 43* > 
473-80, period, 424; rulers, 465; 
princes, 4S1; empire, 625; rulers of 
Syrian towns, 633, bands, 633; sultan 
of Quniyah, 637; dynasty of abRGm, 
637; amir of Antioch, 63S; kingdom 
absorbed by Ottomans, 702 

Saljuq Turkomans, 621 

SaljCq Turk's, 190, 633 

Sapqs: 329, 34r, 4S8, 635, 636; of 
Persian 'Iraq, 4S1; of Persia, 4S1; of 
al-*Iraq and Kurdistan, 48 1; of Cen- 
tral Asia, 633; of Syria, 633; of Rum, 
715 

Sallam, ibn-, abu-'Ubayd al-Qasim, 
347 

Sallamab, 227, 275, 278, 338 
Sallar, ibn«al-/Abb5s, 623 
$alro of Hajam. 40 
Salman the Persian, 106, 117 
Salt, ibn-abi-al-, see Uma)-yah 
Saluq, 22S 
saUgi t 20, 22S 
same* , el*. 42S 
Saman, 462 

Samam\ al- t Mansur ibn-Isfraq, 366 
Saminid: 367, 385, 465; ™ ler 45 2 
SaroSnids, 350, 462-3, 464, 470, 474 



Samaria, 37 

Samarqand: 60, 209, 330, 344, 35°, 37$, 
395. 414. 462, 481, 4S3, 701,702; high- 
ly through, 323; silk route through, 
343: paper of, 347 

Samnrra, 262, 32S, 347, 417, 419, 420, 
423,441,454,466-8,483 

Sarnavvah, al- t 15 

Samaw'al, al-, 107 

satnti, 19 

Samfc ibn-Malik al-Khawlani, al-, see 

Knawlani, al- 
samit t 443 

^amit, ibn-la-, see *Ubadah. 
Samosata, 200 

§amsam-al-Dawlah, Buwayhid, 473 

Sarnsi, 37 

samt t cl- t 573 

satnum, 17 

San Est e ban, 523 

San'a, tS, $0, 54-7, 60 62, 64, 244, 348, 

3S6, 617, 739 
sana, al-, 19 
sananty too 
sanal al-harchafi, 735 
sanat eJ-wufud, 119 
Sancho the Fat. of Leon, 524 
Sancho the Great, of Navarre, 523, 

524, 534 
Sanchuelo, 534 
$anbajah, 541 

$anjH, see Rayirond of Toulouse 
Sanskrit, 306, 308, 339, 376 
Santa Rufina, 503 
Santa Sophia, 715 

Santiago de Coropostela, see St, Jago 
Sanusi; movement, 136; brotherhood, 

437; uprisings, 718 
Sanusi, al-, 437 

Saphadtn, see 'AdH, al-, Ayyubid 
Saphar, 56 

Saqal:bak, 235. See also Slavs 

sagiyah, a?-, 52S n. 4 

sajlahlyak, 332 

Sarablt al-Khadim, 70 

Saracen, 43, 246, 652 n. 7, 658 

Saraceni, 44 

Saracenic art, 259 

Saracens, 4t, 112, 329, 344, 605 

SaragossH, 496, 499* 507. 537, 54Q, 

544, 5St 
$arah, 349 
Sarah, al-, 14 

Sarah, granddaughter of Witiza, 518 
Saraqfisah, see Syracuse 
sarawtt, 334 
Sardinia, 451, 602, 618 



INDEX 



8n 



$1t&\$, 212 
Sargon J, 36 

Sargon II, 30, 37 9, 52, 55 

Sarh, ibn-abv, 'Abdullah ibn-SaM, 

16S-8, 200 
sartr a I mulk t xgS 
Sorjun, ibn , Man?ur, 195, 246 
SirjQa ibn-Mnnsur, 195 n. 4 
SarrSj, banu-, 554 
Sarton, G , 392 
Siruj, 61 

Sasomd workmanship, 57; court, 66; 
dynasty, Si; 157 n 2, 419, suzerain, 
83, power, 142, army, 155 influence, 
173, 260, 271. 292, 293, 291* 3ok, 
309 n i, 373 • l * l £s> 47o, model* m 
fcatimid art, 631 

Sounds, 7$, 142 

Saturn, 415 

Siul, 125 

Savoie, 670 

S-mad, a! , 15s n 2, 321, 330, 349, 350 

$raan, dh \i al , 200 

$a*\an dhu al , 167, 200 

$av\ava, 670 

Saw/ajdn^ ^39 

scwm t 133 

$awi, al-, 427 

Saxony, 527 

«>. *33 

Sayfibn dhi-Ynzan, 65, 66 
Sayf*al«Dawlah al-Hamdani, 371, 404, 

4$6,457 8 4S9, 460 
Sayf*akDm, 652 n 8. See aha 4 AdiI, 

al-, Ayyubid 
$ayfi, ibn-, Aktam, 250 
Sayhun, 209 n 4 
Sayyar, tbn-, Nosr, 284 
sctyytd l 190, 440 tu 8, 46^ 
Sayyid G\\*n ai-BaUrd, see Baftal, al*, 

•Abdultth 
Scandinavia, 305 
Scandinavian pirates, 521 n. a 
Scenifcae, 44 

Scot, Michael* 5?S, 588, 61 1 
Scott, Walter, 652 n 7 
Scotus, Duns, stc Duns Scotus 
Scripturaries, 130, 108, 233, 353, 358 
Script urcs, 387 
Saltan, 204, 299 
, Sea of Darkness, 383 
Sea of Marmora, 202 , 212, 636 
Suiland, 37 
, Sebastopobs, 212 
t Setreture ntrttorum, 863 
Seir,Jandof,67 J 



Sela\ 67 

Seleucia, 156 n. I 
Seleuch Ctesiphon, 66 
S^leuciri, 68 

Semite, 8, 9, 12, 33, 416 

Semites* 9, 10, 1 1, 12, 13, 20, 90, ioq, 
128, 158, 2x4, of Palestine, 143, of 
Syria, 143 

Semitic: family, 3, life, 4; group, 8; 
tongue, 8, 12, 30, 361; religion, 8, 26; 
features, 8, family, 8, migration, lo, 
xi, 145, mo\ements, J2, archetype, 
53, peoples, 13, civilization, 13 f l 74* 
339, 5S 1 ; history, 36, world, 42; 
writings, 50, forms, 52; genius, 57, 
script, 71, belief, 97. population, 105, 
153, 157, proverbs, 126, institution, 
134, origin of Mihmil, 136 n 1; 
ongm of "cane", 351 n 4, 379> 382 

Semitic Arabians, 308 

Semitic Arabs, 214, 23$ 

Semitic 'Iraqis, 155 

Semitic Islam, 212 

Semitic, non , people, 10, 199 

Scimto Hamitic 12; home, 13 

Scnegil, t34, 540. 541 

Sennacherib, 38-9, 41, 52 

Senusert I, 34 

Sephar, 56 

Sephmama, 499 

Scptimtus, 75 

$eptuagint,3i3, 354 

Serapion, ibn , 349 n. 5 

Serapis, temple of, 163 

Sergius, 148, 153 

Servctus, 6S5 

Scsostns, 34, 59 

Scve, Trench colonel, 724 

Seven Golden Odes, 94 

Seven Mu'alKqat, 93 

Seven Pillars *>/ Wtsdow, 7 

Seveners, 442 3 

Sewllan poets, $41; convert, 561 
Seulic, 494, 502, 503, 506, 516, 518, 
520, 521 n. 2, 529, 555, 537 8, 54^ 
54S. 550, 551, 557. 5$8, 559, 560, «tf 3 , 
5^7, S7o. 57i, 577, 582, 5&5, 59i. 595, 
59S, 599 

Siu'bi, al , 'Amir ibn Sharahll, 243 

Shabshir, 163 

Slnbwnh, 55 

Shadhm.al-, *Ah, 437 

Shldmhte brotherhood, 437 

Sh "irVi, al-, Muhammad ibn Jdrls, 222, 

308 9,412 
ShlJi'x rite, 410, 659 



INDEX 



Sfca&lte school, 39S 
Shahabad, 309 ml 
siak&*a& t 130, 316 

Shdh'ttsrtwk, 465 
Sbah-Rukh, 702 
rk&hid, too 
ShahristSxn, cl-, 139 
Shahrazad, 292, 404 
*$iVr, 94 

SJiajar-al-thxrr, 135, 635, C71-2, 673 
Shalmanescr III, 37 
Sha'm, al-, 44. clstf Syria 
Sham mar Y arasiu 6a 
Shamrnavyab, al-, 373, 417 
Shams, $ i, 55 

Shanjul, 'Abd al-Rahman, 534 

Shlpur, in Persia. 351 

Shapur 1, 75, 309 ju I 

Shaojf, al-, 665 

Shaqif Amurx, 64S, 636 

Shara, dhu-, 72, 9S-9 

r£c«#, 335 n* 5, 579 

Sharaf al-DawIah, Buwajhid, 376, 472-3 

SharafcbMi Ya'for^ 

Sha'nsiu, al-. 742 

j-fcarA, 53S 

54«rit Teste* d-Qax&u 685 
sksrfaty 396, 400 
Harr/, 440 a- & 
sharifate, 720 

Shaipuf, ben , tfasday, 524, 543. 577 

Sbash, al-, 2IO, 330 
Shatibah, 564, 569 
Shavrar, 645 

Shawbak, ari- a 641, 648, 652 
Shayban, T«2l0xud, 455 
Shayban, bann , 149, 155 
***ria, 2S, 433 

f 72I 
shayhh cl-jchzJ, 44S 
xicjH el-rats, c2- t 367 
sAayfSn, 94, 106 n. 3 
Saayxar, 152, 44$, 633 
Sbeho,52 
shcildi, xcf siayJU 
Shan, 9 

Shf 1S3, 1S5, 190, 247-9, 255, 282, 
2S3, ^ 3 A 3S0 a. 3, 393 n. 2, 399, 
439-49; arch-saint, 183; trorld, 183, 
festivals, 47I; shrines of, 737 

Shf b Bavroran, 350 

Shidyaq, al-, Tanaus, 743 

S*rf<? t <J-, 36S, 4 2S 



Shihabi arrurs, 743 
Shihabs, 731 
Shihr, cK 36, 44 

Shl*i, al~, &bu-*Abduttan al-Hus3jn, 
617-19 {737 

Shf Ism 1 9 1 , 1 97, 249, 422, 439-49, 703, 

Shfite; sect, 15$, tradition, 182, 471; 
eabphate, 184, 617; church, 101; m- 
fiaenctr, *tjS, 232, 296, 372, 377, 3S5, 
3S9, 440-49, 451, 457, 464, 47°, 473, 
488, 502, 701; forces, 2S3; tendencies, 
422; dynasty, 450; revolt in Spain, 
507; notables, 6jS, doctrine, 62S: 
heresy, 660; shrines, 737; tenets, 73$ 

Shl*ite Islam, 046 

Sbaite Persia, 737 {$2$ 
SJniie, ultra . sects, 24S, 249 tu 2, 4S9, 
ShTites, 191, 20S, 243, 247-9, 2S2, 2S5, 

399, 400, 401, 402, 43S. 440-49 r 47i 

a. 1, 4S5 
Sbflb, 562 

Srurar, 170 n. t, 325. 330. 346. 351, 376, 

413, 47t>, 471,472 

obri, 105 130 
j Shlrfcuh, €4$ 

s&rtrexr, 339, 600 n. I 

Shnja*~Birwayh, aba-, 470 

Shura, al-, 17S 

ShuxahbH ibn-rjasanah, 14S 

Shustar, 330 n» 3 

Shu'ubrnsJk, al-. 402 

Siamese twins, 377 

Sian Fa, 356 

Slbavayb, 242 

Sibt ibn-al-Jara, 392 

Sidbarr: fleet, 521; questions, 5S7; raooo- 
roents, 609 

Sicilian ArabophHes, 60S 

Sicilian Arabs, 607 

Sirihan Moslems, 605 

Sicily, Ik), X67, 2S1, 307* 3*^ 330. 3^3, 
3S7, 45** 460, sst, 564, sfo* 5 S 7. S 5 ^ 
593, €02 9, 6n, 612, 613, 614, 6:8, 
622, 635, 636, 650, 662, 667, 6?6, 
67S 

Sidd&tsile, 307, 373 

Siddlq, a)-, 175. ^« <rZw Bakr, abo> 

Sid on: 346, 641 , 655, 65S, <anjaq of, 729 

Sierra de Alharna, 553 

Sierra Leone, 131 

Sierra Morena, 524, 539 

Sierra Nevada, 554 a. 3 

ftflt, 129 

Sjfcifetxrat el- Arab, 386 
$iSin, tSo, 102, 235 
f/^37Sn.3, 573 n. t 



INDEX 



3x3 



tifrr $a!$l t 90 
Sthyawn, 64S 
Stjilmasah, 617 

Sijistan, 208, 224, 330, 3$o, 366, 385, 
3$6, 413, 461, 462, 465 

> *t*&4/>337 

Sil ves, litf Shilb 
-Silvester II, 574 

Stm*ani, al-, Yusuf Sim*an, 743 

Simoom, 17 

StmpKdOt 576 
h sitnsim, 665 n. 4 

Sin, 60 

Slna, ibn-, 316, 365* 367-S 370, 37 1, 372, 
409, 428, 462, 579, 582, S**~$> 588, 
'600,611 [37,39 

Sinai: 29, 33 , AO, 44* 52, 670; peninsula, 

Sinaitic: peninsula, lo, ii r 32, 36, 39, 
' 40, 70; inscriptions, 40; characters, $2; 
alphabef, 7°, 7*» ^tmg, 71 

Sinan, architect, 714 

Sinin l see Rashld-al-Dm 

Sin an, ibn-, Ibrahim, 392 

Sinan bn-Thabit ibn-Qurrah, 314, 358, 

Sinan Pasha, 710, 71 1 
Sinbadh, see Suobad 
Bind, 210, 212, 224, 2S9, 464 
Sindbad the Sailor, 305, 384 

£j*<tt*W,307»373* 378 

Smdhap 210 
W*f> 445 
' #»/,6oi 

SimSr, 375, 664 n. 4 

Suyd, 670 

Siqilliyah, §iqdliyah t 167. See also 

Staly 
Sir Darya, 209 n. 4 
STruf, J43, 345, 3S3 
stroke 65, 244, 690 

Strai hcni'&il&h 622 n» 
Sirct « 'AOS*, 3$8 
sirdab, 44 1 n. 3 
^i435 

Sirr nl-Asrar, 610, 663 

SirMrafc, 54 

Sistan, 330 
- Sittal-Muluk,62r 

Siwos, 640 n. 4 

SiysrAfcluk al*Ajatn t 389 
, SrytsaA, 313 ^ 

a^tf A {Siyas&t} cJ-Aftdanlya** tf/-»37« 

Stydspf'TtSmak, 477 



Stf«Ht 303. 
Slav, 332 

Slavonic slaves, 346; tribes, 525,' body- 
guard, 532 
Slavs, 235 n. 2, 341, 525, 534. 7 ° 
Smyrna, 70T 
Snefru, 33 
Socotra, see Suqufra 
Socrates, 401 

gogdinna, 330, 332. 350. See also S?ughd» 
al- 

Solomon: 41-3, 74, 106, 125; Temple of, 

264; table of, 497 
Solomon's Stables, 665 
Somaliland, 6, 34 
Sophronhis, 154 

South Arabia: 6, 17, 19, 34, 36, 42, 46, 
48, 52-4, 6o, 6i, 66, 71, 72, 74, 93» 
108, 192, 224, 244, 280, 335 n. 6, 446* 
religion of, 60; campaign against, 710 

South Arabian: 33, 99, 227, 244, 380 
n, 3; rulers, 38; literature, 50; writing, 
$l f 72; antiquity, 52; monarch, 55; 
tribes, 56, 76, 280; settlements, 56; 
traders, 59; prosperity, 60; converts, 
02: origin, 65, 83; trade, 65; society 
6$; kingdoms, 66-7; inscriptions, 85; 
colonisls,88 ; cults,97 > civilization, 105 ; 
deities, 105; merchants, 132; art, 256 

South Arabians, 6, 8 t 30-32, 46-8 t 50, 
59, 66, 72, 87, 243, 273, 280, 328, 502 

South Arabic: 13; inscriptions, 38, 43, 
51, 64, 65, 100, 105; language, 52; 
alphabet, 71; script, 72 

south Europe, 717 

South Kensington Museum, 693 

Southern Italy, 604, 613, 637 

Southern Yaman, 740, 757 

Soviet Russia, 138 

Spain* 21, 142, 154, 193, 202, 206, 214, 
2I5» 23$, 262, 265, 271, 281, 284, 2S6, 
289, 291, 298, 301, 307. 316, 344, 345* 
351, 361, 363, 375- 378* 385, 386, 436. 
45or^.,469,473»493^,409-504r^, 
$40-80 se$. t $89+600, 602-7 J *&7 662, 
66$ f 688, 690, 691; paper of, 347; 
conquest of, 388; Christianizing of, 
551; coasts of, 710, 712 
Spaniards; 510, 534, 555; Xslamized, 518 
Spanish: 235, 260, 351 2 > 3S7, 5*7, 
519, 5^8, 538, 544 55°, 55U 553- 
556 seg~ f 571; conquest, 502; fleet, 521; 
products, 529; names, 543; Language, 
543* 597» 600; chivalry, 544; pirates, 
565; sciences, 565; astronomers, 572; 
savants, 578; monks, 5S9; vessels, 592; 



8i4 



INDEX 



minarets, 594; style of architecture, 
597; musical art, 598; miniatures, 599, 
jurisprudence, 600; element in Moslem 
population of Sicily, 606; rule, 711 

Spanish Arab family, 567, 56$ 

Spanish Arab physicians, 576 

Spanish Arab workmen, 593 

Spanish Arabic: poetry, 560, 561; learn- 
ing, 590 

Spanish Arabs, 566 

Spanish Islam, 558 

Spanish Jews, 543 

Spanish Moslem: 382, 509, 513, 562, 
597,' ™le> 5*7; convert, 557; school, 
592; vocabulary, 593 

Spanish Umayyads, 222 

Spinoza, 585 

Sprenger, 22 

Sqxticres Tate, 663 

Stagirite, the, 371 

Stephen of AnUoch, 663 

Strabo, 21, 45-6, 48, 56, 5S 

Strasbourg, 15, 369 

pfabai afycrab, 57S 

§ubh, mother of Hisham II, 531 

Subk ct-A'shc, 689 

sit&fraA, 43S 

Sublime Porte, 710, 711, 720, 721, 722, 

724, 725/729, 730,73*, 733*741 
Subuktigin, 404 
suda\ 579 

Sudnn, 168, 723» 7*4* 757 
Sudanese: eunuchs. 342; geography 

387; battalions, 622 
Sudaniyah, 627 
Suevi, 498 
Suez, 165 n. 4 

Suez Canal, 33, 728, 750, 751 

Sue*, Isthmus of, 344 

fuf> 432 n< 6, 433 
345 MM 

«?ufc 371, 40t, 431-9, 447, 654? frater- 
nities, 247, 428, 433, 437; doctrine, 440 

Sufi, al-, *Abd-al-Rabman, 376, 420 

Sufis, 242, 335 n. 6, 432-9 

Sufism, 316, 371, 431-9, 449, 585, *86, 
742 

wJAf* 284 

Sufyitfi, abu-, J13, 116, 117, 140, 189. 

J93 h 
Sufyani, 286, 485 

Sufyanid, branch of Umayyad dynasty, 

193 * 
Sufyanids, 189 

$ughd. al-, 209, 210 n. 3, 23s, 33& 
Suhrab, see Serapion. ibn- 



Suhrawardt, al-, 439, 586 r 
Sukaynah, daughter of al-Husayn 

237-9, 251, 275-6 
suk£ar,3$i n. 4, 667 
Sulami, al-, Mu'ammar ibn-'Abbad, 430 
Sukym, banu-, 622 
Sulayman, 106 

Sulayman (claimant), 709 n. I 
Sulayman, Urnayyad, 203, 215, 220, 

221, 228, 252, 279, 281, 282, 286, 299) 

497, 503 

SulajTruln, Umayyad of Cordova, 534 n 5 
Sulayman II, 713 I- 
Sulayman Agha, 738 
Sulayman al Tujir, 343 , 383 
Sulayman Pasha, see Scve 
Sulayman the Magnificent, 265,489 705, 
712, 713. 7H, 717* 7^9, 726, 727, 728 
sulhan, 171 
sultan, 4G4, 474 
Sultan Shah, Saljuq, 635 n, 1 
Sumatra, 741 
Suma>saf, 200 

Sumerian: 11,470, 664 n. 3; language, 12 

Sumenans, 10, 36 

Sumcro- Akkadian characters, 71 

Sumero- Babylonian inscriptions, 52 

sumul, 573 

Sutton, 395 

Sunbad the Magian, 291 
Sunt, al-, 175 
sunnah, 393 

Sunni, 122 n. 1, 502, 618 
Sunms, 242 

Sunnite: theory, 1S5; school, 1S5; 282, 

400,431, 439-41, 451, 464-5»473-4 4S0 
Sunnite Islam, 398, 430, 617, 646, 6$t 
Sunnite Moslems, 625, 635 
Sunmtes, 191, 2oS, 247 248, 401 , 43S, 449 

SUTtUJ, 276 

«^,94, 305 
Suq 'Uka?, 52 
Suqufra, 740 
§ur, 194. See also Tyre 
sura A, 1 07 n. 3 
furak, 107 n. 2 
Sural al-Ar4, 3S4 
Surayj, ibn-, 273, 275, 276, 278 
Surra Man Ra*a, see Samarra 
Sus, al-, 345, 412 
Susa, 423 
Susiana, 157, 345 
sutayhah, al-, 597 m 2 
Su'fid, ibn-, 'Abd-al-'AzIz, 6, 24 n, J, 
741 

Su'ud, ibn-, Muhammad, 740, 74) 



I&DEX 



Su'udi Arabia, 14, 25,739, *4->75 6 
Suwa, 149 " 

Suyuti, ft)-, jalal-al-Din, 106 n, 2, 557 

6r8, $87. ^83 
Sweden, 305, 7*2 
Swiss plate-namcs, 605 
Siviiterlaiidy 605 
Syllacus, 46 

Synod of ChaJccdon, 153 
Syracuse, 602, 603, 604* 606, 607 
Syria* 6, 9, u, 1S-20, 22, 32, 37, 44 
SO, 57. 58, 61, 65, 68, 70, 75, 78*80 
#1,82, 86, 101,106, u6, 120, 123, 127 
135* I 42> M3, 145-54 seg., 200, 203 
205, 206 seg., 249 n 2, 25s, 260, 262 
265 seg.t 328, 330, 340, 346 seg., 406 
412, 423, 432 seg., 4§7r 488, 49 6 , 507 
508, 565 seg., 633-5 658, 659, 660 
stq., 696, 697, 701, 702, 704> 740. 756 
757; putney to, ill; disorders in, 192 
postal relays of, 323, people of, 485, 
occupation by Mamluks, 487, in 
vasion of> 724, 749; occupied, 725 
Turkish conquest of, 726 seg., viceroy 
of, 732; population of, 728, evacuated^ 
734; invaded, 741, occupation of, 746 
.French in, 751 

Syria-Palestine, 14, 33, 41, 224; land tax 
of, 321; marble and sulphur of, 349 

5>riac: source, 50; language, 6i, 644 
n, 3, 747; characters, 70, 84, 125, 231, 
24*,30&, 309 n 2,310,312,313,31$, 

' *353> 354, 3^1, 35s 3, 376, 3S4, 747; 
treatise, 255; alphabet, 356; transla- 
tions, 583; language of Maromtcs, 
633;^literature, 6S3; script, 715; press, 
747 

Syrian: desert, 15, 41, 74 t 80, 154, 195, 

-253; missionary, 61; elements, 76, 80; 

' Church of al-^irah, 84; campaign, 
I44J front, 148, 152; metropolis, 150; 

J* church, 153, troops, 154, 208; peasants, 

* 155; coast, 167; army, X93, 194, 53S; 

i yards, 194; garrison, 208, 235, 238, 
240, 269, 280, 282 seg % , 300, 306, 346, 

' 373) 378 n. 3, 393, 400, 502, 505, 653, 
66o ; 66*5^678; highway, 325; sugar* 
'cane, 351 j churches, 355, 356; schools, 
401; towns, 415, 633; monastic in- 
fluence, 433; form of minaret, 452,- 
^possessions, 460, 645; capital, 575, 
651* 701; origin of African minarcf, 
594; architecture, o6x; ports, 697, 699; 
go\cmors, 703; economy, 727; *ner- 
^hants, 7aS; subjects, 734; affairs, 749) 
soil, 752 



Syrian Arabs, 79 

Syrian Nestorians, 310 

Syrian Protestant College 747 

Syrian Saljug dynasty, 635 

Syriani2ed Arabians, 226 

Syrianized Arabs, X06 

Syrians: 153, 174, 180, 194, 210, 226, 
240, 284, 286, 300, 496, S02, 505, 506 
550, 669, 716; Christian, 715; out- 
raged, 734; grievances, 75 2 

Syro-Arab: phylarchatc, 80; tribes, 143 

Syro-Arabian desert, 66 

Syro-Arabs, 192, 194, 201 

Syro-Aramaean civilization, 146 

Syro- Byzantine: influence, 84; culture, 
88; 260 

Syro-Egyptian; fleet, X67; school of 
Arab art, 260; Hngdom, 685, 696; 
annals, 695 

Syro-Egyptian AyyQbids, 637 

Syro-Egyptians, 704 

Syro-Mesopotamian: desert, 14, 39, 44, 
influence on Mamluk architecture, 691 

Syro-Peraian culture, SS 

Syrtis Minor, 17s 

tab\ 564 

fabagdt al-Kubra, at, 745 

fahaqat ah (7tnam t 566 

Tabarayyah, 1 69 n. 4. See also Tabariyah 

jabari, al-, Ahmad, 578 

Tabari, al-, *Ali ibn-Sahl, 3S4, 365 

Tabari, al-, Muhammad ibn-Jarir, 61, 
62, 9S, 201, 209, 210, 354, 379 3, 
38S, 390-91, 392, 463, 467, 629, 6S8 

Tabaristan, 292, 294, 330, 3&5, 390/ 462, 
474 

Tabariyah, 160 See a/so Tiberias 
tabfun, a 388 

W. 3*3 
fab!, 276, 601 

Tableau giniral de I* empire o(homan t 

1S6 
(abfab, 330 
Tabiik, SS, 119, 147 
Tabuk~Ma*£n route. 148 
Tadbir al-Mutau ah^id, 581 
Tadkktrat ai-Kahhalin, 369 629 
Tadmar of Araurru, 74 
Tadmor, 74 
Tadmur, 74 

Tafhim U*Aw£tl Sin? fit al-Tanftn, 

377 
Tafstr, 5S3 
tdftah, 346 



Si6 IN 

Taghlib, 89, 90, 93, 233, 234, 457 
Taghhb, banu-, 25, 26, 27, 89 
To^hlib Christian Arabs, 196 
Taglm-Birdi, ibn-, 618, 687, 688, 695, 

690, 702 
Tohafut al-Fat&sifah, 432, 583 
Tahdfut el'Tahdfut, 583 
(aAajjudy 131 
takannuth, 133 
fak&rahi l^t 
Tahdkib aUAkhl&q, 401 
Jahir ibn-al-Husayn, 461 
Jahir Sulayman, abu-, 445 
Jahirids, 461-2 

TaV, al-, 'Abbasid, 358, 471*3 

fa if, al-, iS, 19, 93, 99. 102, 103, 116, 

*44, 193, *96, 207, 238, 254 
fatr t a/*, 572 
taj, cl-, 417 
7ty cVArus, 743 
ru/wf*, a/-, 380 
fo/trft/, 273 
Takash, 481 
Takhtajis, 449 
taklyah, 203, 265, 438 
Tokmlah, al- t 566 
Talent, 315, 356, 645,699 
talbiyah, 271 
19 

Taihah, 141, 177, 178, 179, 238 
T&hb, abu-, uncle of Muhammad, m, 

184 n, 2, 189, 283, 289, 291 
Tahb, ibn-abi-, see *Ali 
Talisman , 652 n. 7 
TaMis, 583 
TaU al-Kablr, al-, 750 
Talmud, 125, 242, 396 
Talmudists, 5S3 
Tamar, in Idumaca, 74 
Tamerlane, see TTmur 
Tamlm, banu-, 141, 2S0 
Tatmrni, a\«, Muhammad, 627 
Tawra, al*, see Muhammad 
Tammam, abu-, 94, 144, 406-7, 412 
Tamna\ 55 
famr t 19 
Tamud, 37 
Tamudaei, 30 

Tanbih w~al-Tshr$f y «/-, 391 
Tancrcd, 637, 638, 640 
Tancred de Hautevdle, 606 
tanfidh, 319 

Tangier, 104, 214, 535, 54$, 5^ 
Tanjah, see Tangier 
Tanta, 437 

Tanukh, 65* 8i, 360, 458 



(antlmdti 727 
Taormina, 604 
toqfyah, 440,449 
iaartr, 393 
tcqvca> 97 n. 1 

Ta$'vim ahAbdan, 369, 579 
Taqxvfm at-StftAoA, 369 
Tarabulus, see Tripoli 
Tarubulus al-Gharb, 7JI. See aho 

Tripoli, Africa 
farafah ibn-aJ-'Abd, 83 
farant, see Taranto 
Taranto, 605 
farbush, 334 n. t 
farfd, 26 
Tarif, 493, 59X 
Tarifa, 493 
ta % rlkh, 477 

TJrikk cl-JaWi, c/-, 377 

Ta*rtH al~Rusul t 390 

Tttrikh Ifhtab al-Andaius^ 565 

TJrthh 'Ulanf al-Andalus, 566 

Tariq lbn-Ziyad, 214-15, 493-7, 532 

fariqak, 433, 436 

Tarsus, 200, 301, 637, 662 

Tartar, 3S6, 484, 653, 663, 674, 699 

Tartars, 411, 656,674 

Tartus, 657. See also Antarfus 

fanib, 514, 516 

TashfTn, Murabit, 545 n. 2 

Tftsl\fm, ibn-, Yusuf, 540 43, 543 n. -2. 

Tashkand, 212, 331, See also Sbash, al 
Tasm, 30 

Tasrlf It-Man *Ajaz t <sl- t 576, 579 
Tatar ; 483 

Tatar, Mamluk, 604 n. 3 
Taurus Mountains, 152, 199, 300, 637* 
733 

Tawaddud, 342, 352, 415 
towaf, 133 
tavcakkvly 439 
fawariq, 541 
Tawftq, khedive, 726 n- 1 
tawfitd^ 546 

Tawhldi* al', abu-rjayfun, 373 
Jarco al~{famdmah t 558 
Taw^aj, 345 
Tayadhuq, 220, 255 
Tayf a!*Kkayal y 690 
taylas&n, 334 

Tayma*: 37* 39, 4*> 7x* 10 7> stone, 40 
Taymlyah, ibn-, 689, 740, 754 
Taysfr fi al-Mudcu>&h t <*/-, 577 
Tayyi*, 27,65, 119, 141,149 
Teheran, see Tibran 



Telkhunu, 38 

Tell Kebir> su Tall aMCablr, al- 
Tema, 42 
Tema, 39 
Tcmai, 37 

Tcmphn garrison, 656; defenders, 65S 
Templars, 549, 644* 6 * 8 > 6 53» 6 57> 669, 

6*9, 699 
Temple of the Sun, 76 
Ten Commandments, the, 70 
TerUUian, 214 

Teutonic: migrations, 142; tribes, 635 

Tha'alibi, al-, 297, 403 

Thabit, ibn-, see Zayd 

Thabit, grandson of Th&bit ibn-Qurrah, 

Thabit ibn*Qurrah, 314, 35S, 373* 5 8 4> 

392 n. 7 
Thaduri, see Theodore 
Thadus, 407 

Tha'Iaban, dhu-, see Daws 
Thames Embankment, 164 
Thamud, 30, 37, 72, 124 
Thamudic: graffiti, 71; script, 72 
Thaqarl, al-, al-^urr ibn-*Abd-al* Rafc- 
man, 409 

Thaqafi, a!-, Muhammad ibn-al-Qasim, 

209-10, 212 
Thaqif f 220 

ThSwafil ibn-Tuma, 311 
thtnvb, 24 
Thebes, 32, 5$ 

Theodore, astrologer of Frederick II, 

610, 6il 
Theodorus, 148, 152 
Theodosius, emperor, 166 
Theon, 370 

Iheophams, 112, 196, 199, 202 n. 3, 203, 

> 299 n. 4, 300 n, 2 
Theophilus, JSyzantine, 301 
Theophilus Indus, 61 
Theophrastus, 49 
thiyab aUmut*adamah y 33S 
Thomas Aquinas, see Aquinas 
Thomas, Bertram, 7, 15, 17 
Thousand and One Nights, 292, 305* 

342, 404-5, 415 
tkvghu r> *A, 200, 29 r, 299, 533 n. 5 
Thu'luban, 62 
thura)ya t ah t 417 
Thutmose JIIj 34, 164 
Tito al-Mattsiert, al~, 366 
(fab r&hanf, 686 

Tibcria*, 497, 584, 640, 647, 6$3> 7*9* 

732. See ahfi Taboriyah 
Tiberius^ 169 n. 4 
Tiberius ,11, So 



IX 817 

Tibriz: 330, 703; block printing at, 347 

n. i; minerals of, 34S 
TOashi, al-, Shihab-al-DTn, 383, 685 
Tiglath-PiJeser I, 74 
Tiglaih-Pdeser III, 37, 39 
Tigris; 155, 156, 20S, 219, 224, 262, 280, 

285, 292, 293, 295t 3o3> 3*5, 34°i 349* 

35°, 39i n. 8, 4i9i 425* 434, 466, 477, 

4S9, 645, 652 
Tigris-Euphrates valley, 304, 349 
Tigro-Euphratcs, 9, n, 8x 
Tihamah, 15, 6b, 102, 103, 415 
Tihran, 325, 365 
TiUmsan, 546, 554 
Timothy, patriarch, 354 
Tirnur.267, 4Ui 567. 671, 688, 697, 

699-702, 726 
Timurbugha, Mamluk, 694 
Timunds, 702 
Tinnls, 340 n, 1,346, 631 
Tiqtaqa, ibn-al-, 172 
fir&e, 345 
Tirmidhi, al-, 395 
Titus, 61, 68 
TIemcen, see Tilimsan 
Tobolsk, 131 

Toledan* tables, 571; architect, 595 

Toledo- 494-7, 499, 513, 518, 520, 528, 
530, 537, 540, S43» 55*. 55$, 566, 570, 
571, 57S, 5S9, 59i, 5^2, 595, 597, 598, 
600, 613, 687, centre of translation, 5S8 

Torah, 676 

Tota of Navarre, 524 

Touaregs, 541 

Toulouse, 499, 589 

Tours, 215, 500 501 

Trajan, 68, 74, 165 

Transjordan, 6, 36, 67, 72, 78, 269, 755» 
756 

Transjordanian, 271 

Transoxiana, 206, 210, 224, 346, 348, 

349, 350, 37i* 375, 462, 465, 466, 473i 

476, 483* 578, 699 
Travels tn Arabia Deserta, J 
Treaitse on the Astrolabe^ 379 n. 5 
Tripoli, Africa, 54S, 622, 7x1 
Tripoli, Syria, 415, 480, 633, 64T, 643, 

648, 657, 6;3, 729. 733 
Tnpohs, 16S See also Tripoli, Africa 
Tnpohtania, 247» 7*** 718 
Trojan wars, 635 
Ts'ien-t*ang, 66S n. 6, 
Tubba', 60, 61 
Tubba\ ibn-, see Hassan 
Tubba's, 8$ 
Tudela, 518, 561 
Tufayl,ibn-, 571,581-2 



8x8 



1KBEX 



fughj, ibn-, Mu^mmmad, 455-7 
Tugbra l, 38* 
T«g»ri!» 473-5, 4S1 
Tughtjgln, Atabeg, 641, 645 
Tukhanstan, 209, 465 
Tulavhah, 141 

JulOn, ibn-, Ahmad, 365, 417, 452 5, 

46S, 661, 664 
Tulun, ibn-, Mosque, 630 
TulumtL dynasty, 452*5, 456, penod, 

625 

Tulurud, pre-, penod, 625 
Turn an bay, MamlCk, 694 n. 3, 704 
lumart, ibn , Miiharornad, 54$, 548 
{urbur, 064 n I 

Tunburivab, al-, 'Ubaydah, 333 

Tunis, 567, 710, 711 

Tunisia, 6, 316, 437, 444, 45** S™> 54$, 

617, 637, 655, 710, 711, 71748, 

756* 757 

Tunisian coast, 6iS > throne, 710 
Tur, al , 33 
Turan, 209 

Turin Shah, Ayyubid, 646, 655 
Turanian hordes , 463 
Turanian Turks, 485 
Turanians, 463 

Turk, mo n 3, 275, 371, 402, 432, 672 
n 2 

Tu-kcstan, 194, 371 a. 2, 449, 463, 4*5, 
473 

Turke}, 114, *70, 184, 186, 437, 449, 
4&7» 705,71$, 72* 

Turkish 4, J 23 n 2, 126, 136, 20S n 6 9 
212, 235, 25!, 299, 33i, 332, 339, 
346, 376 t 392* 4S3, 455, 4$6> 4$*, 4^3> 
465, 466, 4 S 7> 47o, 474, 475, 479, 671 
stg , 6S8 stg ; grammar, 361 ; SuS 
circles, 5S7, mercenaries, 620, bat- 
talions, 622, troops 626, officers, 620; 
invasion of Europe, 637, arm>, 704, 
733; admiral, 710; crescent, 710, pro- 
vmce t 710; generals, 711; culture, 715, 
language, 716, pashas, 726, 736, com- 
munications, 737, interest, 737; con- 
trol, 730, waluyah, 739, suzerainty, 750 

Turkish Bahris, 094 

Turkish COxoa, 449, 459, 460 

Turkish-speaking people, 209 

Turko-Egyp^an fleets 725 

Turko Persian wars, 737 

Turkoman, 675, 677 

Turkomans, 621 

Turks 136, 144, 202, 209, 305, 328, 34I> 
43S, 463, 466, 479, 555, 641 n 4, 672, 
703, 704, 705, 7 IS, 729, 739, Kem^ist, 



139, Saljuq, 473-80, land of, 47$ 
peasant, 71b. Modern, 716, advent 
742 

Turtushi, al-, 30S 

Tus, 323, 43*«44if 446, 477 

Tustar, 330, 345 

Tus3n, son of Muhammad 'Ah, 724, 
726 n. 1 1 
Tu$i, al-, abu-* Abbas, 561 
t£ttysS\ 579 n, S 
Tutush, SaljSo,, 476, 635, 641 
TutvSnah, at-, sec T^ana 
fuways, 274 5 
Twelver ShTah, 441 
Twelvers, 440-42, 449, 703 
Tyana, 212. 300 

T>re, 194, 346, 423, 641, 64s, 657, 
65S 

Trimisces, John, 459-60 
Unite*, 39 

'Ubadah lbn al-$amit, 163 

f Uba>d al Qasam, abu , set SaUam, lbn- 

'Ubajdah xbn al-Jarrah, abu , 140, 14$, 

152^54 
*Ubaydi>ah, al-, 61$ 
* U bard u bah al Mahdt, 469, $20, 605, 

€1718, 619, 623, 625 
'Ubaydullah lbn-Zivad, 190 
Ubulbh, al , 46S * 
UbUhh Canal, 350 
'vd, al , 2/3, 60X 
Udhayrtah, 75 
'Udbrah, banu , 251 
Urtud, u7 
Tfrghunan, 356 
Ujjayim", 3S4 Set aho arm 
'Uka?, 53-4, 102, 104, n6 
Ukhiydir, al- s 269 

'Ula, al : 42,55, 7*, J 00, rams of, 72 
'Ulayyah, sister of uI-Rashid, 302, 333, 

334 
tt!fah y 444 
"UHav^ah, al-, 44S 

*Unln 14, 15, iS, X9, 41, 119, 141, 142, 
20S, 224, 247, 289, 330, 44S* 44S, 739, 
741, pearl fisheries of, 22, dromedaries 
of, 22, sultan of, 36 
'Umanites, 44 1 
'Umax U, set *Umar lbn *Abd al-'Arlz 
'Urnar al Khayyam, 377, 379, 3 Sj 5, 410, 
459, 4/S 

*Umar ibn-*Abd al 'Aziz, 203, 200, 2t7> 
219 22, 225, 23 r, -32, 234, 238, 249, 
253 . 254, 255, 261, 279, 2S6, 322, 325, 
3S3, 499, Ctu6So 



Umar ibn-al-KhaUab; 22, 29, 61, So, 
114, 116, 123, 139-40, 145, 150, 152, 
153. 154, 155, 166*^232, 234, 
237, 241, 243* 253, 26b, 262, 264, 353? 
policy of, 165, 169, 194; constitution 
of, 172; character of, 176 

Umar ibn-Hafsun, uc Hafsun, ibn- 

Umar ibn-Sa'd, 190 

Umari, al-, 665 

Umari Mosque, 665 

Umayyad: caliphs, 86, 1S4 n. 2, I95» 
branch of Quraysh, 113: viceroy, 135 J 
dynasty, 14$, 191, 193; aristocracy, 
179; caliphate, 184, 617; caliphate at 
Cordova, 184; princes, 195, 253; poet 
laureate, 196; successors, X9S; forces, 
201; throne, 207; realm, 208; 217* 220 
Uq. t 247, 250, 255, 27S, 279, 282, 283, 

286, 2&S, sSg, 201, 29S, 50/, 317, 322, 
330, 333, 345, 353> 359, 360, 38°. 4i6, 
4$2» 453* 4^9, $oi, S° 2 > 504, 5°5 
legislation, 242; architects, 269; house, 
2$i, 2S5; usurpers, 2S2; bards, 405; 
structures, 419; regime, 439; capital, 
526; Spanish unity, 5*4: amiratc, 548 
(Jroayyad Mosque, 215, 220-21, 262, 
> 265-7, 416, 497, 595, 597, 651, 701 
(Jmayyad period: 25, 94, 1S2 n. 5; 
religio-philosophical movements in, 
245; formation of Shfah in, 247*9, 
252; singers of, 275, 276, 281 
Umayyad, anti^ movement, 282 
Umayyads: 140, 150, 171, 177, 181, 
191, 193, 200, 207, 226, 22S, 232, 236, 
241, 256, 262, 26s, 267, 276, 278, 
285 seq., 424, 450, 451, 457, 473. 493, 
502, 506, 53!, 536, 542; palace of 
the, 215; nominal Moslems, 247; poeti- 
cal composition under, 250; court 
doctors of the, 254; postal service of, 
322 

Umayyah, in, 184 n. 2, 1S9, 193 ru t, 
5<>5> 5*7 

Umayyah, banu-, 231, 234, 279, 282, 

283, 2S5, 502 
Umayyah ibn-abi-al-Salt, 108 
Umm al-BiyHrah, 67 
umn alyefy'cJs, el-, 579 
umm el>re?t$*& t 579 
ttmmak, 173 
urn rt-xv clad, 236 
Uramat Allah, 12a 
ummi t 122 n* 1 
'umrcA, 133 
Uwat, 729 

Unite** Arab Republic. 757 



DX 819 

United Presbyterian Mission, 746 
United States of America, 3, 9, 712 
University Saint-Joseph, 747 
University of Bologna, 612 
University of Cordova, 530, 557, 563 
University of Granada, 563 
University of Lou vain, 663 
University of Naples, 6t2 
University of Paris, 584, 612, 663 
University of Salamanca, 663 
University of Seville, 563 
untilat, 124 

Upper Egypt, 164 166, 224, 622, 687, 

688 n.4 
*uqdb, 20, 173 
*Uqab, ah battle of, $49 
*Uqbah, ibn-, Musa, 38S 
*Uqbah ibn-Nafi*, 194,213, 261, 361, 452, 

504 
*uqubdt, 396 
Ur, 293, 305 
Urban, 494 n. 1 
Urban II, pope, 636 
Urbi, 21, 39, 41 
Urdu, 126 
Urdunn, al-, 154 
urghun, 311 n. 1,427 
Orkhan, 709 n. I 
Ursemtttsch, 13 
•Urwab, Well of, 97 
Usamah ibn-Munqidh, 448, 548, 623, 

643,662 [686 
Usaybi'ah, ibn-abi-, 3 1 5, 428, 566, 584, 
Usd aLGkdbak) 392 
*ttskr> T69 
ustdddr, 692 
ustddh, 627 
Ustadlisls, 291 
usul, 396 
Uswun, 164 

'Utbah, see Ghazwan, ibn* 

'Utbi, al-, historian, 465 

Uthai, ibn-, 196, 254, 579 n. 6 

'Uthman I, 702, 709 n. 1 

a Uthm&n II, 713 n. 1 

'Uthmon III, 713 n. I 

*Uthm5n: house of, 710; line of, 713; 

'Uthman ibn-* Allan: 114, 139, t40, 160. 
166, 167, 168, 173, 176, 178, 179, 1S9, 
192, 193, 194, 200, 206, 243, 247, 248, 
274, 280; calipl\ate of, 123; his copj 
of Koran, 177 n. 2; murder of, 177, 
170; kinsman of, 180; wife of, 195 

% UihmdKli t 716 

"Uyaynah, a I , 740 



INDEX 



'Uyaynah, ibn-, Sufyiin, 395 
*U^n alAn^ t 6S6 
'Uzza, al-, 79i 97* 99 
'Uzzay an, 99 
Uzziah, 41 

Vacant Quarter, 18 

Val de Junqueras, 523 

Valasqucz, Isaak, $43 

Vaknaa, 528, 540, 545, 5&>j 566* 569, 

Valerian, emperor, 75 
Vandals, 49S 

Varthcma, di, see Ludovico di Varthema 
Vasco da Gama, 6S9, 696 
Vatican. 604, €09, Librar> , 743 
Vega, plain, 550 

Venetian fleet, 640; consul, 690, colony, 
72S 

Venetians 652, 653, 669, granted capitu- 
lations, 727 

Veneticum, see Venice 

Venice, 126 n x, 301, 366, 577, 604, 
613, 614, 636, 653 n r 

Venus, 61,99, 415, 572 

Victory, 271 

Vienna 478, besieged, 712, attempts on, 
717 

Vlenne River, 500 
Villarcico, 562 

Virgin of the Assumption, cathedral of, 
595 

Visigothic 260, 271, 493, 494, 499* $°3f 

5^5* 5*$, 543* 544; princes, 496 7 
Visigothic: kingdom, 493, Anamsra, 515 
Visigoths, 496, 49$> 5*8 
Volga, 344, 384, 5*9> 57o, 676 

Wadd, 60, 98 

Watfdah al Yaman, 229 

Wadial 'Arabah, 148 

Wadi al-Hammamat, 32, 34, 50, $S 

Wadi al Kabir, al-, see Guadalquivir 

Wadi al-Qura, 49$ 

Wadi al-Rummah, 18 

Wadi al-Sirhan, 18, 20, 149 

Wadi al $ughd, 350 

Wadi Bakkah, 494 n 3 

Wadi Magharah, 33 

Wadi Musa, 67 

Wafa\ abu-al , astronomer, 315, 376 
Wafayat al-A'yan^ 6S7 
Wahb Allath, 76 

Wahb ibn-M unabbih, se e Munabbih,ibn- 
wahdai al uujud, 586 
Wahhabi Arabia, 724 



Wahhabiland, 17 

Wahhabis, 399, 438, 689, 725, 7*0 41 
Wahraz, 66 

War^shiyah, ibn-, 352, 358, 575 
WaM, descendants of, 89 
Walling Wall, ihe, 114 

™<V<?> 435 

xaalSysk, 440 

wall, 438, $27 

Wall Allah, 182 

Walid, ibn al-, see Khalid 

Walid, al-, I, 206, 209, 215, 217, 221, 
231, 234i 252, 255. 261, 262, 26$, 271, 
275. 278, 279, 281, 282, 322, 332, 496, 
497/ 659 

Walid, al-, II- 195, 206, 227-8, 252, 
2 &9» 275, 279, 281; harem system 
under, 229 

Walid ibn-Khayzuran, see Khayrurac, 
ibn- 

Wabd ibn 'Uqbah, a!*, 176 
WallSdah, 535, 560 
Walhn, 7 

Waqffi al Mivriyahy cl- t 74S, 751 
ucqat al fufraA, 513 iu 6 
»c?/, 170, 225,413*677 
Waqidi, al , 104, 3SS, 390 
WaqqSs, ibn-abi-, Sa'd, 260, 261 
War of Basus, 228 
W T araqah ibn Nawfal, 108, 1x3 
uardjun^ 35 1 n, 5 
Warraq al , see Nadtm, al- 
Wu-i!, see f ibn 
Wasit, 220, 267, 289, 325, 330, 46S, 
622 

Wathiq, a3- t *Abbasjd 297. 3*3* 337,351, 
426, 466, mother of, 332 

ttailr, 3I7»3SS 

We lhausen, 1.8 1 

Wellsted. James R , 51 

West; 6, 32, 221, 298, 315, 387, 743> 749. 
757* people of the, 59, the Laun, 367; 
medical science in the, 368, Arabic 
numerals introduced into the, 379; 
impact of, 742; contact with, 745; 
ideology from, 753 

West Africa, 361 

West Goths, see Visigoths 

Western. 4, ideas, 21, 73S; writers, 45, 
298, marts, 49, power, $8, domination, 
143; cultural influences, 729, 735; 
teachers, 736, pattern, 748, imperial- 
ism, 755 

Western Arabia, 619 

Western Aramaic, 76 

Western Asia, 9, 20, 74, 143, 175> 254* 



259. 33*. 4*5. 468, 475. 5^, 6«, 625, 

668. 671* 672, 690, ?t$, 717* 7*9, 747 
Western Europe, 428, 590. 601, 635, 648 
Western JsJam, 508, 566 
Western Turks, 210 n. 3 
Western Umayyad dynasty, 503, 532 
Westerners, 59, 423 
Westfartd, 36 
White Mosque, the, 220 
Willcox, William, 350 
William I* of Sicily, 612 
William II, 123 n. 2, 608 
William of Tyre, 667 
Witiza, 494, 499, 5*8 
xcisdratajvt* d%u*el\ 560, 567 
World Wan first, 6, 7, 136, 220, 350, 478, 

7iS, 73^1 739, 75i, 755> 75<* second, 

7*8, 752, 7S5, 756 
wuftid, cf; 141 
tuuguf, 133 

Xerxes, 21, 44 

Ximenez de Cisneros, 555 

YadaMl, 54 
Yafa, see Jaffa 

Yafisubi, al-, see §abbafc, abu al- 
Yah«ch, 40 

Yahya, imam of al-Yaman, 739 

Ya\iya, see Masawayh, ibn- 

Yahya,' yfommudid, 536 n. I 

Yahya, ibn-, *Isa, 312 

Yabya ibn-Kholid al-Barmaki, see 
Barraak, ibn- 

Vafrya ibn-Yabya, 514 

Yalbay, Mamtofc, 694 n, 3, 695 

Yamamab, al-, 207, 224, 330, 445 

Yaman, al-:£, 13, 14, 1$, 30, 34, 36, 42, 
44, 46, 48, 50-52, 56-7, 59-62,65,66, 72, 
78, 88, 104-6, 119, 135. 142, 144 
<ty. f 44b, 449, 617, 620, 646, 653, 677 
710, 738, 756, 757; last Tubba's o\ 
8$ : Judaism in, 107; kingdom, 739 

YamSnah, 60, 141 

Yamanat, 60 

Yamanu 2S1, 2S4. See also Yamanite 

Yamanitci origin, 32, Si, 251 ; kings, 42; 
culture, 52; tribe, 78; channels, 107; 
party, 192 n. 3; opponents, 192; 213 
n. 4, 328, 3S6, 506, 532; party, 
280-81, 284* revolt in Spain, 507 

Yamanite Jew, 244, 249 

Yamanites, 32, 5$, 194, 280-81, 2S4, 
502, 503, 506,606 

Yatmn-al-Dawlah, Ghaznawtd, 464 

Yen**' cl^&eyahi 581 



EX 821, 

Ya'qub al-Baida'i, 79 

Ya'oub ibn-Ishaq, see Ktndt, al- 

Ya'qub ibn-Killis, see KilHs, ibn- 

Ya'qub of SarOj, 61 

Ya'qub Yusuf, abu-, I, Muwafcrtid, 
581,582 

Ya'quhi, al-, 338, 385, 389, 414 

Yfiqut, geographer, 17, 54, 57, 64, 83,97, 
293, 356> 3$4, 385, 386-7, 388, 392, 
413, 414, 415, 434, 564» 575i 668 

Yfiqut al-Mustn'srmij 424 

Yaquti style, 424 

Yarim, 56 

Yarrnuk: So, 152, 156, 201 ; battle, 154; 

victor>* of, 155 
Yasar, 38S 

Yatha'-amar^S, 52, 54. See also It'amara 
Yatha*-amar Bavyin, 54 
Yathfl, 54 

Yathrib, 99, 104, 116. See also Madinah, 
al- 

Yathribites, 116 

Yazdagird, era of, 571 

Yasdagird I, Sasanid, 82 

Yazdagird III, 157, 1581 33* 

Yaxtd I, Umayyadt 154, 1S3, 190-9** 
193 n. t, 195, l 96, 2Qii 228, 231, 246, 
25'» 253, 269, 27$, 281, 2S2, 299, 481; 
contingent of, 201 

Yazid II, 227, 252, 275, 278, 279, 281, 284 

Yazid III, 226, 245, 279, 281, 332 

Yazid al-khumur 7 227 

Yazid ibn-abi-Sufyan, 148, 154 

YazTdis, 249 n. 2 

Young Turks, 727 

YTHRB, of Sabaean inscriptions, 104 
Yubanna, 449 
Yunus, 125 
Yunus, ibn-, *Ali, 628 
Yusuf, abu-, chief judge, 326, 334/ 397 
Yusuf ibn-*Abd-aI-Ra$man al-Fihri, see 
Fihri, al- 

Yusuf abu-al-IJajjaj, Na§rid, 563, 567, 
596, 597 

Yusuf ibn-Tashfin, see Tashfin, ibn* 

Zab, battle of, 2S5, 290 
Zabnd, S3 
Zabba*, al-, 76 
Zabbay, 76 
Zabda, 76 
Zabibi, 37 

Zabidi, al-, 742, 743 
^.aehanas, 125 
?afar <'Uman), 36, 41 
£afar (Yaman), 36, 56 



822 



INDEX 



ga*/aran, aU % 528 n. 12 

£&fir, al-, Fafimid, 623 

Zaghall, al-, see Muhammad XII 

Zaghlul, Sa'd, 751 

vahtr t 398 n. 4, 443 

£alur, al-, f Abbasid, 483, 4S6 n. r, 676 

£ahir, al-, Ayyubid, 439, 652, 655 

?ahir, al-, Fatfraid, 621, 623 

£ahir al-*Umar, 721, 731-2 

Z thin, al-, 398 

?ahirite: 431; school, 558, 586 
Zahirlyah, library, 675 
Zahlah, 7 

Zahru\ al-, 524-5, 530, 532, 560 

Zahra, al-, concubine, 525 

Zahrawi, al-, 576-7, 579 

tajaf, 561, 562 

xakdh, 119, 124, 132 

Zallaqah, al-, 540 

Zamora, 533 

tamr, 273 

Zam2am, 26, 97 

Zanatah, tribe, 546, 549 

Zangi, Atabeg, 480, 636, 644-5, 664 n. 3 

Zangid: dynasty, 644 • territory, 645 

Zanj: 445» 453J rebellion, 467-8 

tanjabtt % 1 06 n, 3, 667 

Zanzibar. 247, 391, 448; etymology of, 

467 n. 4 
Zaranj, 330 
9*ft 337 
?°rlf, 335 
Zarnuji, al-, 409 
^urqalt, a!-, 387, 571-2 
tdwtyaA, 265, 438 
Zayd* *AIid imam 442, 449, 738 
Zayd ibn/Ah, 39^ 
Zayd ibn-Hfinthah, 147 
Zayd ibn-TTnbit, J23 
Zaydan, Sharif of Morocco, 564 
Zaydis, 449, 739 
Zaydites, 249 n. 2 

Zaydun, ibn-, abu-al-Walfd Ahmad, 

659-60 
Zayn-al-'AUdtn, r AIi, 442 



Zaynab, 76 
zoyt&ni, 668 n. 6 
Zenobia, 29, 75, 672 
Zi'baq al-Sharqi, al-, 380 
eiggurat t 262, 417 

3<>7» 373. 57 » ; of al-Khwarizmi, 375 
Zij al'ti'Kham, al^ 378 
Zij al$ibC> cA, 376 n. 6 
tindiq, 359, 431, 435 
zindtqism^ 402, 40 j, 431 
zindlqs, 430 
Zionism, 755, 756 
Zir, 90 

Ziri, ibn-, 537 
Zirid regime, 537 

Ziryab,426 f SMtS'S* 59* 
Ziyad ibn-ALlh, 190, 196. 249 260, 262 
Ziyadat-Allah 1, Aghlabid, 261, 451-2, 
602 

Ziyadat-Allah III, 452, 617 
Zoroaster, followers of, 156 
Zoroastrian: 291, 308 367, 406; noble, 
462 

Zoroastrianism, 358*9 

Zoroastrians: 144, 170 n. 3, 233, 234, 

353 1 358-9; merchants, 343; in Persia 

today, 360 
Zubaydah, wife of aMtashld, 302, 333, 

342 

Zubaydi, al-, Muhammad ibn-al-Hasan, 
557 

Zubayr, ibn-al-, 'Abdullah, 192-3, 213, 

213, 220, 264, 273, 281 
Zubayr, ibn-al-, Mus'ab, 239 
Zubayr ibn-al-' Awwam, al-: l6i, 163, 

177. 17S, 179, 235> 575J mother of, 

179, tomb of, 180 
tuhd y 434 
zuhdiy&t t 406 

Zuhr, lbn-, abu-Bakr, 578, 599 
Zuhr, ibn-, abu-Marvan, 5r7-8, 585 
Zuhri, al-, ibn-Shihab, 242 
zulayjak, a!-, 592 n. 1 
Xunbil, 208 

Zuyud, 739, See also Zaydis 



THE END